7/11 BOYNTON BEACH INLET - PBI A day of shorts.

demersalangeler

With a forecast for calm seas, and a west wind. We made a plan to find some dolphin, and left the Boynton inlet around 6:30. With a quick bait stop out front for some sardines behind us. We put out a searching spread of trolling lures, and made our way east. It was quickly pointed out that there must be a tournament going on. As there were many boat's "inside the box". We made a few circles around the wreck "bud bar". Not mutch was going on & with no weed in sight we quickly moved out side of the box. It was time to continue east. Soon after I spotted three patches of sargassum due noth. We made our way by, circling each a few times. With no fish spotted, and no knock downs. It was time for a change. We stopped & threw some chunks. Before the bait finished thawing. I found my self saying dolphin! It was on at our second stop & It was catch up time. I only had a handful of chunks cut. I quickly threw out a pitch rod. Hooking one, giveing it to Rodney the rod holder to handle. Throwing a chunk or two at a time. The rest of the school showed up. My anglers had the hot hand this time. That was great as I had plenty of work to catch up on. Peanut mayhem broke out. I was throwing chunks, cutting bait, unhooking, and measuring fish as fast as possible. After catching some where around 15, or 20 they shut down. At some point in the peanut fest two flipper size fish appeared. They were suffering from complete lock jaw. Even turning down live sardines. I switched to cut ballyhoo. The peanuts were back on. A few minutes later something came rushing in on the surface. Pushing a wake off of its head. It was a unfamiliar sight. Something about 4' long & Brown. Shark? Returning my gaze to the surface where the fins had been. Nothing. That shark shut down our dolphin bite. It was time to move again. We put out a spread of weedless ballyhoo, and squid. Not that there were any weeds around & set a eastward heading. The shotgun went off. Something small & silver jumping around. Barracuda. A subsurface rod went off. Another barracuda. In around 850' we found a broken up weed line, and drifted with it for some time throwing chunks. Nothing. By now there were some good storms starting up off of the Boynton area. We ran back in to the depth rang we found the dolphin in earlier & only spotted four indavdual pecies of weed. It was time to change up the tactics again. We made a wiggle over to a area with a sand roll in the 180'. There were some faint marks on the sounder. I put a jig on the SPJ rod & hooked up on the first drop. Lots of head shaking, as the color grew closer. I knew what it was, African pompano! The next drop was a double hook up. Two fish on one jig. A nice size yellow jack & a sand tile. A few drops latter I hooked up on a mutton snapper. The crew was itching to get back threw that area, but the storm had made its way north. Blocking our path, so we reset just in time for it to catch up with us. The wind emiditaly picked up from near zero to a strong 15-20. The seas went from a glassy chop to 4-6 reaching 6-8 at one point. The rain was a near white out with 30'-50' vis. We got out our rain gear & continued fishing. The drop in pressure shut down the bite.& I fully expected the wind to settle back down, but it never did. Once the pressure stabilized, the bite picked back up. It was a slow steady pick. With the day growing short & the weather cutting our trip north short. We called it & headed in PBI for a calm ride south in the ICW.

Garysmo

Thanks for the report.....

Realdeep

Thanks for the detailed report.

Aquaholic IV

That was an amazing report, I was living it as I read it.  Thank you.  Great job of changing things up to the different conditions and making it happen, that was an epic trip.  On another note, I finally understood after many years of hearing the Great Bouncer Smith say that a west wind is dangerous.  I always liked a west wind as it made the seas calmer near shore but when a storm picks up with a west wind, coming in you are heading directly into the waves verses an east wind you have a following sea. Thank you again for a great, detailed report. 

demersalangeler

 Glad you gentlemen enjoyed my report. There is so mutch that goes on in a day of fishing. I like to give the highlights, outline some of the techniques from the day, and write it in such a way that you can feel like you were there. 

 I do enjoy writing the reports, sharing my experience & reading other's reports. Thats actually one of the things I like most about the forum. 

 Yes, a west wind can create some dangerus weather conditions. We were lucky enough to skirt the storms on recent previous trips, but had little choice other than to ride it out on this one.