July 16th, it's on!

[akfish]

We've all been there...

[JasonGotaProblem]

So i will use this time to talk about a MacGyver solution I came up with. The night before the trip My AC drain line got clogged, upstream of the cleanout port. So my choices were limited. I didn't wanna leave my wife and kid without AC for the day, didn't wanna get hosed on a 24h emergency repair tech, didnt want my wife to be taken advantage of price wise because I was gone with no phone. I needed a temporary fix. Not pretty but I was proud of my idea.

So i pulled the float switch tilted the pipe down and used a dustpan to channel the water into the bucket (which needs to be dumped twice a day it seems)

(Edit: I'm gonna pull the cleanout tee and shop vac it tonight)

[Finest Kind]

I keep thinking back to the old Bruce Lee quote. "Pain is the best teacher, but nobody wants to attend his class."

It was a very educational trip. But, well, it hurt. I guess I thought all my experience feeling bites and landing fish in 3-10' of water would take me further than it did.

I think he was trying to make me feel better, but dude said something to the effect of "no such thing as beginners luck offshore." I guess he was right.

First trip on a party boat among experienced fishermen is bound to be a humbling experience. Bear in mind that many of those anglers have been doing it for years. No way can you be expected to compete. Pretty sure the only person who was surprised you didn't do better is you! Don't be discouraged. Keep at it!

[the rockfish ninja]

So this didn't go so well. I am pretty sure I was the only one on the boat to leave empty handed. I had 2 very experienced people on either side and I just didnt stand a chance. I did land 2 small grouper at the very end so it wasnt a total wash but I left extremely upset and wondering if I ever wanna go offshore ever again. I tried a lot of different things. I changed presentation o changed bait I tried different rods I tried different hooks I had 10 hours to experiment. I've calmed down but I left thinking about just leaving my gear on the side of the road.

Definitely not the outcome I expected. Others did very well, this doesn't reflect negatively on the crew. Maybe someone had a voodoo doll of me and put it near to but out of reach of a fish.

I think the real question is what did the experienced guys do that you didn't.   .... and did you pay attention or learn anything from them?

When I first got into slow jigging I had to get most of my info from Japan and Florida (where it first took off here in the USA) and what I did pick up is that you really have to get dialed in on techniques to be successful.

Don't get discouraged, you're in an area that has tons to offer in saltwater fishing, there just is a learning curve.

We have a member named Benny Ortiz, he's also on the BD forum which is where I know him from. He's the undisputed king of jigging in Florida and has a wealth of knowledge. He works for Shimano and writes about fishing, worth a lookup.  .... also reading up on Florida fishing forums might help too.

Hope you turn it around on your next attempt.

[Crab Pot]

Jason, welcome to the empty hands club.

I did a 2.5 day trip out of San Diego for tuna a few years back and came home with the middle of a donut.

I was one of three guys that didn't catch A THING. I had a hard time catching bait in the well...

Month and a half later I caught my personal best Bluefin on my annual 4 day trip along with a slew of others.

Paying your dews, what comes around goes around, that's why they call it fishing and not catching, pick your saying, remember what you learned and get'em next time.

[oldmanjoe]

So this didn't go so well. I am pretty sure I was the only one on the boat to leave empty handed. I had 2 very experienced people on either side and I just didnt stand a chance. I did land 2 small grouper at the very end so it wasnt a total wash but I left extremely upset and wondering if I ever wanna go offshore ever again. I tried a lot of different things. I changed presentation o changed bait I tried different rods I tried different hooks I had 10 hours to experiment. I've calmed down but I left thinking about just leaving my gear on the side of the road.

Definitely not the outcome I expected. Others did very well, this doesn't reflect negatively on the crew. Maybe someone had a voodoo doll of me and put it near to but out of reach of a fish.

" OUCH"   You brought your own Voodoo dolls with you .   I believe you over analysed everything you were doing and not relaxed to simply fish .     
 A lot of good question were asked already , especially what were your neighbors doing . This is a test of memory call back !!!

[JasonGotaProblem]

Oh i got some great advice. The fella to my left who was absolutely slaying it didn't speak much English, but i know some Spanish, and I got some great advice. His primary advice was never leave your bait still. When it lands somewhere, theres either a fish there or there isn't. If you don't get a bite in 30 seconds reel in a bit and drop it somewhere else. Move it left move it right just don't leave it still. And if you dont get a bite in 5 minutes check your bait. Nothing in 10 minutes get a fresh bait.

I Also realized after the fact that there was a fair portion of the time where I thought my bait was on the bottom when I now realize no it wasn't.

[Keta]

If you have trouble keeping in contact with the bottom try a heaver weight.  We have had days you could not maintain bottom in 700' with 64 ounce weights but that is much deeper than you were fishing.

We have to keep dropping constantly to keep close to the bottom with any current/drift when fishing 400'-700' deep and have to crank back up and reset when the line angle gets to around 45°.

Drop to bottom and crank in a few feet, in 2 or so minutes depending on the current/drift drop to the bottom and crank a few feet and repete as needed, constantly keeping track of the bottom.

I hope to hear you did better the next trip.

[steelfish]

hey Jason, compadre WELCOME to DA'CLUB ! 

......but I left extremely upset and wondering if I ever wanna go offshore ever again....

