teambigbobberz
10-03-2006, 03:37 PM
I got the chance to take a group from Montana fishing Tuesday. Well, five were from from Montana, two adults, Chris and Sherry, and their kiddos, Justin, 13, Devon, 11, and Joe, 9. My brother Ian is from Albuquerque, but has been all around with the Airforce, he is stationed in Fayetteville, NC right now. He had just come home from Baghdad and his friends flew in to Orlando from Montana for their vacation. Without much arm twisting, they came up to Jax from Orlando to spend a day fishing. The boys wanted to catch sharks.... , not my favorite, but thats what they wanted.
We went out to the beach and cast netted about 4 dozen pogies then anchored just inside the jetties. Threw a chum bag over, got everyone rigged on the bottom with 4-6 inch pogies as bait, and waited. As luck would have it, the first fish on the boat was a shark for Justin!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06006.jpg
YAY! The boys got their wish! We don't like sharks much, so I try to avoid them, but it was great for the kids!
They quickly grew tired of the bite, (gotta wait longer for the big fish), so I changed everyone over to smaller hooks with dead shrimp and clams. They got a lot more immediate action, a lot of small fish and bait stealing! Still caught some cool fish...Chris caught and released an undersize red, a couple other fish came on board for a quick release, except this keeper black drum, our first dinner guest!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06008.jpg
I was still determined to fish the bottom with pogies! So three hours into the trip I finally got to fish, (I don't know how you charter captains keep your sanity!) And wouldn't you know...as soon as I opened a fresh ice cold water, (infused with hops and barley), this drop dead red bent my rod!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06017.jpg
30 inches!!! The tide had changed and was just starting to go out. Awesome fish, but too big to keep! So I sent another volunteer down, opened a fresh beverage, (mine got spilt in the excitement), and hooked another red! Joe hadn't caught ANYTHING yet and was talking to the bait, so I let him bring our next guest for dinner in...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06021.jpg
He was so cute...so excited!
Then of course everyone wanted a live bait rig again...except Devon who's attention span warranted a double drop fish finder rig. But, he caught the only keeper black sea bass of the day! Our third dinner guest...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06020.jpg
This blue jumped at the chance to eat a restrained pogie on the end of my brothers line and later joined us for dinner as well.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06023.jpg
We only had a little less than five hours on the water, and never went more than 15, 20 minutes without a bite of some sort, whether it be little spadefish, soap fish...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06015.jpg
... a new one for me, the thing looked and felt like chocolate pudding with skin....YUCK! Or good fish, we had a great day! In fact, the kids wanted to go fishing again instead of going to Disney the next day!! AWESOME!
You can't fake those smiles! Catch ya' soon!
We went out to the beach and cast netted about 4 dozen pogies then anchored just inside the jetties. Threw a chum bag over, got everyone rigged on the bottom with 4-6 inch pogies as bait, and waited. As luck would have it, the first fish on the boat was a shark for Justin!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06006.jpg
YAY! The boys got their wish! We don't like sharks much, so I try to avoid them, but it was great for the kids!
They quickly grew tired of the bite, (gotta wait longer for the big fish), so I changed everyone over to smaller hooks with dead shrimp and clams. They got a lot more immediate action, a lot of small fish and bait stealing! Still caught some cool fish...Chris caught and released an undersize red, a couple other fish came on board for a quick release, except this keeper black drum, our first dinner guest!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06008.jpg
I was still determined to fish the bottom with pogies! So three hours into the trip I finally got to fish, (I don't know how you charter captains keep your sanity!) And wouldn't you know...as soon as I opened a fresh ice cold water, (infused with hops and barley), this drop dead red bent my rod!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06017.jpg
30 inches!!! The tide had changed and was just starting to go out. Awesome fish, but too big to keep! So I sent another volunteer down, opened a fresh beverage, (mine got spilt in the excitement), and hooked another red! Joe hadn't caught ANYTHING yet and was talking to the bait, so I let him bring our next guest for dinner in...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06021.jpg
He was so cute...so excited!
Then of course everyone wanted a live bait rig again...except Devon who's attention span warranted a double drop fish finder rig. But, he caught the only keeper black sea bass of the day! Our third dinner guest...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06020.jpg
This blue jumped at the chance to eat a restrained pogie on the end of my brothers line and later joined us for dinner as well.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06023.jpg
We only had a little less than five hours on the water, and never went more than 15, 20 minutes without a bite of some sort, whether it be little spadefish, soap fish...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/TeamBigBobberz/Montanacrewsep06015.jpg
... a new one for me, the thing looked and felt like chocolate pudding with skin....YUCK! Or good fish, we had a great day! In fact, the kids wanted to go fishing again instead of going to Disney the next day!! AWESOME!
You can't fake those smiles! Catch ya' soon!