I am not back wading yet (I've got one cut that hasn't healed completely), but I have started fishing again. Jim, my neighbor, was kind enough to take me fishing in the Ocean in his boat. So we went Tuesday and thunderstorms sent us in around noon. Today we went for most of the day.
Jim, free-lines live bait and you drift with wind and current until a fish takes the bait (usually sardines). It's you and the fish- and there are some strong fish in the Ocean.
Fishing Report: Atlantic Ocean 7-9-15. 7:15 am caught bait, started fishing around 9:15. Wind 8-10 mph SE with moderate to rough waves. Outgoing, then incoming tide. Water clear with wind causing ripples. Air temp 90, water temp around 80. Using 30 lb mono with a 40 lb wire leader and #6 circle hooks. Live bait - sardines and blue runners.
We put the boat in at 1st Stuart bridge. After going through the St. Lucie inlet we headed South to Bull Shark Reef to catch some bait. We found a few boats gathered there to catch bait and threw out our Sabiki rigs (4 foot weighted line with 6 small hooks that have a small plastic sliver that represents small minnows). We caught a few 6-9 inch sardines and a couple small blue runners and threw them in the live-well. The blue runners (which get to be a couple lbs) kept breaking off one or two of the six hooks so I only had two hooks left. We didn't have enough bait to fish so we headed North to "the hump" a shallow reef in about 45' of water. I retied another Sabiki Rig and we found a few sardines after making repeated drifts through areas that held some baitfish.
We ended up with two dozen sardines and two small blue runners- enough to start fishing.We headed East to an area that was about 120 feet deep near a sunken wreck. Jim has a few spots on his GPS and we stopped to fish a break line (between currents) on the way. Jim expertly positioned the boat so it drifted through the break area. He stopped the motor and we baited up by hooking a sardine on a circle hook to each pole. We sent one sardine out far and the other we kept in closer to the boat. There's no weight on the sardines so they just swim around as they are pulled by the wind pushing the boat.
The rods are put on rod holders on each side and the reels are set with loose drag so the fish can pull the bait out easily. You just have to watch the line and see if the fish is pulling the line out, then when the fish is on you click the loose drag off and start reeling- the circle hook goes to the corner of the fish's mouth.
Suddenly, a fish grabbed my sardine and my line started going out. I pulled it out of the holder and felt the fish then set the hook, wham fish on!!! The fish started to head North and I applied pressure- snap!!! - my 40 pound wire leader shattered!!! What a fish, broke my line!! Jim reminded me not to set the hook (since I was fishing a circle hook) and we both wondered what it was.
I retied and re-baited. There were a bunch of bottlenose dolphins circling the boat. Jim had a fish take his bait. He got the pole down, let the fish take some line, clicked it in gear and handed it to me- fish on!!! This was a big fish and it didn't take long for the drag to start whirring. The fish had pulled 100 yards of my line and was still going!! I couldn't turn it!!! Jim started the engine and we followed the fish before I ran out of line. Then finally I started to get it coming in. I wasn't gaining much and after 10 minutes Jim took the pole and gave it a try. He was really pumping the rod. He lifted the tip up, then reeled it down, and started to gain some ground. After 5 minutes he gave the pole back to me and I tried to pull it up. After 5 more minutes we got a glimpse of the powerful fish- it was big bonita.
I pulled it up to the boat and Jim grabbed it's tail and put it on the side deck. He took a quick pic and we released it:
The bonita swam slowly down and was followed by a huge bottlenose dolphin and I imagine that the bonita soon became lunch. We were fishing clumps of Sargassum weeds that gathered near the current brakes looking for Mahi-Mahi or Dorado (also called Dolphin).
Jim took us to a wreck in about 120 feet of water. After we drifted by my line started whirring off the spool. I pulled the rod out of its holder and clicked the loose drag off. Fish on!!! I looked up to see a leaping Mahi-Mahi hover over the blue water. It's green and yellow head glistened in the sun. "Mahi," yelled Jim, "don't lose this one- it's going in the cooler!!" I kept the pressure on and it came up again, then went around the side of the boat. Jim gaffed the beautiful fish, pulled it on the deck and put it in the cooler on ice. We took it out a couple minutes later and got a pic:
My first Mahi-Mahi (click pic to enlarge)
According to Jim, Bonita aren't good eating but Mahi are. So we are thinking about grilling some fillets tomorrow.
We went east another mile and tried a couple current brakes. We ended up catching 5 bonita including two at the same time. The last ones wore us out and we headed back to Stuart and the inlet.
Our totals: 5 bonita and 1 Mahi-mahi. A beautiful day on the water!!!
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