On Saturday morning Tania and I meet our friend Don and his daughter Noelle at the dock around 6:30am. It was still dark, and boy was it cold, only 52 degrees. By the time we loaded the boat and left the dock the sun was coming up. We were very blessed to see the sunrise today because it was absolutely gorgeous.

The wind was calm, and it the tide was coming in quickly. We were about 2 hours before high tide, so we started at the South Causeway bridge and drifted south. The first drift Tania caught a short Mutton Snapper and Don caught a pretty big hermit crab.

The second drift we did Tania hooked up with a 14-inch Spanish Mackerel and a few short Mutton Snapper, I hooked up and let Noelle reel in a catfish, and Don got a large Spanish Mackerel, 20+ inches; however, we lost it at the boat trying to net it.

Our Third drift was the one that was the most exciting for me. I caught the first fish, a 14-inch Sheepshead and at the end of the drift I hooked into a nice Jack. I fought it for about 5 minutes before I got it to the boat. The Jack was about 22-inches and I landed it on a 3000 reel. After I got it on the boat the Pompano Jig fell out of his mouth. When I checked out the jig, I realized I almost lost the fish as the split ring was pretty deformed. I was fortunate to have landed the Jack. Tania caught a 16-inch Spanish Mackerel and a few short Mutton Snapper, Don caught a few catfish, and Noelle lost a few fish, but we don’t know what they were.

We did two more drifts however they didn’t produce any fish to come home and there were several boats now anchored where we were drifting so we moved to the Smithsonian dock. We didn’t stay at the dock long due to the conditions made it too hard to spot lock and fish the structure with four people on the boat, so we moved to the opening just south of the channel.

We fished this area for about an hour and the bite was slow. We caught a handful short Mutton Snapper and after the 4^th catfish we decided to move on. This time we moved to the Turn Basin and drifted from the barges to the north of South Causeway bridge to South Causeway bridge. The first drift produced a few bites, but we didn’t catch anything. We did one more drift with Tania catching a small Blue Runner.

We ended up fishing the South Causeway bridge next. We fished here for about 30 minutes. Tania caught the only fish we kept here and that was a 13-inch Black Margate. We ended up catching 10 or so short Mutton Snapper and a decent size Blue Runner that were all released.

At this point Tania and Noelle both had to go to the bathroom, so we headed back to the dock. The bite was slow, but we still came home with some fish. All in all, we had a great day on the water with some good friends. Noelle got a little impatient with not catching many fish, but she really enjoyed being on the boat. I plan on making fish dip with the Jack Crevalle and fish tacos with the rest of the fish. Click the link below to see how I make my fish dip and fish tacos.

Tania and I pray all who made it out had as good if not better trip than we did. We pray all who go out this week have a blessed and safe trip with tight lines and good times.