 I've calmed down but I left thinking about just leaving my gear on the side of the road.

no, no .. NO !
IMO You're making sound fishing as a Job to do, as a job on where the GOAL is to catch fish to feel proud and to feel like a winner, nope, thats not fishing unless you're a professional Bass pro fisherman but 99% of alantani guys arent and we all had been skunked many times and for many those days are what are pushing us to look for the next time.

In me personal experience, when I started to fish off-shore, it was a long learning curve and expensive one, I was a happy shore fisherman with all my fishing gear from wallyworld, Never felt like expending much money to catch some fish of 1#-3#, then started to fish off-shore (my off-shore in Sea of Cortez is different than off-shore on the Pacific ocean) and I was catching nothing and realized my Gear wasnt good for the task, that brought me to alantani and off-course to ask lots of questions to my local captains which are just waiting to SHare they "secrets" to anyone and THEY work!

next time, ask the person on your side what Bait if he using and what kind of knot and how much weight, etc you will find persons that DONT what to share any info but you also will find persons that will tell you everything and also teach you know to duplicate their terminal rigs.

anyway, I dont have much time fishing offshore as many of the guys here, maybe 13 years and I can say Im still learing few tricks, 4 years ago we were trolling around the Islands and I was the only one catching Nothing, I mean nothing, my friends at the beginning were making fun of me and it was all fun and joy on me but I never lost control or felt really bad about it, but my "bad luck" continued for many hours and my friends even started to worry about my luck for real LOL, I was using the same lure a Rapala deep diver 30ft same color as my friends and still not a bite and they were catching left and right, one of them told me, Alex give me your rod and take mine, I cant believe you havent caught anything in hours, well 3 minutes later I got a fish on the line and they started screaming and applauding LOL (those are real friends) I got my fish and I said now let me try with my own gear and after some minutes I started to catch fish as the rest of the guys, so, what it was the problem with me or my gear? we never knew! they told me that they COULD See that I had my own raining black cloud over me haha of course not, thats not possible or maybe!

but thats fishing my amigo, try to enjoy the whole experience, the trip, the company even your gear, catching fish is just the cherry on the cake.

[Wolfram M]

Jason,

Next time I get the itch to do some gulf side party boat fishing, I'll give you a call and we'll find one. I love going out but just like you did, I have hard days on the water while everyone else is catching. It happens from time to time.

This fall I'm headed to Vero/Hillsborough area but I have not made spring or summer plans yet. Starting college again has kind of slowed me up on that-I don't know how much time I'll have.

I'll try to bring a few of these aluminum beachmasters if I ever get one finished up!

[JasonGotaProblem]

Jason,

Next time I get the itch to do some gulf side party boat fishing, I'll give you a call and we'll find one. I love going out but just like you did, I have hard days on the water while everyone else is catching. It happens from time to time.

This fall I'm headed to Vero/Hillsborough area but I have not made spring or summer plans yet. Starting college again has kind of slowed me up on that-I don't know how much time I'll have.

I'll try to bring a few of these aluminum beachmasters if I ever get one finished up!

I'm game! Hillsborough is tampa. So that's pretty close. I may try to book an east coast trip since red snapper don't go out of season in the Atlantic. But the water is rougher.

[Wolfram M]

I am hoping to hit hillsborough, but that'll depend on how the rest of the family will let me drive-I put the trip together and am bringing my parents and my grandparents, but I am the only one who travels to fish really. They are all planning to fly down, I'm the one driving the van down so we have a car to drive that week.

I'll actually be staying in Vero but if they are all set on being on the beach all day (it's a walk-out-to-the-water room) then I'm all about meeting up with you and doing some fishing, and you'd be welcome to come across to the atlantic side and we'll hunt some fish there too.

Right now I'm still researching fishing spots and day charters, heck even looking at the Yankee Capt's website the prices for south florida charters are MUCH more reasonable than panhandle charters have been the last few years!

[MarkT]

So this didn't go so well. I am pretty sure I was the only one on the boat to leave empty handed. I had 2 very experienced people on either side and I just didnt stand a chance. I did land 2 small grouper at the very end so it wasnt a total wash but I left extremely upset and wondering if I ever wanna go offshore ever again. I tried a lot of different things. I changed presentation o changed bait I tried different rods I tried different hooks I had 10 hours to experiment. I've calmed down but I left thinking about just leaving my gear on the side of the road.

Definitely not the outcome I expected. Others did very well, this doesn't reflect negatively on the crew. Maybe someone had a voodoo doll of me and put it near to but out of reach of a fish.

Sounds like you overthought it.  What were the guys on either side doing that you weren't?  You should pay attention to the rigging and way they bait up if they're getting fish and you aren't.

[JasonGotaProblem]

Yeah it was a major learning experience. In fact by the end I kinda had the basics of it figured out. In fact i caught 2 red grouper in the last 5 minutes of fishing before the captain called it for the day. We'll see on the next one whether I learned anything. It's cheaper on the east coast so I may try that next.

[MACflyer]

Jason, at least you caught your limit of red grouper. My first 6 trips out in the GOM, same depths you fished, netted nothing. My buddies were hauling them in. My guess is many times the smaller snapper, grunts, lizard fish, etc got your bait before, or as soon as, it hit bottom. You rarely even feel them steal your bait. If I'm over fish, and I don't have a bite in 1 minute, I check my bait. Most times it's gone. A couple more trips and you'll be catching them.