Thread: Report: Smoked EM- 12/06

Literally and figuratively. Headed out bright and early on Sunday morning at around 630am. Was met with a nice steady ENE weekend wind that seems to be relatively constant as of late. Fish seemed to prefer RR w/ minnows opposed to the minnow-less jigs, also the minnow tipped moon jigs (orange) worked well. Naked jigs caught some fish, but RR seemed to be the ticket for the big dogs. During the week I made some modifications to my stern rod holders. I ran a comprehensive spread consisting of 15 rods, just from the back of the boat. Future stern rod modifications will allow for 20 in the back; when that happens I’ll get a picture up. I fished from 9-16 fow however the best bite was in 12-14 fow. Fished from 7-10:30. Great day on the water, my son caught the largest fish which was around 14”, which registered 1.5lb on the Berkley scale. Kept 16. My youngest didn’t fish but definitely gets in on the photo action.

The most exciting catch of the day occurred near mid morning. I look over at the far rod to see the rod doubled over, I’m thinking big crappie, the drag begins to slowly come off the reel, very slowly as I trolled forward. Picked up the rod and its dead weight. At this point I’m thinking it’s a snag, as I lift the rod tip I notice something bright yellow pops up behind the boat and I see my jig. The jig had snagged some fishing line that was attached to a rod. I was seeing the bright yellow rod tip. I reeled in the spread as best I could and reversed the trolling motor. As I came close I netted the butt of the rod to see this reel attached: a 4000 shimino stratic reel. The reel looks to be in great shape. That was pretty cool, this atones for the $20 “walmart” special I lost a couple weeks ago.

A couple weeks ago I brought my old man some fillets and he smoked-em up . It was some pretty good eating. Tightlines

Nah, that wasn't Tarpon, up in Clermont. Yes the fish fillets pictured were the smoked crappie fillets, skin on. It was our first shot at smoking them, they came out pretty light compared with kingfish, which is what we primarily smoke. It'll make for some great smoked fish dip or smoked fish sandwichs.