I'm going to try to keep a journal on son Scotts off shore fishing trips if I get the info about them--
These are the notes for this past Sundays trip---------
Scott friend Gail and Suria went out in the Bounty Hunter--Gails boat-
They put the boat in the water at 5.30 a.m and were net casting for Pogeys,( Live bait) at 5.45 a.m--just outside the breakers.
They had all the bait they needed by 6.00a.m and headed to Montgomerys Reef----9 miles away.
Montgomerys reef is a man made reef, one of the first put in place by the Jacksonville Florida off-shore club.
They went into the Atlantic ocean using the inlet at Mayport Florida.
Scott and his friends use the live bait method of trolling for Kingfish and other striking fish--they troll very slow--using Pogeys/Menhadden baits which are very oily and lively and are white in color with a small dot toward the tail-they average 2/4 inches in length.Sometimes a teaser lure is put on in front of them--Sometimes a Zombie rig is made up where a dead ribbon fish is used and a live pogey in front of the ribbon fish makes the ribbon fish appear alive--dancing about--futhermore the poor pogey thinks the sharp toothed Ribbon fish is after him.
They went to Montgomerys reef---and caught a Cobia right away but did not gaff him as they were not sure if he was a legal size around 32 inches--so they let him go--they caught a few Spanish Mackeral and then a Shark and then things got slow---the used the live bait rigs---which I will now mispell---sa--bee-ke and caught some red herring--which they put into the bait well.They also caught some Spanish Sardines,another good bait--into the live well they went----
They moved to another nearbye reef-about 3to4 miles away and put on a combination of live Spanish Sardines and Red Herring---Bam--a nice surprise hit the live Herring a nice size Mahi/Mahi--(Dolphin) umm ummm good eating.
Right after the Dolphin was caught they had another big surprise--a large sailfish showed up in the wake and knocked a Red Herring clean out of the water and into the boat--but that huge bad boy disappeared and they never had another shot at him.( the Sailfish was about 7 feet long.The Mahi Mahi was about 17 pounds---
Bam---another strike on a Sardine this time--a Kingfish,15 pounder--more good food on ice.
This was a great spot to fish and what happened next--got recorded in the old memory banks---Scott looked out to the side of the boat and saw the biggest Cobia he had ever seen. It was every bit of 70/80 pounds and appeared to be 6/7 feet long---they threw everything but the kitchen sink at him and he wouldn't strike anything--Scott said he knows how that fish got so big--he was not easily suckered by artifical lures--the huge fish just finally moved away.
They caught 3 more Kingfish and 1 more Spanish Mackeral and that was it for the day---lost a number of fish--so took home some good eating fair--had plenty of action for the day and all in all a great day on the water of North Florida.---------The Codger
P.S--I forgot they also caught a large Bonito at Montgomery reef--for a while there they didn't know what it was--the Bonito weighed about 15 pounds---they are silver and blueish and look like a little tuna-shaped like a football.