I am going fishing tomorrow out of freeport and can't make up my mind, should I stay in close and fish for snapper or should I run 30 miles and look for aj's. I fish out of a 35 donzi with trip 250s so the seas tomorrow wont really play a factor in my decision. what would yall do, any suggestions

If I was in Texas right now I'd suggest you take me with you

If I was in Texas I would suggest you take me with you

get the aj. dont quite know what it is, but sounds good

I'd go for the Amberjacks...great fish. Wondering if you will find them as close as 35 miles, however?

Hm, I'd run out to the furthest spots I was going to fish for the day, get my amberjack, grouper, etc. then work my way back in making stops for kingfish or trolling weedlines. Get into state waters and do some snapper fishing, then head for home.

As for finding AJ 30 miles out, you may have some luck at the VA Fogg, although it gets pretty heavily fished.

30 miles..

That's kitty stuff..

I would run deep..

Out to floaters if your fuel tank will allow, then if it won't carry a 30g bladder onboard.

Just me tho'



-Z-

35'er w/ trip's? that's Boomvang stuff. find a window & hit it!
-B

min of 40 miles, and hit the rocks for snapper/AJ.... are the shrimp boats out there? if so, i would run and gun to find some blackfin tuna!

Like I said; all options available! unless you wanna go
flounder-gigging!
-B

OHHHH, I'll go for that one, only thing is we have a full moon right now.

flounder giggin... never been, but sounds fun! will do it one day!

Entirely another world when you go gigging...see an array of coastal marine life not to mention the coastal birds UP CLOSE!!

Pretty cool seeing specks, reds, sheepshead, crabs, shrimp along with various smaller fish species and then the flounders as they lay waiting for you to come along. Oh, I did forget to mention the stingrays that you will probably see as well...but they sure are good eating grilled with butter, garlic and parsley!!

When's supper!!

Sunday was just not a day for anything over 30 miles. Seas were 2-3 feet very steep and close together. Slow ride out around 24-26mph, a few times I got up to 32-34mph but at that speed the prop will come out of the water. We had a first timer with us and didn't want to scare him off offshore. We hit the first single leg rig trolled up to it, bonita hit a rapala gave it to the new guy but he lost it in the motors. trolled a few more passes nothing. Ran out to a hard spot tried a few really fast drifts picked up one 16" snapper saw 2 other boats didnt see them catch anything. The motors started to act up, seemed like we got some bad gas made for a slow ride home on 2 struggling motors.

A floater trip would be great but I think I'll wait till the seas are a little flater. Its a good thing I didn't try to make that run considering the motor trouble.

Did you figure out the trouble? Water?
-B

The first trip of the year it's normally two things. Old fuel and fuel filters. Try and stabalize the fuel tank with fuel stabalizer at the end of the fishing season. Clean or replace fuel filters. If you were not getting the normal RPM's this is normally the reason.

When fuel used to be good, I'd always top off the tank at the end of the season so condensation would not build up water in the tank. Now since fuel is half fast, and goes bad in 4 months, I recommend running the tank as low as possible on your last trip before you put the boat in storage. Pour some stabalizer in the tank.

You can always add a water additive before you refuel at the begining of fishing season. That will help disolve the water built up from the condensation over the winter months. It's normally the second tank full when you see the RPM's go to normal conditions.

This was my second trip out and it was new fuel. I think that the fuel down in freeport gets condensation in it. We used the middle grade fuel and looking back I bet that fuel has been there a long time while the regular gets filled all the time.