4/26/15 LWI - Bonita are back

JIMinPB

I managed to sneak out for a half day today. Things were pretty flat early, then around 8:00 the wind started to pick up a little. It was mostly out of the west, so it was pushing me away from shore. This made me decide not to head for the gulf stream that was reported to be only 4-miles out. I wanted to avoid a long bumpy, spray-in-your-face ride home if things kicked up too much.

I dropped a hook on some near shore structure & had a good size Porgie in the boat less than a minute later. I poked around drifting for a while, dodging dive boats & everybody else that was out there. It was a bit crowded.

A small fleet was working one of the channel markers on the outside. I saw a lot of lines in the water, but I didn't see a lot of fish coming up, so I passed them by.

I worked one color change with little to show for it. I threw a live bait flat line under a pair of big turtles with no takers.

I worked the bottom most of the moring, & dragged some rubber squid a few of the times that I ran back in to start a new drift. Bonita hit the rubber squid right out in front of the inlet in 80-120 feet. They were mostly around 1-1/2 to 2 feet long.

The morning's bottom fishing turned up the usual assortment of porgies, grunts, triggers, files & 1 grouper. The triggers were all undersized, with half of them being pretty close to borderline legal. No yellow tails & no muttons today.

Around noonish, the breeze started kicking up a little more, so I decided to head in & try my luck on the inside. The Kelsey Park patch reef gave up one small snapper for me, but that was it. Sugar Sands ledges held nothing for me. The inlet itself was too crowded to even consider trying.

I didn't feel like fighting the weekend traffic, so I packed it in for the day a bit early.

Flight Risk

Good report Jim, looks like you covered all your bases and gav it your best shot. Some days are better than others. No skunk at least. :wink

JIMinPB

I forgot to mention that remoras were thick today. Also, flying fish schools are getting bigger again.

Fi$h2nguyen

Sounds like good action!