I met up with Jake and his partner for a morning of fishing the big rocks. The weather has been tough for Inlet fishing but we got a break in the weather and went for it. The morning was somewhat sabotaged, every bait shop in Jacksonville was out of both Fiddler Crabs and Blue Crabs. The original plan was to hit the Sheepshead and possibly get on a few Reds as a plan B. The boat I recently purchased came with a poison pill that bit me in the rear end. I hadn't really had much use for my Danforth anchor recently because of all the Sheepshead fishing I've been doing. With us deciding to go after some Red Fish, I needed to use the Danforth for a change.
My boat came with this nifty Fortress anchor and I hadn't had much of a chance to fully appreciate the thing. Long story short, after that trip, it's going on Craigs List. I couldn't get stationary to save my life. Even at a 7-1 anchor rode ratio, with 15 feet of a heavy chain, it simply would not hold. The first thing I did when I got home was Google potential issues with these anchors. It took me all of a minute to find endless information on how bad these anchors are for hard bottom. Lesson learned.
On the upside, we did get some nice fish including, a bomb shell of a Bull Red on one of my lighter outfits. This fish was Jakes biggest Red of his life. It took nearly every bit of line off the spool. What a monster. Not sure on the exact measurement but it looked around 44 inches to me. Jakes buddy managed to get a very nice Sheepshead at 8 pounds as well.
The Bull ate a cracked frozen Blue Crab on a hand tied Dropper rig. The leader material was 20 pound mono, the hook was a 2/0 Owner Mosquito(It didn't bend a bit, impressive for this catch). I chose to use a 2/0 Mosquito rather than the standard 6/0 Circle Hook because we were hoping for a bruiser Sheepshead. I knew that the Mosquito Hook was up to the task after having landed several large Reds on them in the past. I buried that hook deep into the husk of the half Blue Crab. It's not unusual for a bigger Sheepshead to swallow the entire hook like this. The Sheepshead ate a live Shrimp on a Carolina Rig with the same leader and Hook. The rod/reel used was a Penn, Spinfisher V 3500 paired with a Star Rod, Stellar Light, 7 footer. Fast tip with a stiff back bone.
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Danny Pardue