Kings Gone Bye?

[SkyJay]

Myself, Miss Kimberly, and SkyJeffery, hit the SSP at 3:00 A.M. Tues with high hopes for a late season Smoker.
Caught bait, and settled in on the corner for some last minute rigging, as the tide began ripping in, and the N-NW wind picked up from a comfortable 5mph, to a brisk and somewhat chilly breeze.

Tide started to drizzle about 5, and the Snapper, and Grouper turned on for the Hardcores who had been out all night, and the early arrivals for the day.

Several Short Gags caught by the folks, as well as a couple barely keepers, and a nice 24inch fatty.

Snapper bite went off the chain briefly, and all involved limited
out quickly. (Even the a###### under the pier in the boat drinkin, cussing, yelling, banging around, and ruining an otherwise beautiful morning. P.S. Yes that was piss in that bucket sir! LOL)

Nice fat Mangos all at least 12 inches were flying over the rail for about an hour and a half, and then nothing.

Saw a couple of Giant 'Cudas terrorizing the Ladies, as well as several displaced Mudfish who I theorize were avoiding the jagoff in the boat.

Tide died to a near crawl as I set my clip at dawn. Bait invaded the place shortly thereafter, and not long after that so started the castnet dance and the Clark Spoon Tango .

Sinkers were bloppin the water at a rate that would have made the invasion on Normandy Pale in caparison.

Every living creature including the jerk in the boat vamoosed just in time for the morning bait boaters to show up.

Remarkably however the Snapper fired back up just long enough to give the folks a brief reminder of better days gone by, and the it was back to slim pickins. Did see one guy catch a really nice Trout about 23 inches. In the cooler he went.

Saw about 5 Spike Spanish caught on Spoons maybe 12 inches and that was that.

Got a Knockdown by an Aningha about 7 that got me outta my chair, and got the juices flowing again.

Tide slacked and it looked like the Florida Aquarium as ever imaginable resident species rose in the water column in the clear water.

Tried a little trespassing east side Gag fishin till I chickened out. Got 1 short maybe 20, but saw a Whole Buttload of Tarpon.

Got a couple visits from WTF Fish, on my Freeline Rod under the Bridge. 'Cuda, Shark, I don't know, but if it was a MudFish I'll bet ya he was a skinny one (and Quick to!) Felt like a AmberJack on steroids!

Ran in to Dive2Cfish sometime later. That guys a monster, when it comes to his fishin I'm tellin ya!

Runnin up and down the pier like 14 year old kid with his Rod chasin Tarpon! LOL (Did my heart good to see that, WTG Chris)

By now it's startin to really heat up and get steamy, and you know who starts to whine.

Put down one more bait bait on 100, to try and figure out who WTF fish was, as I explained to her, I wasn't about to go nowhere in the immediate future , and that was final...

Donated 1 more hook to WTF Fish's Jaw Bone, as she started loading up the stuff...

True to his character as I helped mama finish loading the stuff up, "SkyJeffery" comes walking around the corner with a nice fat "Eastside" Blackie, solidifying the fact we wouldn't only be dining on Snapper that evening. (WTG Jeff!)

Cranked up to leave about 11ish, as I begged for just an hour or 2 more in "The Alley", to no avail.

All in all not a bad trip, albeit a little bittersweet...

Had a great time on the water, caught some dinner, (cooler full of nice Mangos, and 1 Gag), and seen some cool sites and stuff. Would have really liked to get one more Spring-King however, and couldn't buy a Poon bite, although Chris did jump a few.

Afraid that's it for the Kings at the SkyWay this year. Looking on to the Fall run now.

Might be my last post fer a while as we used the Cable money to take this trip, and I'm fixing to fire Brighthouse and go with someone else I think.


Fish on Folks, enjoy yourselves if ya can, after all we only get one ride on this rock, so ya might as well make it a good one.


Take Care Y'all...


We'll be a seein Ya!


"SkyJay"

[jmfishin]

sounds like a fun day .
what was the bait of choice for the snappers?

[havetofish]

Great report as usual Jay.

[SkyJay]

May 13, 2009 16:37:49 GMT -5 jmfishin said:

sounds like a fun day .
what was the bait of choice for the snappers?

