We fished Sunday with mother and son Bernice and David McQuaid Jr. from Boston.  Dad, David Sr. was unsure of his sea legs in the rough water so he stayed ashore.  He missed a fun day with some powerful fish.  The plan was to fish big baits, bluerunners, on deep water wrecks off of Marathon and then maybe try the shallow reef.  Wind was forecast at 15 knots but as we left, the Sombrero Tower site indicated 18-19 knots of wind.  This would not be a comfortable day.

I rigged David Jr. up with my heaviest bottom rod.  A Penn 9/0 Senator with 130# braid.  8 oz. lead and 100# leader followed by a large Mustad circle hook.  For Mom Bernice, I rigged a somewhat lighter rod a Shimano TLD 20 and 30# mono, 4 oz. lead and 7/0 VCM circle hook.  Our first drift resulted in two hook-ups.  For David Jr. we knew he had a big fish.  Bernice also hooked up but after a short battle the VCM hook broke right at the bend.  I have had several failures on the VCM hooks so "buyer beware" is my current thought.

David, who is a strong, big fellow said that this was quite a stong fight even on very heavy tackle.  I remember "Pinfish's" comment of some time ago that when fishing for amberjack, he will wait for the bite, then yell "fish on" and turn and run away while the unsuspecting fresh angler runs to grab the rod and fight the fish.  Great technique.  We decided to take the fish for the smoker as amberjack makes for some great smoked fish.

We tried several more drifts, this time hooking up but loosing our baits and leaders to the toothy critters.  Now, we were out of big baits, so I suggested that we try to catch some smaller fish over the wreck with live shrimp.  Three anglers dropped down large shrimp and hooked up immediately.  My wife Tania with only 15# test mono broke off quickly.  Bernice put on a fight but we could tell this was no baitfish on the line.  David Jr.  also lost his fish.  After a long give and take battle, Bernice brought to the surface another medium size amberjack.  She fought a great battle on 20# spin tackle.  We took a few photos and released the fish successfully.

We continued our day on the shallow reef with little success this time.  Only one yellowtail and one mangrove.  Lastly we moved to a Hawk's Channel rock pile and ended the day fish some fast fishing for smaller snapper and short groupers.  It was a good day for all.

David Jr. with his big amberjack

Bernice and her amberjack caught with spinning rod

This post was modified at March 15, 2010 - 9:19am (EST) by TeamTeke