“Spear’em Deep 2” Strikes Again!
Or at least that is what it looked like!
Captain Greg Harvey and his wife Goldie do quite a bite of diving. Fact of the matter is they are quite a team. However, with her husband away on assignment, Goldie went solo this time. While diving with the Captain Tommy Thompson as her bubby at L Buoy the duo had a great dive. According to Goldie the visibility in 60 feet of water was good, but she still had to go on the hunt for these doormat flounder. While checking out the down under residents in one of the wrecks, Goldie came face to face with a goliath grouper, which looked like it had grown to about the size of a small beetle bug Volkswagen. Thanks again for the report and “Nice fish Goldie!”
Beachfront report straight from Glen Conway Tybee Island Georgia
So what does all this boil down too? If you would like to catch a big fish I suggest giving surf fishing a try!
Glen Conway scores again with his second shark! While surf fishing at Tybee Island, Glenn caught, fought, and released this fine specimen of a shark. A shark this size hooked up on light tackle or heck heavier tackle can put on one heck of a pulling show! Glenn caught this fish while using whiting as bait. Sometimes he uses them whole live with the tail cut off and sometimes he steaks them up. No matter, he always scales his bait fish. What does he do this? It gives him a better chance of getting a solid hook up!
Inshore Bite!
Isolated Pockets of Fish!
I do know that I sound like a broken record, but the inshore bite is not fully right yet. Our inshore captains are catching a few spotted sea trout, a few red fish, a few flounder, and lots of whiting. And sometimes they are bringing in lots of spotted sea trout, which means these fish are out there and all you have to do is find them. Best baits especially during this time are going to be live shrimp. And once you get the bite going switching to artificial bait can work. Most fishermen think when you switch to artificial that you have to remove the cork. Well, you don’t just hook you artificial bait up like you do a live shrimp or just thread it on the hook like you are using a jig head. Spotted sea trout are going to either hit this bait on the fall or on the retrieve and what does this tell you? That you should keep that artificial bait moving and you will get more serious hits!
White fish, spotted fish, lady fish, and toothy monsters!
Spotted sea trout, Spanish mackerel, whiting, blue fish, lady fishing, and toothy monsters!
Here’s the thing about this time of the year, especially when there so much uncertainly, you really never know what might bite your hook! The past week our inshore captain caught some of the biggest trout I have seen in a while and Spanish mackerel while floating fishing with live shrimp. To add to the craziness of what’s biting in the sound they have been catching whiting of assorted sizes. Some of these whiting are a little on the large size proving once again small fish can grow bigger. Then there is the blue fish bite! This is a fish that can cut your leader up, kill your bait, and never miss a beat. They travel in feeding schools just like piranha. The can feed at any depth and they seem to cover it all from the bottom to the top. We have started catching a few lady fish. This is a fish that once hooked up prefers jumping to swimming, which can be lots of fun on light tackle. The toothy monsters have shown up and here’s where we are in regards to this bite. Bonnet heads and Atlantic sharpnose sharks are being caught while fishing for spotted sea trout. It seems that these sharks go where the get there best chance at feeding whether it’s your shrimp or the fish eating it.
This is a picture of a shark that was swimming by the boat in the sound. Now you know what to look for! Although I missed the head in this picture as you can see I didn’t miss the dorsal fin and tail. The distance between the dorsal and tail can also help you determine length of the shark. No matter how you see it or measure it this was a pretty nice size shark. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be in the water when this one made a pass. This most likely was about a 6 foot shark in reality and a 10 foot shark if you happen to be in the water.
Sound Fishing in our larger boats
It seems that I have been spending a lot of time in the sound. The reason being is a lot of my customers want this kind of fishing and some decided too, because of rough sea conditions. This bite for me has really picked up. We are catching the standard bottom fish types from whiting to blue fish. And the sharks well, they are very hungry and in some cases quite on the large side. While Captain Kathy was setting the anchor this past week a large shark watch her from down under. She said, “I had to take a second glance at this dark shadow right off the bow. I wasn’t sure it was a large shark until my eyes wondered a bit allowing me to see the full outline. And when it comes to identifying a shark there are some things you look for such as the head and the tail. I had time to take at look at the space between and it was a big shark!” And where did Captain Kathy see this big shark? Right in from of Landings Harbor marina!
Artificial Reef Report
It’s Cobia Time!
Captain Little Tommy Williams on a busman’s holiday!
Captain Little Tommy Williams is holding up a nice cobia that he caught while jigging at the J Buoy. Once arriving at the J he decided to do a little riding while checking out all of the wrecks. Most of the wrecks were not holding any top water fish much less bait. However, one of the wrecks was holding the interest of about a 10 nice cobia. As soon as the surfaced they started making way over to his boat and while jigging they hooked up three nice cobia, which they landed. After getting the just caught fish in the cooler they headed back to where the school was and they were long gone! Now you know the cobias have arrived! And like I said, “It’s cobia time!”
As far as best bait to use: If you are planning to target only cobia then I suggest always trying to get some sort of live bait such as eels, menhaden, pin fish, prawn shrimp, or any others that you might catch. Once acquiring bait I suggest putting it in a live well that has plenty of water circulation. You also need a live well that is going to change out water continuously not one that just holds the water and circulates it. If your bait looks shocked meaning don’t have enough oxygen they will not perform as well and the old cobia might become non-interested party!
As far as best artificial baits here are a few suggestions. I suggest 2 to 3 ounce jig heads that have some sort of white hair. And I suggest rigging your jigs with some sort of artificial bait such as a large screw, paddle tail, or curly tail. Please remember white is the right color to go with! When jigging, please remember you have to keep your bait moving continuously and that your drag is set to medium!
Just so you know: Once hooked up the harder you pull on the fish the harder it is going to pull back. This is always a good thing. However, if you hook is not set right your fish will pull off if your drag is too tight. Cobia are known for being very strong fighters especially if keep a real tight line on them. I suggest coming to some sort of common ground and go with a medium to a light drag.
Kent Phillips and Heather Johnson…a Catching they did go!
While fishing with Kent Phillips, Heather Johnson got her first 2015 cobia and it was a nice one too!
Kent Phillips holding up a nice cobia, which he caught while fishing with Heather Johnson! They both caught a cobia marking a good start to the 2015 cobia offshore season!
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