Fishing

[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

My little brother and I on the boat.

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[Jmolinari]

Nice outfit:)

[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

Nice outfit:)

I have always been a fashion leader.                   

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[totm]

I'm sure at one time he was your little brother but me thinks now he is just your younger brother.

[Lorenzo]

The one that GG would have caught?
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/22650/anglers+405-pound+yellowfin+tuna+is+heaviest+on+record/

That's a lot of maguro.

[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

The one that GG would have caught?
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/22650/anglers+405-pound+yellowfin+tuna+is+heaviest+on+record/

That's a lot of maguro.

I have not caught one over 300#.   Honestly, I don't know if I want to wage that battle anymore?  While I like to catch Tuna, and I consider it to be one of the best fighting fish on the planet, I am way satisfied with smaller tackle and fish around 50 to 80#.  The last near 80# Yellowfin I caught fought me for just under an hour on 40# line.
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[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

Another one of the emails I get about fishing and that big YF Tuna...


http://www.marlinmag.com/article.jsp?ID=1000086324

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[totm]

Was on a party boat in the Gulf recently.  We couldn't get enough people to make a charter economical and some party boats let you bring coolers and food on now.  Luckily it was only about 75% full and we got moved to the bow where there were several open spots in front of us.  I'd rather deal with the slope and curvature of the bow than getting tangled on the side of the boat.

As luck would have it red snapper season doesn't open until 6/1 and black grouper/gag season won't open until who knows when.  I asked one of the mates to set me up with a single hook rig.  Red snapper were being caught all around the boat.  I landed a real nice red snapper and a keeper black grouper with both of them having to go back in drink.

One of our group dropped his first line into the water and the sinker dropped quickly with the fishing line just dangling from the rod.  His fiance hooked a fish and as she was starting to reel it in the reel broke off from the rod.  8-0  Definitely a difference in the quality of equipment between a charter and a party boat.

A young lady on the starboard side of the bow hooks a fish.  I turn around and see her with the rod on the rail trying her darnedest to crank the reel with the rod flopping from side to side.  She hollers out "Is there a trick to this thing?!"  One of the deck hands says, "Yeah, put it between your legs."  The deck that was working the port side of the bow goes over to help pull the line out of the water.  He pulls up the biggest red snapper head I've ever seen.  That's it, just the head!  There was a huge semi-circle bite just below the pectoral fins.

[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

Was on a party boat in the Gulf recently.  We couldn't get enough people to make a charter economical and some party boats let you bring coolers and food on now.  Luckily it was only about 75% full and we got moved to the bow where there were several open spots in front of us.  I'd rather deal with the slope and curvature of the bow than getting tangled on the side of the boat.

As luck would have it red snapper season doesn't open until 6/1 and black grouper/gag season won't open until who knows when.  I asked one of the mates to set me up with a single hook rig.  Red snapper were being caught all around the boat.  I landed a real nice red snapper and a keeper black grouper with both of them having to go back in drink.

One of our group dropped his first line into the water and the sinker dropped quickly with the fishing line just dangling from the rod.  His fiance hooked a fish and as she was starting to reel it in the reel broke off from the rod.  8-0  Definitely a difference in the quality of equipment between a charter and a party boat.

A young lady on the starboard side of the bow hooks a fish.  I turn around and see her with the rod on the rail trying her darnedest to crank the reel with the rod flopping from side to side.  She hollers out "Is there a trick to this thing?!"  One of the deck hands says, "Yeah, put it between your legs."  The deck that was working the port side of the bow goes over to help pull the line out of the water.  He pulls up the biggest red snapper head I've ever seen.  That's it, just the head!  There was a huge semi-circle bite just below the pectoral fins.

Click on this for more Bad Gear sometimes = fish pictures

Party boats don't have the only license on bad gear let me tell you, and that is the reason I fly my HUGE Bazooka rod case back and forth across the country each year to fish for tuna or to fish for various marlin when going to Mexico.

A couple years ago (2004) we cancelled a trip to Florida (in September) due to a hurricane and instead flew to the Southern Baja with no rods nor reels.  We never go to Cabo (I dislike it quite a bit), but we did give ourselves a treat and stay in an all inclusive in San Jose del Cabo a few miles up the East coast from Cabo San Lucas-in the same area as the airport.  The stay there was very nice, I mean VERY nice, but my old trick of going to Lost and Found at the hotel to secure some fishing gear failed.  So we went a few extra miles (we rented a jeep) up the coast on the Sea of Cortez side to a cute little fishing village, La Playita that had Pangas (open boats) for rent with a guide.  I think it was $80.00 for the two of us for half day and $120.00 for 7 full hours.  We got in one of the pangas and they pushed it into the water with a pickup truck, the guide took us to get some bait a few miles up the coast and then to an offshore place that he was lining up with land markers that he had burned into his brain.

