Fresh Fish ,Finally

[phatdaddy]

they opened our beaches for limited hours recently, so I decided to see if I could find a Pompano. Normally, I take the boat to a barrier island, anchor on bayside, and walk over and fish the gulf, but according to the pandemic rules, not allowed. I can boat in the bay or gulf, but not touch land. Anyway, I decided to just drive to the beach and fish out behind the condos. Managed to bring this gal home.




was good to have some fresh fish

After I got home, we decided to launch the boat and go out on the bay. I was trout fishing and hooked this guy. This was a great fight on light tackle and one of the largest Spanish Mackeral I've ever caught



Since we had the pompano for dinner, I let this guy go.

[Giorgio]

Nicely done and dinner to boot, can't beat that!!!! BE SAFE!!!

[phatdaddy]

Thanks G, it was a good day to get out and try to go back to normal.

Hope ya ll get to get out soon

[randlemanboater]

That was a huge pompano!

Nice Spanish too.

[charlie_the_tuna]

what do you use, sand crabs for those?

[Blue_Runner]

Nice Pompano phat. My daughter and her fiance caught a couple around that size last year. Pretty cool on the spanish from shore also. I've only ever caught spanish from the shore on the outer banks of nc several years ago.

[phatdaddy]

CTT, for about 4 years now ,I ve switched to Fish Bites for surf fishing. Still get as many fish, and no looking for bait. They make a crab flavor and sand flea flavor that work well. If i m fishing and see some fleas, i ll grab some and tip the Fish Bites, but not that often. I always use 3 hook rigs when surf fishing because of back in the day of shrimp and fleas, would usually sling at least one bait off every cast. Not a problem with the bites.

BR, that s what made that fish so much fun. You see how shallow i was fishing.I wish i had a better picture, i m thinking it might had been a young king mackeral. I always go by the dorsal fins being black is a spanish, but hard to tell.

RMB, it was long , but skinny. I thought she had already dropped her roe, but there was some in her.

[Blue_Runner]

lol I bet you though you had one crazy arse trout on the line.

black dorsal is the dead giveaway but also pronounced dip in the lateral line on juvie kings. I've caught some really big spanish while king fishing. could have gotten a citation on a couple of them.