The Saltwater Magazine for Gulf Coast Fishing!
FISHING FORECASTS
| FISHING CALENDARS | ARTICLES | ADVERTISE
| SUBSCRIBE
Search Gulf Coast Fisherman's
Web Site
Past articles, specific
places or fish, etc.
Party Boat Fishing
Part II
Blue Collar - Blue Water
by Patrick Lemire
| CURRENT
MOON lunar phases |
Summer's coming, get ready now for partyboat fishing, bluecollarbluewater, provided by numerous partyboats from Port Isbell to Key West. Their search for a variety of species such as kingfish, ling, dolphin, grouper, snapper, wahoo, tuna, etc. is done at very reasonable prices. In the area where I fish, out of Galveston, a 12 hour offshore trip runs in the area of $80-85 per fisherman for weekends and holidays, less during the week. Those prices include the use of the boats' rods and reels and squid for bait is included...that's indeed an offshore fishing bargain.
In the magazine's Winter Issue, many of the finer points of getting started, some winter species available and how to rig up were covered in "Party Boat Fishing -Part 1". If you missed it, the article is on the website at www.gulffishing.com. Any questions about that or this article can be directed to me a pllemire@aol.com. Use "GCF, Partyboat Fishing" in the Subject.
April marks my 50th year of
party boat fishing; needless to say, I'm sold on it as a primary means for
getting offshore. Partyboats are big, safe and fast, with experienced captains
who know where to go, and you have to go where the fish are to catch 'em.
Never been offshore fishing?, not a problem; partyboat crews teach fishing.
Experienced fellow anglers, in my experience, are also eager to share their
fishing knowledge, the bottom line is that everyone wants to see everyone
else catch fish. Go a few times and it's almost guaranteed you will experience
that "Cheers" feeling. "Cheers" was a hit TV comedy
series years ago, set in a Boston bar about the hilarious interaction of
its regular and new customers with each other. Once you've been on a partyboat,
you will see the connection, in that your fellow fishermen are now friends
you just hadn't yet met.
Spring through Fall catch possibilities include kingfish and occasionally wahoo. Don't forget your frozen Spanish sardines for those guys. Most partyboats supply wire leaders; check on that, or bring your own. The majority of kingfish or wahoo are taken on freelined (unweighted) or lightly weighted Carolina rigged dead baits. If a stern spot is of interest to you, ask the boat's procedure on who fishes where. Some fill the spots at the rail in the order the boat is boarded at the dock, first lined up to board pick their spot to fish. Most, in my experience, fill their boat from the back forward. While kingfish or wahoo will hit an assortment of artificial lures, it's best to start out with a freelined or lightly weighted natural bait. Some hits can come a short distance away from the boat, but most will be in the area forty to fifty feet back. A positive strike inducer is to give your bait a flash of movement with a rod tip twitch every twenty seconds or so. This applies when your bait is drifting back in the current or when stopped at a distance. While on the drift back, be ready to quickly put your reel into gear, setting the hook. With your bait in position at a distance, I always recommend having the reel in gear. Letting a kingfish or wahoo run with the baitfish for a few seconds before putting the reel in gear requires an "educated thumb" to prevent a reel's backlash. Fishing kingfish with the reel in gear prevents a blistered thumb from the running line, ruining your trip. Fish with the reel in gear; you may miss a few hookups but you will hook more than enough to satisfy your kingfish quest with your thumb and demeanor still intact.
During their short season in Federal waters, recently June through part of July, red snapper are the primary target of many partyboat fishermen, good numbers of 12 to 20 pounders were taken. On the partyboat I fish, the Capt John out of Galveston, 2011's catch total for the 48 days the fishery was open totaled 5,431; most other Gulf partyboats I assume also had somewhat comparable catches. The point is, the season will be short again and if you want to take part, you need to make your reservations early on a partyboat in your area.