The ride out to the spot he chose was long enough that I could inspect the rods and reels that were onboard.  Not a one of them was worthy, but that's what we had.  One of the ancient Penn reels was so tight I could barely turn the handle and none of the rods had all of the guides on them, one of the rods had the reel taped to the cork.. Nonetheless, we got to the spot he had chosen dropped our bait and quickly picked up really nice yellowfin tuna averaging about 20-50 lbs each.  The guide wouldn't let me tighten up the drag as I guess he had suspicions about the quality of the line we were using so the fish wore us out on a too loose drag setting until we had 3-4 fish.  The whole episode once we stopped took about 2 hours.  Deanne and I were both worn out reeling those hard fighting fish in several times before we landed them. so once he had bled out the fish we headed back.  Time on the water-possibly 3 1/2 hours, but we had several very nice tuna, to take back to the hotel and give the chef for our dinner and one to give the guide as a tip.  If you look at the pictures closely, you will see guides missing and the general condition of fishing off shore (about 5 miles) in an open 27 foot boat with a handled outboard.   Memories are made of this..




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[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

So today a guy called me and said "Mike, help me go out and harvest some fish for a fish-fry", I said "how many people", he said "50 to 100", I said "does it matter what kind of fish"?.  He said "not really but let's go after some big stripers first and then if we can't do any good we will go after pan fish or spotted bass". 

So I'll go and try to bring some of the giants to the boat early, if that doesn't work and the panfishing is stupid, we always have Aldi and GW market to buy a Sh*t load of Tilapia or Catfish for him to fry.  I don't think I'm invited to the event ?   LOL

I am pleased that he called ME to go meat fishing with him.  I'll wear sunscreen.

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[HaagenDazs]

So today a guy called me and said "Mike, help me go out and harvest some fish for a fish-fry", I said "how many people", he said "50 to 100", I said "does it matter what kind of fish"?.  He said "not really but let's go after some big stripers first and then if we can't do any good we will go after pan fish or spotted bass". 

So I'll go and try to bring some of the giants to the boat early, if that doesn't work and the panfishing is stupid, we always have Aldi and GW market to buy a Sh*t load of Tilapia or Catfish for him to fry.  I don't think I'm invited to the event ?   LOL

I am pleased that he called ME to go meat fishing with him.  I'll wear sunscreen.

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Nice!  What a nice job to have.

[totm]

So today a guy called me and said "Mike, help me go out and harvest some fish for a fish-fry", I said "how many people", he said "50 to 100", I said "does it matter what kind of fish"?.  He said "not really but let's go after some big stripers first and then if we can't do any good we will go after pan fish or spotted bass".  

So I'll go and try to bring some of the giants to the boat early, if that doesn't work and the panfishing is stupid, we always have Aldi and GW market to buy a Sh*t load of Tilapia or Catfish for him to fry.  I don't think I'm invited to the event ?   LOL

That reminds me of the discussion I has with the chef at the place we play cards at on Monday nights.  The daily special was ciopinno (sp?) with the description including shrimp, scallops, & tilapia.  I asked if I could have another fish in there.  He offered salmon.  Better, but still not right.  He goes on to tell me that in his opinion tilapia is fine fried or in a stew.  If I'm having fried fish it better be grouper (Schooner's on the east end of Thomas drive has a good one) or cod.

Meant to also add.  If someone in your party (who'd been drinking beer since 9 AM) decides to fillet your catch (when all you wanted was scaled and gutted, so you could grill it whole) in the surf, make sure YOU take extra care in rinsing those fillets of Key West porgy.

[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

Damn, you guys did good today without me.

I spent from 10am until 5pm casting to non-eating fish at Lake Lanier.  My partner Alan Gee caught one 9lb striper, and that was it, we had a couple of strikes on topwater, and mangaged to have something eat a live minnow or two that we got using a cast net and a sprinkle of grits. Except for breaking off a fairly large fish on 8lb line we had almost no action and Alan knows the lakes, the brushpiles, the time when the dam starts drawing water, the phase of the moon and all of that.   So properly said, it is fishing not catching, we had a good day on the lake didn't burn too much gas, had good conversation much of the day but put his boat away with only one fish to take home and clean.

We are both praying for a loaves and fishes type miracle for his event on Friday.

On a good note when I got home I see that I had missed a dentist appointment, they were going to do a filling.

So no fish is better than a tooth filling any day in my opinion, but where will Alan get his fish ?  

btw. I am too sore to go again tomorrow, just standing on the deck of the boat  during a heavy boat traffic day puts balance muscles to work that I haven't used in a while.  I'm toast.  Besides, I cast large topwater plugs all day so my hands, arms and shoulders could stand a good rest and massage I'm thinkin.  KoPP has been fishing with me and can confirm, I don't sit and hold no pole and wait for them to bite, I cast and retrieve all day long..

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[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

Good fish counts, we head out today..

http://www.fishermanslanding.com/pages/fishcount.php

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