Taking Matt and his fishing buddy from Jupiter, Jim aboard the AF today. Looking to load up on some BFT early to break the ice then hunt for some fins today.

While waiting for the crew to arrive this guy stopped by to say hello :grin



I also met RobaloRog at the ramps this morning. How did you guys make out today? Your boat didn’t look like a Robalo :grin

No bait guy this morning so we ran to the normal bait spots and located some Blue Runners, Sardines, Cigar minnows and some small Goggle Eyes.

Sunrise pics







Here is the Undertaker and crew catching baits at Bullshark. How did you guys make out today?



Headed to the Hill and set-up the first drift. We have a double header right off the bat on the first drift but both BFT’s came unglued :banghead

Ran back south and repeated with another hook up that came unglued. Next drift we moved further east and picked up a Bonita on this drift. Here is Jim enjoying the morning rod bending aboard the AF…





LET'S GO Bo and MT Pockets Tom & Mel as his crew buzzing by us on the Hill. How did you all make out today?



Decided to move shallow to around 275ft and finally boated our first BFT of the morning.



Congrats Matt :applause. We lost about 4 or 5 BFT’s this morning and on that drift we used up the last of the small sardines so we decided to run deep in search of some weeds.



Ran out to 700ft and made the loop south and came back into the ledge off the Loran Tower again in hopes of finding those larger BFT’s as we did last Sunday. No luck here after a couple drifts so we continued the search for some fins. Jim spotted this gas can in 200ft that was loaded up with small fins.



After chunking, live baiting and Shimano Wax Wing tossing at these little guys for an hour we moved on :banghead I wanted to catch some of these so we could Tag and Release some for the Dolphinfish Research Program

http://dolphintagging.homestead.com/About.html

CLICK THE PIC BELOW TO SEE ALL THE SMALL SCHOOLIES ON THIS GAS CAN



Continued northward from here to put the large blue runners down at the AJ spot. The current here was 5+ knots so I knew it would be difficult to hook up any fish. Made numerous drifts with no luck. Spotted a rip out deeper from here with my new Binoculars so ran out and put out the outriggers and slow trolled around this area for about an hour. No luck

Dialed in the Sandpile and made our way in that direction when I spotted a bird sitting on the water. As we pull up to check it out we found him sitting on a small 2ft board so we tossed out some chunks and a livey and Matt is immediately hooked up on a fin.

CLICK THE PIC BELOW TO MATTS FIN VIDEO



Congrats Matt on boating one of our targeted species… :applause



No pics of Matt holding this fin as I was out voted by the crew to get back on the board to see if there was any more :grin

Worked it a few more times with no luck. Last drift on it and Matt reels in an empty hook. Go back to make one more drift but couldn’t locate the board again. Continued westward to the Sandpile and drifted a few sardines over this area. As soon as their lines crossed over the drop off, Matt’s rod started smoking. Jim said he seen a fish jumping just before the line started smoking so we are thinking King or Cuda

Jims rod goes off as Matt tries to stop his fish from running and it comes unglued. :banghead



Jim reels up a Bonita. We moved back up to make one more drift before we head to the SLI. No more bites so we called it a day around 4pm.



Today’s Tally

1 for 5 BFT’s
1 Fin
2 Bonita
0/1 Mystery Fish

You guys are welcome aboard the AF anytime. I had a great time again today. :applause We didn't boat a lot of fish today but we sure did seem to have a lot of action out there. :applause

It was a bit sporty out there most of the morning but it laid down nicely around 10:30am or so. I guess Windfinder had it right in the morning and NOAA had it right in the afternoon. :grin I emailed Windfinder last week after they missed the boat the previous weekend and here are the links they sent to me explaining why sometimes the reports are off. They also sent a couple other links that are worth checking out.

http://www.windfinder.com/forecasts/forecast_models.htm

http://www.windfinder.com/nearby/stuart_beach

http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/stuart_beach

How did you all make out today?

Tip of the day

Had a winch strap snap on me a couple of weeks ago and the first thought in my head was, how am I going to get the boat out. Quick thinking (which I don’t have a lot of :grin) I simply tied a couple of knots through the eyelet and we were on our way.





My tip is one of trial and error at this point. I have always cranked down the eyelet a few feet so when I drive the boat onto the trailer I simply hook it up and crank up the boat. What I am doing now to help make my new strap last longer (I think) is to crank it up and keep it located under the winch, out of the sun. I think leaving it dangle down at the ramp, the sun bakes on the threads all day and makes them dry rot faster.

Only time will tell if my idea works. I will get back to you in about 3 years on that as it has been about 3 years since I replaced the first one. On a side note you can pick up a new winch strap for under $10 (Attwood) at Wal-Mart.

Another thing I have added are these. These give you’re the added security when you do have to tie on that broken strap that the boat is not going anywhere (That and the safety chain on the bow.

Transom Straps





After taking Rick Konney out a few months ago he noted that I did not use these. After doing some research I found that you are required to have them on all boat trailers. It is the law to have your boat secured to the trailer. I have never used them before on any of my previous boats I have owned. Shame on me. Grin

Little did I know back then that these were required. Thanks again Rick for picking up the fact that I wasn’t using them. That made me look into this more in depth. :applause

Random pics on the day