First jigging session of 2013

Sorry for the delay in posting. I was on vacation for November then there was December, which is always a bit crazy, cyclones and xmas and all that stuff. So now we are into January and I am back at it.

Our first fishing trip of the year was slated as a jigging trip. We all had been eating too much beef and pork and were craving some fish. 

So a hunting we shall go.

The weather looked a bit ominous in the morning, but the rarely deters us.

Our crew for today is Rosie, of course, Brendan, Wayne, John and yours truly.

Our objective is food fish by means of jigging.

With out further ado, let the fishing begin.

Rosie up first with a nice steamable grouper.

Brendan with a grouper on soft plastic.

Wayne with a grouper on a home made jig.

Lyre tail grouper.

I think he needs to go into the first aid box to cool off.

Action shot of Wayne connected to a monster.

This fight lasted a good 10 minutes.

We have color.

It turns out to be a nice little Dogtooth Tuna caught on light tackle

A nice Grouper.

Of course I must get in on the action.

Me fighting the bottom.

Another Lyre tail.

That damn home made jig again.

Rosie had to take her own picture.

We caught a lot of different kinds of groupers.

John having a rest from all this reeling up and dropping down.

Too hot today.

There is a story with this fish. Rosie catches a little fish about the size of your hand. Then she decides to live bait it. So back down it goes. She then catches a larger fish with the small on, but it is not quite big enough. Back down it goes. With in a couple of minutes she is hooked up to this big fella and ends our session on a high note.

Keep you hand out of it's mouth.

We had a great day out and the weather cleared up. Best of all I had fish for dinner, YUMMMMM!

Tight Lines

Pop and Drop

This time we decided to do a bit of popping for GT's and then a bit of jigging after.

Just Rosie, Wayne and myself on the boat today. 

The morning started out a bit gloomy, but the fish don't care, so why should we.

My shoulder has been hurting me so I was sticking with a stick bait instead of a popper. As the photo below says it all, it was working. A nice Grouper.

Wayne gets on the board with the first GT on popper. A nice clean fellow and easy release.

He follows it up with a little one that is feisty as all get out.

Not to be out done, I cast my stick bait to a fishy looking spot and proceed to hook up a nice Spanish Mackerel.

Wayne with a little Barracuda that Rosie has claimed for bait.

Wayne started jigging in 100 meters of water and proceeded to hook up more than 10 Dog Tooth Tuna. Unfortunately the head he is holding represents the only proof of his sweat. The sharks were thick and relentless to the point of us moving on to another spot.

Rosie on the other hand was having a very successful bait fishing trip. She filled the ice box single handedly.

This is a Long Nose Emperor. Caught at over 100 meters and fought all the way to the surface. A very tough customer, but not as tough as Rosie.

We had another great day out, with plenty of fish caught and lost by a variety of methods.
Until next time.
Tight Lines

One very rough Sunday

The weather Gods have not been kind to us this year. There has been two kinds of weather, rain with wind or sun with more wind. This day was sun with more wind. 

OK enough whining, we still went fishing.

As I said it was windy so jigging was on tap for the day.

Now typically when the weather acts up the fish like to bite, after all, the surging water just brings more food to them. Today was that way, the fishing was good, but a lot of work for the skipper, me.

When bottom fishing it is important that you have a good fish finder and transducer. Reading the bottom is everything with this type of fishing.

I use a Garmin 4010 GPSMAPS with a 2kw transducer, I'll post a photo later. 

We fished as long as we could until the wind and wave became unbearable. At one point we were taking waves over the transom and engine while trying to hold a position long enough to drop to the bottom.

We caught lots of fish and lots of species of fish so no complaining. No one is listening anyway. 

OK enough chatter on with the photos.

Brendan with a nice Lyre tail Grouper.

Wayne with a Sand Grouper. This is a first for us.

Billy and Renee braving the weather, not for long.

Brendan with a High fin Grouper

Wayne and a Green Job fish

Nice weather.

Tight Lines

Another Monday at Sea

Another beautiful Monday for fishing as Rosie and I head out. Today will be a little jigging and bait fishing.

Fishing started off really slow. Nothing was biting. I could see fish on the sounder, but they had a case of lockjaw. 

Finally, after many drops with the jig, I hook up to a small Barracuda that Rosie immediately claims for her bait.

We try a few more spots and get zeroed. 

As we are moving from one spot to another I am taking in the scenery, enjoying the day, when all of a sudden Rosie screams. I look out the front, where I should have been looking all along, and what do I see, a Humpback whale right in front of the boat. A quick turn of the wheel and we avoid a collision with the giant. Of course by the time we get the camera out and ready the big guy disappears.

Truly amazing how 40 tons of mammal can vanish instantly.

As we carry on to our merry way we spot the big guy a ways out and Rosie gets the video rolling.

So we have not been catching much and Rosie says I can do a bit of jigging for Doggies. 

That means deeper water than she really likes to fish. 

So I'm jigging away and I notice it is taking a long time to hit the bottom. How deep are we? I ask.

Um it says 165 meters. 

Yikes, no wonder it was taking so long to get to the bottom. I decide to let it fall and give it a try anyways. 

My jig hits bottom and as I get my first crank of the reel  I'm on. Not big mind you, but I'm on. It is a long ways up from 165 mts and when I finally get the fish to the surface it is a Pakapaka, deep water A grade snapper. 

Rosie says wow should I drop and away she goes. 

She proceeded to fish until all of our bait was gone and tat accounted for 17 fish of about 5 species. All of them really good eating.

Leave the rod in the holder and you can switch hands reeling. 

A small Pakapaka.

A Long nose Emperor from 165mts, just about killed me.

Two at a time, not bad.

Another beauty of a Monday and we caught fish to boot.

Tight Lines