After a nice April trip, we had our hopes up for catching lots of Yellowtail and Sierra this Memorial Day. Amigo Mike made his annual foray, as did Scott and Ingrid. Cathy was busy seeing her daughter Ramona up north that weekend, so I played bachelor. Eddie and Donna were down, as was Baja Bruce. Sadly, Bruce's buddy, Bud, passed away this spring. It was odd without his smiling face. We'll remember him...R.I.P.
The winter of 2001/2002 was one of the colder ones in my memory banks. The water temperature sure reflected the coolness. I never did get brave enough to actually swim. The Yellowtail were around, but not very plentiful, or willing to bite. Mikey coaxed this nice one to grab his plug.
The grouper were another story, however. I never remember catching this many grouper, or as many big ones for that matter. Our secret hole that I found last year again produced. The tides were such that we had to get out very early or we were stuck, so we went out very early. The additional dividend to that was that we came back around noon or 1:00 PM, leaving the rest of the day to loaf. We caught some little ones.
And out on the seamount one day, I dropped down a little too far and came up with a surprise: a pretty good-sized Golden Grouper. I let it go.
Also out on the seamount, a boat full of Zonies caught a very large Broomtail Grouper. I would have let this one go too, but they hauled it out.
Mike had a different kind of luck on the seamount. He laid into a King Angelfish. I think he probably snagged it, but it was maybe the prettiest fish I've seen down here. He let it go, of course.
 |
|
Web page design and all images contained herein, except where indicated otherwise, are © 2002 Dean R. Charles and are the exclusive property of the author/photographers. Limited license is granted to download these images for personal use, or to use these images on a non-commercial basis. Any other use is prohibited without express written permission of the owner. Violators will be eaten raw.