MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2008
Jigging for Grouper
By Steve Mechling
NC Waterman
CB INLET - I said we were going to jig till our arms fell off and then use our legs and teeth! I think we did today.
Nilebrim, WLB and I cleared a very tricky (very) CB inlet around 4:30am today with the intentions of finding some new drops. The area we have been fishing is being hit hard by jiggers, the last few times we have gone we have had boats run up on us and "pick off" our numbers. Well we found several untapped resources. Most notably another monster AJ drop well away from the one everyone is fishing now.
Our first drop at the new spot was instant grouper. Niles and Pete got reds and I hooked a hawse of a fish about 50 off of the bottom. I figured it was a jack when it started fighting half way up, then back to dead weight. It was a grouper... that was the good news... the bad news was it had been "sharked". It would have been my biggest gag to date. Soon after Niles landed a 24 lb gag and I brought a cobia to the boat. Pete precedes to beat the cobia off my jig with the gaff. (team player) Don't worry I get my revenge later. We also caught some king macks at this spot.
It was slick out there today with some big ground swells from the SE. Early we saw a lot of small blackfins and unidentified surface activity. Niles spotted something floating a couple hundred yards from the grouper spot and we went to check it out. It was a couple simple little crab trap type floats, but that far offshore that is like a Red Roof Inn. It had a triggerfish under it and after a few tosses, three good mahi's appeared. Pete hooked one about 20 lbs on drift tune jig that jumped off shortly after. Niles and I had some interest in the poppers we were throwing but no more hookups. As we are all staring into the deep looking for the mahi I hear Niles say "&%##*" A giant sea turtle came up beside the boat right beside him. Ha. good stuff.
The grouper were fun but we were after sea monsters, so off we go looking for our next target I had pulled from... well, I had never fished this area so I had pulled them form nowhere. As we are running Niles shouts "tuna tuna". Off the port something is ripping some bait a new one... Get the poppers ready!. As we pull up on the scene I see something I have never seen before. There is about 75 sharks of every size killing a bait ball. Cutting through the sharks are tuna, some blackfins to around 15 lbs! I was afraid to throw the popper in there in fear of the sharks getting it or hooking a tuna and the sharks getting it. The tuna didn't say long, slash in and get out, then slash again. To our amazement the sharks weren't interested in our lures. Niles did catch a skipjack. Pete got some video of the action and may be able to put it up later. It lasted for about 15 minutes and they were gone all that was left was thousands of scales slowly sinking.
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