7-21 Buccaneer Field

[Sticky Business]

Made it out to Buccaneer Field Friday. The trip out was pretty good. Only got into two footers while avoiding morning pop up storms. About 20 miles out it went pretty flat less than 1' and all the storm activity dissipated. We ran across a weed line about 15 miles out and followed it for a little while but didn't see any activity other than blue runners. We continued on to the Buccaneer bouy and drifted structure with Snapper rigs baited with squid. I have a Minnkota Ulterra with spot lock but for some reason it didnt' occur to me to use it! Go figure. I did pickup quite a few snapper but none were big enough to keep. After catching several dink snappers I decided to drift a cigar minnow on a king leader. My broom stick Penn's had bottom rigs on them so I threw it on one of my bass/trout rod n reel combos and cast it out and let more line out so it sink and drift. It didn't take long before it was doubled over and the drag was screaming! I had it strung with 15lb Berkley Triline my usual line choice. I horsed it up and got it in the boat. I took the leader off that combo and put it on a bigger stick and reel and rebaited and threw it back out. A few minutes later and the line is singing again. Another king this one much bigger than the first. After a few minutes of runs and I had it onboard too. We tried fishing the platform that's not far away but with no luck. We did see a cobia chasing one of our snapper we were reeling in but couldn't get it to bit anything we offered. It quickly swam away. So no snapper and two kings but a wonderful trip to some different waters. Some say the money isn't worth it but to me it's about the adventure of taking my own boat out offshore and catching stuff I don't usually get a shot at.

[Sticky Business]

The pic of the king is the smaller of the two caught. We didn't take a lot of photos for some strange reason. Too busy actually fishing. I also found out I only used 32.6 gallons of fuel making the trip. My fuel tank holds 72 gallons so I could actually go a little further before having to turn back. Next time i think I'll try to VA Fogg and see how it goes. But for now the window is closed as seas went back to 2-3' which may be too much for my boat. I may be crazy but I'm not stupid!

[Robalo]

nice report.

[plugger]

Thanks for sharing . Sounds like it was a good trip all around. I have read that when going off shore you should a lot 1/3 of your gas to get out , 1/3 to come in , and 1/3 in reserve .