I'd rather be at work!! The fishing has been extremely good with some GREAT days on the water. The current weather forecast has east winds at 25 knots and a small craft advisory so I am unemployed for a couple days. Even with reels to rebuild and lots of broke stuff to fix I would much rather be workin' on the water than on the boat in the driveway!- I've still got a couple dozen rods and reels that aren't tore up yet!! We have had a limit of Snapper every trip but one since my last report. That trip was a short one with one of my regulars that wanted "one more shot" at cobia fishin' this year. We launched at 9:15 an put it back on the trailer at noon. In less than three hours we hooked 6 cobia. My angler pulled the hook ( fish ate a jig)on a 30#, we released 1 fish that was an inch short, released 2 that were only about 5# and landed a 20# and a 43#! Along with that we boxed a 8# king and a snapper (the king ran in and ate an eel intended for a flathead!)We saw probably another 6 fish that were 5# "clones". This is the lattest in the year I ever ran a dedicated cobia search trip succesfully. AND, the biggest fish ate a jig! Several other cobia have swum up to the boat while we have been snapper fishin' the past week with 2 of those joining the bottom dwellers in the box. The best board of the week tho was a 6 hour trip with a bunch of "horse people" from the mid- west. Two of 'em had fished with me before and 2 of 'em had probably caught a bream and 3 catfish between 'em prior to this trip. Even with the learning curve we hung a limit of red snappers, 3 Lane snapper, 3 triggers, a scamp, a red grouper, a couple mingo's and 8 NICE Black Groupers--- I needed more nails to hang fish! I don't know why the fish are so fired up but I shore am glad they are ! Hopefully the bite will continue for a while, at least untill I go to Indian Pass to chase Tarpon in July!!!! Speaking of which, tarpon season is rapidly approaching. The fish have allready started showing up over there and with all the migrating schools of BIG fish I've seen headed that way it should be a good year. I have one open day left open in June for Grayton but about half of July and 10 days in August for Tarpon. If you want to go chase a giant Silver King (or sight fish tripletail) give me call . I plan on trying to tag a bunch more tripletails this year- it sure was a hoot last year! Almost a shame to release something that tastes that good but with a 2 fish limit it gives a bit of purpose to chasing 'em after the dinner requirements are met!!!!! Hpoefully we can get a researcher over this year from Ms to put a sattelite tag in a tarpon and put an end to all the arguements about the migration patterns. The hurricanes from 2 years ago proved the fish DO spawn at the "pass" when we suddenly had juvenile tarpon in the inland ditches and ponds a year after the storm surge--- Capt Larry Pentel
troycreasy