But since it's been so hot, and this year the river just hasn't been producing like years before we headed offshore for Kingfish. I picked them up on the northside, and we ran out to (MR) - Montgomery's Reef.
I started out just surveying the area by pulling some Russelures, in HOT pink..
Eleven year old Ryan, wanted a BIG FISH, as all kids (and Dad's too) even though Ryan has caught some big fish before, I figured a Cuda on my really big heavy rods would put different thoughts in his head. So we trolled and trollled. The surface water temp was 74 degrees out there! Was it from the big belly washer rain we had last night, we all thought?
We even saw huge schools of small cigar minnows. I circled them, and circled them. "Man, you'd think a Cuda attack would be forth coming."
But we had not one strike. So we beat ourselves against a really close swell as we made a move to (BB) - Busy's Bonanza Reef. More bait schools, so I rigged up my go-to baits. Dead Cigar minnows, rigged for a quick 3 knot troll with a 6 oz. trolling lead, to get it down. And more nothing.
Finally as I rounded another school of bait, a rod went off. Sarah was up and she's never caught a fish before so she had plenty of instructors aboard telling her what to do. It turned out to be about a 8-10 pound Bonita.
(NO PHOTOS......broke camera)
We continued on and even trolled from BB to Nine Mile Reef. Like most kids, Ryan was laying on the deck, head down. Sarah was laying up on the bow casting platform. Richard Sr. was sitting up front on the cooler, and Richard Jr. and I were the only two really paying attention to what was going on.
I checked the baits a few times. And if I have to say myself, "My Cigar minnows looked as if they were gonna come off the hook and join the schools, they were swimming so life like."
So, no bites wasn't from my baits not "lookin' good". That's for sure!
We just made a three reef run, and covered acres and acres of ocean. The surface temp when we decided to leave and head in.......basically because of the kids. The water temp on the top was about 78 degrees.
But rumors of a summer "thermo-cline" is all I'm hearing about, lately. From the bait shop to the local Wally-world where I bumped into a friend.
So.......it's just a normal summer? No close Pogies, and cold water, again? Yep, par for the course. I don't keep my thumb on the party ground reefs like I do the river or the inlet. And since I fish out there seasonally, because it's Kingfish time. I learn from doing, going, and alot of travelling.
We bagged up the Bonita in my Kingfish bag with some ice and headed in. Richard's wife wanted the Bonita, they eat sushi.
We got to the jetties and it was slack high tide, but tried a little bottom fishing then headed back to the boat ramp.
Don't know if it was the Full Moon, or cool water on the reefs, but compared to my last offshore day. It sure was the opposite. I was hoping for a load of Kingfish bites, like I had before on the 19th with Tim P.