Red snapper are considered bottom feeders by many but the reality is that they swim and feed throughout the entire water column. Over the years, I've also caught sows on freelined kingfish baits from the surface to theº mid-depths. Otherwise it's a matter of dropping your bait of choice until you get a hit. Do a countdown on the fall; remember the count; on your next drop you return to the strike zone. When using the required circle hooks in combination with natural baits when fishing for reef fish and you aren't familiar with their use, do the following: At the take or bite, let the line come tight and then raise and load your rod with a medium speed motion. This procedure will usually set a circle hook in the fish's jaw or lip, a bass fisherman's aggressive rod sweep surely won't. This info related to red snapper fishing also applies to grouper bigger grouper and red snapper usually are attracted to bigger baits, but nothing says you won't hook one with a regular size bait.
The third species you might encounter offshore is my personal favorite because of their tendency to swim near the boat just below the surface at times, it's the ling, also known as cobia,. There's a lot of excitement in trying to bait one into striking, at times they seem to eat just about any bait offered; other times, virtually nothing interests them. Baits that have worked are squid, either a freelined, sizeable glob, or a whole one, a dead sardine or just about any live bait of 4 to 6 inches. Artificials of success are squid or sardine tipped, 1 to 3 ounce Snapper Slappers in pink/chartreuse; butterfly-type vertical jigs of 3-5 ounces in virtually any color, soft bodied and hard bodied swim baits. My article and illustration in this issue's "Rod & ReelinÓ section is about using those butterfly-type jigs and a modification I came up with for them don't miss it. While ling are obvious in the near surface area of the water column, the majority of their feeding is done from the mid-depths to the bottom it's just that hooking one near the surface is much more exciting than a "blind strike" in the depths. "Shark!" that call by a fellow fisherman up or down the rail is most usually a sub-surface swimming ling. Get ready to present your bait, whatever it is you have on your line at the time as it comes your way. A good move is to throw a couple of pieces of squid or whole bait fish into the water ahead of the ling's swim path in front of you about 15 ft. from boat side. I call this maneuver "Stop Chumming" it usually causes a ling to stop and eat time for your bait to be brought into position. Give the bait a twitch or two as it's added to the mix and hang on for the strike. If you don't get a hit and the ling swims off, don't give up on it. The chances are great it will soon reappear.
After the hookup with any running fish, follow it up or down the rail as necessary keeping your line in front of you "No angle, No tangle" as the saying goes.º Use a lot of "excuse me", "coming by", etc. while working past your fellow fishermen and whether you get the fish or not when passing back by, don't forget to give a lot of "Thanks for the room".
One of the great attractions of partyboat fishing is that you never know who's going to catch what at any stop. Numerous times over the years, I've seen a newcomer have the biggest catch of the day. The first coming to mind was a woman on her first offshore trip, her first trip to the bottom had her catching a 27 lb. sow red snapper. A girl on a high school graduation present trip with an 87 lb. wahoo and a guy on his first trip with a huge ling that he had help on, two others handled the rod, on Certified scales, weighed in at 111-1/2 lbs.! The huge ling would have been, and still would be, the Texas State Record. You never know what great fish is going to take what bait.
Your camera is a "must take" item; photo/video memories of your group or yourself and the trip will help those memories last a lifetime. Don't forget to have new or fully charged camera batteries. Items of interest are the sights such as ships, shrimpboats, production platforms, various cloud formations, with unobstructed views of all; others include the beautiful, clean and blue Gulf of Mexico; also porpoises and the more exclusive manta rays and whale sharks when you get really lucky.
Year round Gulf partyboats have trips of various lengths scheduled, targeting
numerous species. Give this particular area of offshore fishing a try
you likely won't be disappointed. The more likely result is you will be
as hooked as the fish you catch. Gulf partyboat fishing...it's truly "Blue
collar, Bluewater" fishing for the average fisherman with far above
average results. Get on a partyboat by yourself, with your family, club
members or company group, and experience it all for yourself; you too might
enjoy this sport enough to stay at it for 50 years or more!!