Post-Easter in Pensacola... A poor day and a good day!

1eyefishing

...just joking, seriously.
I headed out Monday morning early in 45°(!)
Early is VERY early here, as it cracks daylight at 5:30 a.m. and sun has risen by 6:15...
Got to the bait store and guess what...no live shrimp.:mad:
Call the other store, no live shrimp. Guess we're fishing with no live shrimp today.
Headed out in perfect conditions, rising tide, offshore breath of wind less than 5 mph, and very clean and clear emerald water of the western panhandle. Hit the beach front first thing armed with pompano jigs and hermit crabs. Unlike last week with the shrimp tipped jigs, nothing falling for my stuff this morning.
After a couple of hours, I noticed a large pod of cow-nosed rays meandering westward along the second sandbar. Thinking that cobia may be traveling with (under) the school, I ease up in the boat and begin throwing my cobia jig in front of and under the group. A dozen casts later, but whodda thunk it, a very large ray has swooped down to the bottom and eatin my jig! Let me just say that they are fast and powerful! After an extensive battle with many runs on the drag, I finally got the tired out ray to the boat. Now to get my cobia jig back! I have to hold the 36" wide critter by the leader with his back to the side of the boat (don't even know if they have a stinger, but not taking any chances!), and wrestle my jig out of his toothy maw with a pair of needle-nose pliers. In the process, I rip some of the best and flashiest dressing off my jig.
Strike one!
Shortly, I come back into the bay to one of my go-to spots in order to revive my spirits. I have never struck out here, and I know the big snappers are here hot and heavy and ready to do battle. First cast with a 50 lb rig, braid, and a 40 lb leader, heavy jig and a gulp ripple mullet, I get steamrolled, taken into the structure and broken off.
Strike two.
No problem, at least the fish are here and ready to do battle. I take 5 minutes to tie another 40 lb leader onto the 50 lb braid. Add my jig and ripple mullet and second cast. Bam! Same results.
Strike 3!
By now I am flustered, and in order to speed up the process of getting my bait back in the water, I just tie the jig directly to the 50 lb braid and toss it for a half an hour with no results.
So I decide to cut it short, come back to camp and clean up the boat and make phone calls to find bait for tomorrow....
 

1eyefishing

...just joking, seriously.
Today, still no live shrimp anywhere in town! With a new fishing partner, I head out to the bridge where the bull reds live...
Right off the bat, or maybe the 2nd or 3rd cast with a jig head and ripple mullet, my buddy hooks up with this...
IMG_20190423_070918.jpg

We fish for a while longer but failed to hook any more bulls, so we left for exploring and sightseeing around the bay. We need the nearby bait shop with load up with live shrimp around lunch time so we were mostly just killing time... During our lunch break, my buddy left in his wheels to go pick up the live shrimp while I cleaned up the boat and had on board lunch at the ramp...
6 dozen shrimp! Now we have baked for today and tomorrow... Head straight back to dependable spot for revenge on the snappers! I had told my buddy he better be ready to do battle on the structure which is 10 ft of relief in 18 ft of water! About his first cast there, he's locked into a wrestling match with a nice red snapper!
ezgif.com-resize.png
A few moments later, it was my turn! I had some serious clock time with this big ugly and strategically tired him out away from the structure before trying to bring into the boat which is spotlocked directly on top of the structure.
image.jpgimage.jpg
High fives all around, then a few more unkeepable snapper, a couple of spanish mac, and a nice flounder and a fat mangrove snapper came aboard.
With some food fish in the box, we had to another hole, where the conditions were right. Here we hooked up with 10 red fish between 24" and 30" in an hour's time. We kept two keepers over 26" and let eight fish go! We were doubled up together twice, and actually got tired of catching and photographing, so we caught a couple of more and let some nearby observers in on the action after we moved our boat away from the prime spot which they were fishing near, but not on when we arrived.IMG_20190423_162337.jpgIMG_20190423_161016.jpgIMG_20190423_154112.jpgIMG_20190423_160319.jpg
We headed back in to clean fish and ourselves, and planning on heading back out tomorrow with all the leftover bait we acquired!
But not early! Starting midday and fishing well into the darkness!
Stay tuned!
 

Rabun

Senior Member
You're definitely on the fish. that big ugly drum is a beast. I caught one like that off of the beach once and he dragged me down the beach over 300 yards before i could land him. Keep the reports coming! Presently living vicariously through you :). Great catches!!
 

Browning Slayer

Official Voice Of The Dawgs !
Heck yeah brother... I can't believe how dirty that boat is in the 1st pic!!:bounce:
 

1eyefishing

...just joking, seriously.
Nice reds!
How's your knee?
Thanks Dave!
The knee is still not really satisfactory to me. I have an appointment next Tuesday with an anesthesiologist who is going to put three epidural shots into three nerves around the knee to give me some relief... He says it is not permanent, but if I need more he can go in there and deaden the same nerves by cauterizing...
 

1eyefishing

...just joking, seriously.
Heck yeah brother... I can't believe how dirty that boat is in the 1st pic!!:bounce:
Yep, we always track a bunch of sand and debris into the boat when we're getting in and out at the ramp to get launched. I never really worry about hosing it down with the raw water wash down until I slow moment and fishing. We hadn't had a slow moment yet at that point in time!
Notice the difference in the rest of the pics...:cheers:
 

crackerdave

Senior Member
Thanks Dave!
The knee is still not really satisfactory to me. I have an appointment next Tuesday with an anesthesiologist who is going to put three epidural shots into three nerves around the knee to give me some relief... He says it is not permanent, but if I need more he can go in there and deaden the same nerves by cauterizing...
Have you considered the new stem cell therapy?
 

1eyefishing

...just joking, seriously.
I hope you guys can really appreciate zackly how hard I have to fish all day just to bring you a good picture!
Today was tough for picture taking opportunities! But only because I was more focused on taking pictures of fish than taking in the pictures of the scenery and wildlife in my mind.
In any case we fish from mid afternoon hard into the night in order to bring you just this one shot...IMG_20190424_205858.jpg

But if I'm noticing one trend amongst all the passengers of my boat, it's that they catch a lot of fish!
After fishing hard for 3 days in a row, I think I'll give it a rest for the passing weather tomorrow and maybe back at on Friday...
Tomorrow, time to clean the boat and re-rig fishing rods...
 

Rhodes

Senior Member
I had told my buddy he better be ready to do battle on the structure which is 10 ft of relief in 18 ft of water! About his first cast there, he's locked into a wrestling match with a nice red snapper!

I've never heard of snapper getting that shallow before. We caught one last year in about 35' and I thought that was shallow but 18' is crazy!
 

Rabun

Senior Member
Get some rest 1eye! After reading your posts the last few days, I had to get myself some kind of fix so I loaded up the kayak yesterday morning and hit Bull Sluice lake. Water was high, but managed to catch a few...probably the best LM to date for me. Just minnows compared to what you're getting in to.

Keep up the fine work and keep the reports and pics coming (y)
 
Top