A fun day indeed little on the sauna side but bareable...
We were using cut, and live Greenbacks, and I'm assuming the other folks were to, as the Baitshop was out of Shrimp...
(Which in itself is amazing seein as how they're askin $4.50 a dozen... (Them SSP PinFish eatin High Dollar Like Big Mike's now! LOL) ;D

Thanx John wished you coulda been there.

[goindeep]

Jay what were you catchin for bait before daylight? I couldn't buy a pinfish bite w/squid the other night.

Nice report by the way

[inshorebasher]

sometimes you gotta chum them up or move over a little bit to get them going. thats what i have come to find out certain times that i go.

[SkyJay]

Actually the "Bait" i was referring to, was the Big Ole Horseminners
(AKA "GreenBacks" or "Scaled Sardines") that congregate deep on the Pilings at the very end of the Pier in the dark. We went with kind of a Kingfish plan in mind, and I wanted to have my outlines, and clip set and baited at Dawn.
We Sabiki'd em down deep on gold hooks and small pieces of Shrimp, but a store bought Sabiki will work just fine.
I knew the Threadies would probably be after sunup arriving in full force, and them Horseminners are the next best thing.
(A lot of good it did me)
I ALWAYS stop just before the baitshop, and load up on Grass Grunts and Pins in the Flat between the reefs.
I am a firm believer that cut Shrimp works best for Pinfish, (especially the big-ns), and only use Squid when I have to.
(Not to say Squid wont work I just like using Shrimp)
I buy a few bags at SouthShore, take em home, cut em up with Scissors, and salt em down with rocksalt.
It don't hurt to refreeze em, and the salt makes em tougher.

Anyways We hit the lights here and there and got a few small Ladies, and Blue Runners, which actually was what Jeff got the Keeper on.
Most of the Grouper I saw caught Tuesday were on large Greenbacks, and Threadfins as were the bigger Snapper.
(Haven't seen the Goos turn on like that in quite a while... Musta been the wierd 1 tide day or something.)
I'd bet between the guys in the boat(Come to think of it they did have a bunch of lights goin) our party, and the 10 or 15
some-odd people fishin at the end, 60-70 Snapper came over the rails in like an hour and a half!
What for the size it was almost like bein on the Overnight boat! I saw one little old Lady catch at least 20, and we all know where they went! LOL
At least 40-50% of them fish were bonafide fatties, with very few under 12 inches.
Kept hopin for a Grover, like Mario caught but never did get anywhere near that big.
A Few maybe 15 or so, but no trophys.
Good-ns though, got 3 full sacks of Fillets and one damn fine dinner outta our mess! (All on Greenbacks small livies the best for Snaps)

Now that you mention it the PinFish were pretty thin.

They spawn like BlueGills and ShellCrackers... Full moons, Summer months, which means they congregate/stack up pretty much all in one place...
If you can find them, you've hit the motherload...
If not so solly cholly.
Brian ("GotBait",) once told me they go offshore to spawn, and I guess he should know seein as that's how he made a livin.

If they are there you can/should be able to get em in the dark just as easy as in daylight, at the Skyway.

Do like Scooter, Big Foot Steve, Big Moe, GotBait, Sleepy and the rest of commercial guys do...
Use Shrimp, and get as serious about catching PinFish for Grouper bait, as you are about catching Grouper,
and you WILL catch more KEEPER Grouper!
It's as simple as that. Big Bait= Big Fish!
Try to plan at least an hour each trip to catching bait if you can, and fill your well BEFORE lines in.

BIG WILD ASS PINFISH. ;D are the Key.
Yes you can catch Grouper on many Different Live Fishies.
Some of the biggest caught every year fall for Threadies, Greene's, Grunts, Lady Fish, Squirrel fish, ETC. ETC.
But for free line at the Pier, at least in my Opinion,
I'll take a Pin Fish.
Unless of course You've got a nice Bluefish, Key West Grunt, Yellow Tail Jack, Lane, or Mango Snapper (and the list goes on)
As long as it LARGE!
Mr. Gag don't care. ;D