12-17-2011 Port Saint Lucie Offshore Fishing Report:

Fin Addict Joined: May 12, 2009 Posts: 180

FINALLY. CALM ENOUGH TO GET OFFSHORE...

Plan was to make a late exit out of the SLI this morning due to the outgoing tide and 5ft seas is not a safe combination. We new though at 11 second separation that once we got passed the inlet, it will be fishable conditions.

We got to the ramp earlier than we wanted. Taking Donny out today who was the first person to get me fishing offshore. Plan was to take my youngest son Tyler out today but the 5ft seas made him change his mind. Happy 16th Birthday Tyler. Will get you out there once the seas lay down some more...

We arrive at the inlet to some big rollers crashing the inlet so we waited it out until it got bright enough to make a safe exit. We make a run right after a big set breaks through and get out safely. VinDawg follows us out and we run to the northeast bait spot.

We quickly start bringing up stringers of bluerunners and goggle eyes. We hear this loud YAHOO on channel 73 from The Oversear (Ron) as he breaks through the sets of waves at the inlet. We give him a shout out to head to the northeast bait spot for some bait.

Heres VinDawg & crew catching some baits:

Heres The Oversear doing the same.

Got a shout out from JohnAlki looking for some baits and told him the spot we were in. How did you make out with the baits John?

Finally get to post a couple of sunrise pics. Its been since May 14th that I posted one. 5 months later after my back was better I got offshore but there was no sun. Today wasn't much better sun wise but it did peak through for a few minutes.

By 7:30 we had over 50 baits onboard and headed due east. We came across our first weedline in 60ft. Donny got word while renewing his fishing license at Billy Bones Bait & Tackle that the bite was between 120 to 180ft yesterday so we opted to continued on.

We hit another weedline with some debris in 80ft so we stopped here so we could chunk up some sardines in case the chinese firedrill hit us later in the day. We dropped in a few liveys while we cut up some baits but never got a bite.

Heading due east again and ran across a couple more nice rips but niether had any weeds on them. We made it to Push Button Hill and started trolling some daisy chains for BFT. Minutes later it was FISH ON...

Quickly get reset and the next BFT is a bit bigger...

We got a shout of from Ron that hes hooked up a nice fin in 310ft. How was the rest of your day Ron?

Next up we catch a couple of Bonitas. They sure are a eye opener when trolling at 9 knots and hook up on a daisy chain. They smoke the reels and you can quickly can get spooled..

While offshore we spotted this waterspot. You can faintly make it out in the center of this pic.

After boxing 4 BFT's we decided to run in and locate some weeds for some fins. We got a shout out from JohnAlki again that he just boxed a nice BFT on the hill. How did your day end up John?

We headed towards the AJ spot in hopes of finding some weeds on the way. No luck on the weeds. Make a few circles around the AJ spot and didn't find any fish suspended above the structure. Was hoping to bring Ocean Motion (Hank) an AJ but no luck today. Made one drop to the bottom and drifted the blue runner over the wreck with no luck.

Continued northwest and located a faint weedline in 117ft. Put my usual bait hooked in the back near the tail just off the back of the boat about 25ft. By hooking the bait this way (runners or cigar minnows work best) they create a ruckess on the surface of the water when trying to swim away from the boat. This rod normally gets hit first if there are any fish in the area. This in combo with the bait stickers on the bottom of the boat helps the hook-up ratio for sure.

Before we could get another bait out it was slammed by a gaffer fin. She had no partner with her so in the box she went.

After a short drift we run back up to the spot we hooked up and squirted out some mendaden oil and a few handfuls of chunk bait and set-up for another drift. Immediately Donny gets hooked up on a Atlantic Sharpnose shark.

After a couple more drifts here we decided to continue northwest to insure we stay north of the inlet to make the ride in a dry one. Winds were to switch to come out of the north around noon time and it was right on schedule. Windfinder was spot on today.

We get in to 90 feet on some more scattered weeds and do the same oil and chunks and again, we hook up on a couple more Atlantic Sharpnose Sharks.

I like this picture. You can make out the sharks mouth and nostrils through the water... Sharks have noses but they only smell with them, they don't breath through them.

We had something big swim up and hit the short bait off the back of the boat. It was dark in color and not sure what it was. I still have to watch the 6 hours of GoPro video to see if it picked up a clear view of what this fish was...

