Alternate plans can provide f ishing bounty

When fishing, it pays to have a Plan B. On some days, Plan C, D and E are required.  

 

Saturday was one of those days. Plan A was to take the yellowfin offshore to the 30-fathom curve and target wahoo by high-speed trolling. Wind and wave conditions were pretty calm. So, we make the 50-mile run to the 30-fathom curve in a little over an hour. 

 

Upon arrival, we deployed a spread of Nomad DTX Minnow lures and began a zig-zag trolling pattern over the ledge. Our trolling speed was about 12 mph. The beauty of high-speed trolling is that you cover a lot of ground. Along the way, whenever we saw any interesting bottom structure, we marked it with the GPS. After about an hour without a wahoo, we gave up on Plan A.

 

Plan B was slowing our trolling speed to 6 mph and pulling a spread of small Ballyhoo. We figured this provided the best opportunity to get a bite from a mahi or blackfin tuna. We got lots of bites.  Unfortunately, they were all from barracuda. Two hours and 10 barracuda later, Plan B went out the window.

 

As we cleared the Ballyhoo trolling spread, my son, Elliott, and I pondered Plan C. We decided to navigate back to the interesting bottom areas that we marked earlier and try vertical jigging for grouper and snapper. After a quick run to the closest area of interest, Elliott and I dropped our Shimano jigs to the bottom, 170 feet below. 

 

They never made it to the bottom.

 

Contact Captain Greg Peralta at captgregp@gmail.com or call 843-224-0099.