Saturday Snappa!!!

Stinky_Hooker · #1 05-09-2005, 02:10 PM

Well guys I got to Dauphin Island at about 3am Saturday morning. My company was Brandon (as typically is) and my best friend Kevin who is in the Coast Guard and might not be in Mobile much longer, which I am still kinda hot about.. I was pleasantly surprised to find NO wind. I mean none!! It was one of those glorious days that it is so calm you can drop a feather and it will land on the floor of the boat easily.

Anyway, we headed out to a rig in the bay to catch some bait. We fished for about an hour and a half and were ready to head south with a good supply of live croakers and grounders.

We went out to one of my favorite snapper rigs and dropped down only to loose a few croakers until the current shifted us to a different leg of the rig. Boy did THAT make a difference! It wasn’t long that I went to drop a HUGE croaker down and had something rip 80lb line out of a 6/0 like it was an ultra-light. He got into the rig never to be seen again. I turned to Kevin and said… :shock:
Moments later he landed one of the suspected culprits and voila we had the first AJ of the year. It was certainly not as big as whatever I had lost, but a keeper for sure. A high five and some more bait in the water and we were off for some more action. We fished for about another hour and boated about 6 more snapper. Action was a little slow, but they were nice ones. We would have had one more nice one, but Kevin got him up when I was eating a sandwich so I handed gaffing duties off to Brandon. BIG mistake!! He missed, hit the line and with a pop was gone to his home below. Kevin is a pretty laid back guy so he didn’t say anything, but I knew by the look on his face he was ready to throw Brandon overboard. :lol:

I had my last live croaker on the bottom when something hit that I would pay good money to have landed. Within about 2 seconds he made my 50# American Rodsmith rod touch the water from a gunwale holder and it followed with a big POW!!!! :shock: Oh well I know where I can get a new one of those. :lol: We had about five other boats at this point around us like vultures drooling and not catchin a thing. I believe this was due to their bait selection. (dead not live, I think.) I ran out of live too and decided to head out to some bridge rubble for a few triggers or Bee liners to finish out the morning…it was only 9:30 and I had a cooler pretty heavy with snapps, a couple Spaniards, and an AJ.

We went on out and polished off about a dozen or so Bee liners and came on home. All in all a blessed day on the water and a beautiful one also. Here are a few pics:

Kevin’s big grounder and a his first ever spainish:

Kevin’s barely legal AJ:

Me and Kevin with some snapper:

Brandon’s only fish of the day: :lol:

My broke rod:

reelapeelin · #2 05-09-2005, 07:13 PM

Looks like a great day for sure!!!...NICE SNAPPA!!...and how 'bout that "snappa" rod....sorry, couldn't resist... ;D...you're right ...looks like a POND... 8)...

macojoe · #3 05-09-2005, 07:36 PM

Nice fish!!!

#4 05-09-2005, 10:45 PM

Nice catch My son and I are going offshore wen. try our luck at some AJ'S and whatever else i am glad to see somebody else knows about the croakers i use them on redfish we call them redfish candy. we are planning on stoping off at the jetties to catch some bait and head on out to fish a couple of towers. and maybe a couple of wrecks. hope we have as good of day as you did. By the way where are you from i am in southeast Ga.

Stinky_Hooker · #5 05-09-2005, 11:33 PM

Knight, I am in Mobile Al. I fish out of Dauphin Island. 8)

Blue_Runner · #6 05-11-2005, 01:07 PM

Stinky nice fish....that thing you called a "grounder" looks an aweful lot lot a Southern Kingfish/Seamullet/whiting....those are the 3 local names the type of fish I'm talking about. Is it the same?? If so, its a biggun. I caught one last weekend that was 16" long and weight in about 10 oz shy of the South Carolina state record of 2lbs 11oz.

Stinky_Hooker · #7 05-11-2005, 03:15 PM

Yes BR same thing...we call em ground mullet here.They are like the plague down here, but good eating lil suckers.

Same up there?

Yes it is a good one, my local saltwater club I am in has a category for them and if I would have caught that one I would be on top right now. ;D...oh well...I know where his mama lives. ;)

Blue_Runner · #8 05-11-2005, 05:06 PM

I told my wife she'd walk all over that flounder to get to the "grounder". I was right! When we fish for those up here we call it "meat fishing". Excellent table fare and even the little ones provide nice sized fillets. The bite is just starting for them.

#9 05-11-2005, 08:52 PM

Yep we call them whiting here they are really running right now there is no limit on how many you can catch we caught a little over a hundred a couple of weeks ago and had a nice fish fry at the fire station.