We picked up and continued northwest and locate a small weedline in 60ft. Put out a few goggle eyes way out and the short runner off the back of the boat. Donnys line gets hit and then nothing. All the sudden we see this fin jumping from starboard to port about 50 yards out and I look over to Donny and say you got a fin on your line and he looks at me like I am nuts... :fishing

Even after he picks up the rod he doesn't think the fin is on his line. I have had this happen to me before. The fin was running in a manner that kept his line slack so you really don't think your hooked up until you see the line start skimming across the surface of the water.

This quickly turned into the chinese firedrill we were looking for.

We left the first fin in the water and quickly got hooked up to another.

Pulled in the first fin and got hooked up with another and then lost it. Got hooked back up with another and brought in the previous fin all while keeping a fresh fin in the water. The fins once hooked pukes in the water and keeps the others around. This is why you want to always keep changing out the fins and keep the freshest fin in the water.

After a gaffer and two 25" fins hit the box, we call it a day.

Todays Tally:

4 BFT's
4 Fins
4 Atlantic Sharpnose Sharks
3 Bonitas

How did you all do today?

As we come through the inlet we get a shout of from a fellow forum member. Sorry if the spelling is wrong but I think you said your forum name was Jseas... Congrats on the redfish and croaker.

Being that we lost all the old posts from the old software. I thought I would start posting some of my older tips. Sorry to those who have seen this before but there are new members who might not have.

Tip of Day:

Here is how & what I use to make my drift fishing rigs:

• I use # 6 MATZUO O'Shaughnessy S.E. Short Shank Sea Armor hooks exclusively for my drift and bottom fishing. They are the sharpest skinniest pointed hooks you can buy. I get them at Finest Kind located in Stuart. Worth every penny. I never set the hook, it sets itself it's so sharp. Heres a link to some #8's on EBay just so you know what the package looks like.

• http://compare.ebay.com/like/110667720272?ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

• A captain turned me on to these hooks a couple of years ago and it’s worth the extra cash for them. They are about $25 per 100 hooks. Pull one out of the package and poke your finger with it and do the same test with a Mustad hook. You will see exactly what I am talking about immediately. Mustads you need to sharpen, these you don’t

• I connect this hook to #9 wire leader material. Any brand works. It’s a single strand wire and easy to use to tie haywire twist knots.

• For my leader line I use Berkley Vanish 60lb test Fluorocarbon leader material. You can pick up 30 yards of it for about $16. I have tried using mono leader material to save money but quickly learned it’s not worth losing fish over to save a few bucks. It is worth spending the extra cash for fluorocarbon leader material. Heres a link to what this looks like.

• http://www.berkley-fishing.com/products/line/fluorocarbon/vanish-leader-material

• As for connecting my leader to mainline and leader to #9 wire, I use an Albright knot. Here is a link to a great websites for tying knots.

• http://www.netknots.com/html/albright_special.html

Here is what the finish product looks like.

I make up a bunch of them and have them ready to tie on the main line eader when needed.

These rigs help catch those toothy critters and reduces the amount of lost fish. I have also caught over 30 sailfish with this rig so the wire, as most people say, does not make the sails shy away. Its the best all around rig for drifting live baits. We have also brought in 2 nice Wahoo's with this rig which we would not have landed if it wasn't for having that short piece of wire.

Here are some random pics from the day:

The table that I clean my fish on is an old top to a foosball table just so you can picture the size of the fish.

The finished product:

Till next time :fishing

Fin Addict Joined: May 22, 2009 Posts: 165

Looks like some MAHI tacos to me. All our dolphin up here in the panhandle are holding way far offshore. Can't wait for them to come back in and give us a chance Thanks for your post and pictures.
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we never know but we always go

Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 7:44 pm Post subject:

AF,

Glad you got out there finally...it's been pretty rough up here since the middle November...Congrats on your catches.

DQ
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Bertram 31 FBC (Runem Hard & Fishem Wet) --~~---<*)((((<>(
IN GOD WE TRUST
'Life may be the party we hoped for...but while we are here we might as well fish'!

Fin Addict Joined: May 12, 2009 Posts: 180

Thanks all. Looking forward to getting back out there and putting some blood on the deck again soon...
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Alwaysforward, Never Straight


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