Just returned late last night. Been offshore for the majority of the week. Overall the fishing was tough. No weedlines or rips to attract fish.

Mon 08/31- My fishing partner had an 8AM dr's appointment so I hit the surf at dawn until he was done. In the first hour of light I managed 3 keeper trout and 1 dink on a skitterwalk in the first gut. Then I switched to a Redfish Magic spinner bait with gold spinner and an electric chicken paddle tail minnow. I managed 1 undersized red, 2 keeper reds and a whiting on that rig. I headed in and cleaned my catch. Stuck the fillets in the rv's freezer before meeting up with James and heading out.

We were on the water by 9AM and split the jetties. We were met 2 footers early but a wind out of the east chopped it up pretty good with swells to 4 feet later in the day.

We decided to chase shrimp boats inside 30 miles since we started late. We had good luck catching Kings but they weren't what we were after. We hit about dozen different shrimpers and it was the same at all. We kept 3 nice kings and headed in at about 5PM so we could make it back out early on Tues.

We got back to the jetties as low tide was ripping. The last several miles in the jetties were pretty snotty but no sweat for the Pro Kat.

Back the ramp a man and wife were loading their Blue Wave when he slipped on the moss, hit his head on the trailer and was knocked unconscious. He went face down in the water and we thought he would drown. He finally came too and rolled onto his side about the time we got to him and pulled him to safety. We called 911 and got him headed to hospital while we loaded their boat for them. I drove his wife to their condo and secured their boat there so she drive their truck to the hospital. About 11PM we got a call that he was ok and suffered a concussion but was being released. Thank goodness.

Tues 09/01-We split the jetties at daybreak and headed for Hospital Rocks. We checked a few shrimpers along the way with no luck. We spotted a ling on one shrimper but he had lockjaw and wouldn't take anything we offered.

We trolled a full array of lures behind a trawling shrimper hoping to raise a sail or dorado or wahoo with no luck. Did more trolling at Hospital with no luck. We then began drifting the rocks. One rock would produce nothing but highly endangered and rare red snapper (out of season-all vented and released) and the next would be shark haven while the next would produce kings. I dropped a 7 oz black/purple Snapper Slapper with a sardine on 100 lb mono leader that got bit off immediately, just above the bottom. I hope whoever ate my $10 lure has a stomach ache.

We then trolled to Big Southern. Managed a couple of kings along the way but no mahi, hoos, or bills. We trolled all over and around Southern with no luck. There were Bonita popping everywhere with birds above them. We threw some poppers hoping for a tuna bite but no such luck.

The wind had picked up again out of the east and made it tough to hold over the structure so we began a series of drifts past the structure which produced a few the rare red snappers and some undersized AJ's. Finally on the 3rd drift I boated a pair of 40 pound class AJ's for the box. Caught them on a 7 oz red/white Snapper Slapper tipped with a sardine. Strikes were about 20 feet off bottom and came as I reeled the jig upward after sitting at that depth for a minute or so. As soon as I began to reel I got bit.

We boated a nice eating sized blacktip (4 foot) and couple more kings. Then decided to begin making our way in. We found a thirsty shrimper and traded 3 cases of beer for 170 lbs of jumbo shrimp. We spent the 2 hour ride home pulling heads off of shrimp.

Wed 09/02: Headed back out to Big Southern and did more of the same. Barracuda moved in and made pains out of themselves. Managed to boat 2 more 40 lb AJ's and some kings. All kings were released.

All in all it was great time and we caught lots of fish. Just not what we were after. Maybe next time.

Thank you sir for the very informative report - perhaps some of those pesky kings will come in to the jetties where I will be waiting on the rocks.

Mike,

Sounds about like our trip. We fished Saturday and left out of the Packery at about 5:45 am. Ran out about 45 miles or so and fished some rigs for some AJ's and grouper. Caught 2 or 3 barely undersize AJ's on 8 oz spoons and live pin perch. The big snapper were so thick you couldn't hardly catch anything else. We caught red snapper up to about 18 lbs, popped em' and let them go. Caught several Barracuda's on bass tackle which was fun. Caught a large African Pompano, some blacktip, had a good kingfish that got bitten off behind the head by a large shark, had several UFO on bass rods with live pin perch freelined (probably cuda or kings).

After we ran out of live bait, we pulled out the outriggers and trolled some bubblers, flying fish, and Rapalas. First fish hooked up we lost, second fish we hooked up was a big Wahoo that hit while I was letting out a jet with a Ballyhoo. That was not good for the thumb, I finally got the reel engaged and set the hook. It came out of the water, went back down, and cut the wire leader. I then spotted a floating lawn chair, first pass produced two chicken dolphin.

We couldn't find anything floating. Consequently, we never found any dorado at all.

Those endangered red snapper better watch out. If the NMFS finds out that they're hiding off Texas and LA they might actually open the season on 'em again.

Sounds like y'all did as good as we did. My buddy is heading out to N. Baker and S. Baker tomorrow. Hopefully he'll find some fish. I'm not going back until the first week of Oct.

I just found out about ten minutes ago that we're driving down tonight and heading out again tomorrow 1 ft seas ALL weekend, including Monday. That was my first time out of Packery and I like it better than going out of Port A Jetties, seems to be alot less pressure. I plan on doing alot more trolling this time. My arms are still sore from last week though.

North wind too, surf should be flat. I heard the anchies finally showed up and the tarpon are in the wade gut in full force. might check some of that out on Sunday as well.

I think there's a chance of rain tomorrow (Sat) but nothing severe. Hope y'all do some good. Be safe.

Yea, forecast looks to be about the same as last Saturday although I did forget my raingear last week. I'll post a report when we get back.

We're going to do a lot less rig hopping and a lot more trolling this time to hopefully land some bigger dolphin, and maybe a wahoo or something with a bill on it.

There was lots of shrimpboats out of Packery in about 130-200 ft. No seaweed AT ALL. We didn't fish any of them though.

We found lots of shrimp boats out around Double Yellow and beyond. Several of them Hospital and Southern too. Every one of the boats had kings around them. Nothing else. There was some sporadic seaweed at Hospital but nothing big enough to hold any fish.

I was at the Ant Hill rigs out of Packery in my boat a couple of weeks ago and there were numerous shrimpers.

About 195' - 200 of water.

We didn't fish any of them either.