[buddyclaude]

Great Day on the water today. I boarded my friend's 26 Pathfinder at 8 am and headed to Pensacola Pass. We stopped by a bait boat and loaded up with 80 live cigar minnows/scad, some for today and some to have ready for an offshore trip tomorrow. We went to our spot in 80 feet about 2 miles directly off Pensacola Beach. First fish was a 20# snap on a white spro-type bucktail sweetened with a dead cig. My friend fished slip lead with live cigar minnows. The bite was a bit slow but in 3 hours we limited out and lucked into two cobia. Me and my jig caught all the fish except the small snapper. The hook on the 4 ounce buck tail caused me to lose two fish, not stout enough... one cobia and one bottom dweller. Some one mentioned weak hooks on the spro's in a recent post.

I was super happy with my gear today, a result of reading posts by those with more experience than me. I used an Ocea Jigger 2000NRPG and a Super Tornado 558UL - spiral PE 1.5 - 4. I picked up the reel from Tony on this site. He could not recall what the line is but it looks about 50. (Thanks again Tony) It handled all those fish just fine and the light rod made the fights super fun - mostly point and crank style. I am leaving it home tomorrow and bringing the OJ 4000 Synit 250g to fish the 180ft plus of the 'edge'.

 

[fillet2release]

Great Trip and report! Waiting on opening for us June 1 , My friend has New Sea Hunt boat , cannot wait!

 

[Icy Joe]

Fine days work right there.
We dont have to ask how the snapper tasted, do we?

 

[Wwen]

Great Day on the water today. I boarded my friend's 26 Pathfinder at 8 am and headed to Pensacola Pass. We stopped by a bait boat and loaded up with 80 live cigar minnows/scad, some for today and some to have ready for an offshore trip tomorrow. We went to our spot in 80 feet about 2 miles directly off Pensacola Beach. First fish was a 20# snap on a white spro-type bucktail sweetened with a dead cig. My friend fished slip lead with live cigar minnows. The bite was a bit slow but in 3 hours we limited out and lucked into two cobia. Me and my jig caught all the fish except the small snapper. The hook on the 4 ounce buck tail caused me to lose two fish, not stout enough... one cobia and one bottom dweller. Some one mentioned weak hooks on the spro's in a recent post.

I was super happy with my gear today, a result of reading posts by those with more experience than me. I used an Ocea Jigger 2000NRPG and a Super Tornado 558UL - spiral PE 1.5 - 4. I picked up the reel from Tony on this site. He could not recall what the line is but it looks about 50. (Thanks again Tony) It handled all those fish just fine and the light rod made the fights super fun - mostly point and crank style. I am leaving it home tomorrow and bringing the OJ 4000 Synit 250g to fish the 180ft plus of the 'edge'. View attachment 66120 View attachment 66121 View attachment 66122

Great report!

And Nice setup. My go to snapper rod was an Ocea Jigger 2001 w/JM Ocean Devil UL. This season I'm gonna be trying the BV300 with the Ocean Devil UL! Should be awesome.

 

[buddyclaude]

Follow up on the weekend... We did go off shore on Sunday, posting over 100 miles in the Pathfinder. We went out 100 fathoms, where the Hundred Fathom Line takes a familiar shape and is known as The Nipple on the charts. No love or luck out there and only dirty green water from there to the beach. Last year in May we were catching blackfin tuna there. We tried fishing 180-250 where we have had great luck in the past. The only fish caught were two 15 inch red snapper. I was relieved to see them swim back down when we returned the Federally protected snappers to the sea. As a committed recreational fisherman I wondered if the commercial snapper type boat anchored less than a mile from our spots had anything to do with our lack of luck. Normally that bottom is at least alive with vermillion snappers and occasional groupers. It gives me a suspicion of doubt if you know what I mean. GARRIGA and others, I hear you.

So on the run back we stopped where we caught the fish on Saturday. No action there either other than a small bonita I jigged up. The same spot was awash with breaking little tunny and 14 inch Spanish feeding on small minnows. We did count as many as 8 sharks (up to 9 feet in length) close to the boat seemingly feeding on the schooling small mackerel. A black tipped dorsal fin gave identification to at least one. I saw one of the sharks skyrocket and spinning in a nice aerial display.

All my friends caught limits of snapper over the weekend with many triggers in their creels.

As far as how the catch tastes, I am being fed fish dinners with at least two of my neighbors this week. I will let you know. While out fishing yesterday we ate cold, fried gag grouper I caught the weekend before out of Lanark Village in Franklin County.

 

[buddyclaude]

Great report!

And Nice setup. My go to snapper rod was an Ocea Jigger 2001 w/JM Ocean Devil UL. This season I'm gonna be trying the BV300 with the Ocean Devil UL! Should be awesome.

I'm guessing you are going with the 5:1 gear ratio...?

 

[Wwen]

I'm guessing you are going with the 5:1 gear ratio...?

I got the 6:1. For such a small spool I prefer high gear ratios. For OJ2000 or Accurate 500 size I like 5:1.
The extra long handle makes up Some for the torque.

 

[buddyclaude]

Fine days work right there.
We dont have to ask how the snapper tasted, do we?

A neighbor prepared some snapper and cobia last night and added some shrimp, hush puppies, home made slaw and gumbo. Panko crusted fish were baked in oven - fish was 4 star. One of the cobia was roe'd so I brined the egg sac with sugar and salt for an hour, then placed them in the sun in front of a fan to get a nice pellicle. I dusted them with Old Bay and placed them on my kettle grill to cook/smoke at 250 for an hour and a half. When the roe hit 160 degrees internal temp, I brushed them with melted butter containing a hot pepper sauce. I pulled em 5 minutes later and voilà. The roe was delicious, much sweeter than mullet roe I often smoke.