Now onto half two of Out of Season Backside Fishing journey, now that we had our lunch and eventually made it over to our subsequent spot. We put strains again out once more, half of us focusing on beeliners and the opposite half of us chasing after grouper. So I caught to my “grocery getting” tuna meat stick rig bouncing cigar minnows proper on the underside whereas Yong was sticking to his weapons along with his slow-pitch jigging setup. The others had been dropping down some rooster rigs with the salted Boston mackerel and bringing in some good beeliners and different assorted backside fish. When lastly after a lot of the day spent jigging Yong lastly received an excellent hit that caught on the jig.
The fish instantly pinned him to the rail, making an attempt its hardest to get again right into a gap within the backside. However Yong dealt with it like a professional, utilizing his Ocea jigger to get in a crank every time he may to maintain the fish off the underside. These preliminary cranks will make or break a struggle with a giant fish, the tug of conflict of conserving them out of the reside backside. Finally after being run across the again of the boat a couple of instances, he lastly received the fish to the floor. A pleasant monster of a gag grouper on the jig, in all probability a yr out from changing into a copper stomach. A trophy of a gag grouper, that we then took a few pictures of, vented, and despatched proper again down, they had been out of season. Which sucks however the reminiscences final loads longer than the fillets.We’d have gotten the burden however we couldn’t discover the size quick sufficient, no level in killing the fish for a weight.
After the struggle, Yong wanted a break however there was nonetheless fish to catch, so the remainder of us saved hammering on the vermillion snappers. With a number of 3+ pound ones being caught, however needed to scoot off the spot quickly after. One other boat was making a beeline in the direction of us, so we needed to get off the spot earlier than they might mark it for themselves. Capt. Tyler spends numerous time and gasoline to seek out these far-out backside fishing spots, so I 100% perceive wanting to maintain them to himself. So after a brief journey to the subsequent spot the fishing continued.
Right here on the subsequent time, it was my flip for an out-of-season monster. I used to be nonetheless bouncing small reside baits on the underside hoping for both extra scamps or purple grouper, when one thing huge inhaled the little cig. I may inform it was huge as a result of this was the primary fish of the day that really began pulling drag out of my Saltiga 55. Although this wasn’t as sporting of a struggle as Yong had, I used to be nonetheless fishing out of the rod holder so, all I did was push the drag lever ahead and put the reel into low gear. After that, simply winched the large beast up. It was a giant 18lb purple snapper, which was out of season. Which was my private finest purple snapper, and naturally we don’t have pictures of it as a result of I left the cellphone within the cabin. However whereas we had the size prepared this time, once more we needed to vent the fish and ship it again down as rapidly as doable. Little bittersweet to let it go, however the fish swam off nice so I can’t complain. We knew this could occur coming down right here out of season.
After the large purple snapper we saved working our method nearer to the dock, hitting spot after spot with primarily the rooster rigs to fill out the field and attempt to get out 1 triggerfish every for the day. This was proving much more tough than anticipated, with us solely getting a bunch of brief triggers combined in with smaller purple snapper. However no less than we had been filling out or restrict of vermillion snapper whereas we did this. Finally, although I lastly received the proper one. As an alternative of letting my baits hit backside as you’d usually for backside fishing, I counted how lengthy it took the earlier drop after which timed it to solely go midway for my subsequent drop. I’ve discovered earlier than that huge triggerfish typically sit excessive off the wrecks. That was the case this time, netting me the one authorized triggerfish of the journey.
After that it was about time to start out heading again in, so we introduced in all of the strains and began clearing the deck. After a little bit of cleansing, we put out the high-speed trolling gear and ran in the direction of dwelling. Sadly, that wahoo by no means did present up throughout the troll again, however hey that’s fishing. At the least the view and breeze had been second to none up on the tower. Oh, and one thing to notice, you need to pay for parking in Destin now, it sucks however nothing you are able to do. Be sure to pay for sufficient parking earlier than you head out, I needed to pay an additional $12 as a result of I didn’t arrange sufficient parking time and had add the minimal 4 hrs whereas I used to be nonetheless 6 miles offshore from my cellphone.
I say we did fairly good for an out-of-season backside fishing journey, bringing dwelling loads of fish for what we may preserve. Any day you carry dwelling 10 scamp grouper within the kill field is an effective day. After we cleaned the fish and loaded up the vehicles, we went again and had a pleasant fish dinner.
