Thursday, February 09, 2006
Shark Tales
The warmest winter ever recorded and maybe the windiest. It has been a problem to find a day with seas less than 3-5. Yesterday (Wed 8 Feb) there was a lull so Mike and I took a trip out to sample the fish population. As expected the inshore waters looked pretty murky. The dredge is working a little to the west of the pass and 6-8' seas have stirred the bottom. My plan was to fish some of the wrecks and reefs at the 10-12mi range. I didn't hold much hope for diving due to low vis.
We crossed a tide line about 5mi out and another a couple of miles further. There were lots of birds working the second tide line. The Gannets were making their spectacular vertical dives, folding into a spear just as they rocket into the water who knows how deep? There were also a few pelicans making their slashing dives. I wonder how the pelicans know there is bait that far offshore. It seems beyond visual range of the other birds, I guess it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that they can smell the fish. Mike says they see the other birds, but I think they would have to have a telescope to see that far. We never actually saw the bait on the surface but did mark one large baitball deep on the bottom machine.
Our first stop was on the army tanks. They were showing a few fish but none wanted to bite. I did catch one pogy, so we had a grouper bait. From there we went to several other wrecks, the twin tugs, Ackokeek, and T-13. Mike was able to jig up several AJs, even one legal size, but the grouper just wouldn't bite. Time to dive.
The water looked a little green so I wan't expecting to find the nice 30+ vis I had on the bottom. There were plenty of fish. Some nice red snapper were very bold and inspected me closely, knowing their season is closed. The AJs were abundant but needed to grow a couple of inches to make 28. I guess the grouper left town.
After my good report Mike dove on the next bridge with the same results as me. Nice dive, no fish. We agreed the new wet suits are the ticket, no problems with getting cold, even though the water temp was showing 56-59.
We dove together on the next bridge. Things looked about the same, though I did take a nice Sheeps-head. Returning to the boat I was hanging out at 15' when I noticed what looked like a shark under the boat. I felt like Tweedy, "It is a Shark!" It didn't take long to realize that Mike was fishing again and had made a catch. He was waiting on my return to show it off to me. It looked like a nice size for eating, and we were a little short on meat for the day. I made up a loop and Mike guided the shark thorough my lasso. It took a couple of tries but I got the noose on it and swung it into the box.
The trip home was uneventful. The wind had shifted about 180 deg so we had about the same quatering tail surf coming in as we had going out. The days getting a little longer help my attitude. Coming home and cleaning fish and equipment in the dark just wears me out.
We had a sad supprise when the fish cleaning got underway. Our smooth dogfish was just about to be a proud mama. The ten pups were fully formed and looked ready for birth. They were still alive but they didn't seem to know how to swim when I tossed them in the drink.
There is a happy ending. The shark tasted really good. Nice firm texture but not coarse, and a very mild flavor. Actually the happy part is that maybe some of the little ones lived. When we were taking the boat out Mike noticed one of the pups was at the boat ramp. I went back after washing the boat and it was still there and alive. I worked it around in the water a little bit and gave it a shove off to deeper water and it did swim away.
If the weather takes a break maybe I'll have another story soon. bob
We crossed a tide line about 5mi out and another a couple of miles further. There were lots of birds working the second tide line. The Gannets were making their spectacular vertical dives, folding into a spear just as they rocket into the water who knows how deep? There were also a few pelicans making their slashing dives. I wonder how the pelicans know there is bait that far offshore. It seems beyond visual range of the other birds, I guess it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that they can smell the fish. Mike says they see the other birds, but I think they would have to have a telescope to see that far. We never actually saw the bait on the surface but did mark one large baitball deep on the bottom machine.
Our first stop was on the army tanks. They were showing a few fish but none wanted to bite. I did catch one pogy, so we had a grouper bait. From there we went to several other wrecks, the twin tugs, Ackokeek, and T-13. Mike was able to jig up several AJs, even one legal size, but the grouper just wouldn't bite. Time to dive.
The water looked a little green so I wan't expecting to find the nice 30+ vis I had on the bottom. There were plenty of fish. Some nice red snapper were very bold and inspected me closely, knowing their season is closed. The AJs were abundant but needed to grow a couple of inches to make 28. I guess the grouper left town.
After my good report Mike dove on the next bridge with the same results as me. Nice dive, no fish. We agreed the new wet suits are the ticket, no problems with getting cold, even though the water temp was showing 56-59.
We dove together on the next bridge. Things looked about the same, though I did take a nice Sheeps-head. Returning to the boat I was hanging out at 15' when I noticed what looked like a shark under the boat. I felt like Tweedy, "It is a Shark!" It didn't take long to realize that Mike was fishing again and had made a catch. He was waiting on my return to show it off to me. It looked like a nice size for eating, and we were a little short on meat for the day. I made up a loop and Mike guided the shark thorough my lasso. It took a couple of tries but I got the noose on it and swung it into the box.
The trip home was uneventful. The wind had shifted about 180 deg so we had about the same quatering tail surf coming in as we had going out. The days getting a little longer help my attitude. Coming home and cleaning fish and equipment in the dark just wears me out.
We had a sad supprise when the fish cleaning got underway. Our smooth dogfish was just about to be a proud mama. The ten pups were fully formed and looked ready for birth. They were still alive but they didn't seem to know how to swim when I tossed them in the drink.
There is a happy ending. The shark tasted really good. Nice firm texture but not coarse, and a very mild flavor. Actually the happy part is that maybe some of the little ones lived. When we were taking the boat out Mike noticed one of the pups was at the boat ramp. I went back after washing the boat and it was still there and alive. I worked it around in the water a little bit and gave it a shove off to deeper water and it did swim away.
If the weather takes a break maybe I'll have another story soon. bob
