Port A next weekend?

Be careful on that first trip offshore. Your old fuel from last year isn't in good burning condition even if you treated it. I'd suggest a short inshore trip. Burn some fuel and make sure everything is working. Come back in after burning 30% of your fuel and top it off for the next day.

Also beware of the weed problem offshore. There is a mess of seaweed out there. It's a big problem. One the worst years I've seen recently.

Your intakes (if outboard) will suck in those little round balls and clog up past the impeller. Take a coat hanger with you. If your engine stops pissing, ram that coat hanger down to the impeller and clear it out. If you have inboards, watch the temperature gage. If your engines start heating up, stop and run in reverse to clear out the intakes. It will also clear all the junk caught up on your drive shaft and wheels. That seaweed is full of trash bags. 55 Gallon size bags.

Trolling sucks right now. The seaweed is in the bays and out to Cuba. It's a mother keeping the lures clean. I do something to my lures to help, but it's not enough to stop those huge clunks. On the rougher days its lure jerking time all day long. Three feet or under the weed does gather in acre size pods, but there is still a ton of loose seaweed in between the pods.

Here's some suggestions on a short inshore trip. The kingfish are still scarce but there are some big ones mixed up with the babies. We caught a 54 pound King on a jig a couple of weeks ago just messing around on an inshore trip. The kings wouldn't hit bait or long jigs. The best jig was the little 70 to 110 gram butterfly style from shimano. Any bigger didn't work. Make sure you use a wire leader or kiss your jigs goodbye. All our big kings were caught when we were coming back home about a quarter mile from the end of the jetties on an outgoing tide.

The ling are big this year. You will find them in very close. We caught four at the anchorage. .(Where the tanker's park waiting to come into port). Three on live crabs, and one on a little popper style chugger. There are also some chicken size dolphin hanging around the tankers and the farewell buoy. They will take spec rigs for a couple minutes, but dead shrimp with a popping cork is bloody murder. Release most of them so they can grow up.

Just rig hop either North or South. Don't even bother trolling between rigs. Too much seaweed. Your wasting your time. Use light tackle and just bend some rods. There are also some Jacks still hanging around so be prepared to pump for twenty minutes with light tackle.

Last word of advise: Look through your tackle and find the one reel that doesn't talk to you. Toss it over at the end of the jetties and you will have a safe and fun fishing year. The years I didn't do it, it was boat problems, bad weather and just overall bad luck. Maybe I'm superstitious but it now a rule.

Good luck and have great year fishing.

Hoos are plentiful if you find a line of weed that is holding them. To much grass makes finding a rip that is holding bait difficult. The hoos are now in 40 fathoms and deeper. Good blue water can be found South of Port A in 40 fathoms. North it's around 55 fathoms. Three weeks ago I found them at 90 fathoms. Lot's of little ones around 15 pounds with a few 40-50 pounders mixed in. They were hungry for bally's (no skirt), but the big boys were hitting the heavy pointed skirted lures. Big dolphin all also showing up but they are difficult to target with all the seaweed. All that grass is one big PITA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's even piling up in the some of the marina's on the incoming tide. That smell of dying organisms on the beached grass gets old.

I once had a prank pulled on me. A guy put some shrimp in my hubcaps. I couldn't figure out where that awful smell was coming from. I finally took the vehicle to a detail shop to get rid of it. They saw a cat smelling my tires and figured it out.

When I found out who did it, I got him back by filling up his suburban with fresh seaweed. I filled it up solid from the dashboard to the rear. Two pickup truck loads of fresh washed up seaweed. He tried to sue me as it was his wife's carpool machine. He pissed me off so bad that I told my lawyer to keep screwing with him until he gives up. After he spent over 9 grand in attorney fees, he called me up and wanted to settle it with a good old fashion fist fight.

I agreed. I took boxing as a teenager. The fight was short. We don't speak anymore but I do give him a finger gesture if I ever see him.

I wouldn't set it on fire. I'll sell it before using it. When you win a prize, the prize is always at an inflated retail price. They might have this boat around
75K. You will receive a 1099 for 75K. You will owe around 27K in taxes. Your best bet is to sell it before you use it. You could probably buy the boat for
60K from a dealer. So, you will probably get 50K minus the 27K in taxes for a profit of 23K.

I will not win the boat because I will never enter the STAR tournament. I would rather not get into why I wouldn't. If you do want to win the Kingfish division, just soak a large live blue runner between the end of the jetties and the first buoy on the outgoing tide. Do this at least 10 days, and you will have numerous over 50 pounds. Do it from mid June until mid July. The real big ones are there for one week around mid April then move on. You have some huge smokin kings hit those big blue runners. Big Kings are independents. They do not run with the school size fish. They didn't get big being stupid. Most big kings stop hitting dead ribbon fish around 30 pounds.

As far as the weed problem. As much grass that is showing up at this time, I would think that it will be heavy until August. There have been years where it was still very heavy into Sept. Around mid July the seas should settle down and most of the grass will gather up at current changes. Trolling has been difficult in heavy grass years. I remember two years in the past 30 that made it a PITA to troll all season long. Hopefully this won't be one of those years.