Fished LWI 9/24 frst time in a long time

bmoody

I fished LWI for the first time in a long while, like 6 years. It just isn't as easy to head to Phil Foster after moving to "The Farms".

I blew a bearing between the 7-11 by the Brass Ring and the ramp -- I figure it was my punishment for bragging on Facebook at 0600 that I was going fishing. I saw the issue when I was in the que getting my riggers and antenna in place. I figured the heck with it, we'll swap out the hub after we fish.

Once I had the boat launched, the guys I was meeting called to tell me they were in the parking lot waiting on me. :rotflmao I had already moved on to castnetting some little greenies. A 1/4" net would have worked better for that.

We rolled out and spent close to an hour and a half trying to find some mullet to net right around the inlet. Failing that, we headed to some shallower spots before the dive boats got on them. Greenies on top and bottom didn't do much for us, but after repeated drifts we did get a 15" mutton. With some mullet schools starting to show around us, I tied a top water plug on my Abu 7000 thinking I might entice a nice jack to play. Then we got after the school with the cast net to put more bait in the well.

The mullet in the well were a little larger than I like, but they would match the hatch. So we got back to fishing. With my first beer open I started tossing the top water plug. A nice cast past the edge of the mullet school and I was chugging my way back to the boat -- twitch, twitch, twitch, pause...repeat, repeat, and suddenly a large swirl slashes the plug down. Before I can get the rod tip over head a sailfish is tail walking away from us. After multiple acrobatic runs at the surface the fish sounded, but kept pulling drag. We gave chase, but once I felt I was cutting into the other guys fishing time, I turned up the heat and finally broke off. Abu 7000 with 30lb braid and 30 mono leader -- my light snapper rig; it just wasn't quite enough to get that sailfish today.

Energized, we continued drifting mullet around the schools. We hooked and broke off a second sailfish. Once that bite slowed, we went on the troll hoping for blackfin. We got a couple bonita. Storms chased us in. The hub change took longer than hoped, but really went OK. I just didn't have everything in the toolbox. But, I did have the fully packed hub, which was key.

Angler Managemnt

Don't be afraid to let the sail run some drag. 30 pound braid and 30 leader is gross overkill for sailfish especially with a plug. Let him burn a little energy and take 159-200 yards off. He'll come back easier!!

Nice report !!