Offshore Spring Fishing In Winter

"I probably should pass this time." was my first response to Danny's asking me to go offshore fishing on a Friday morning in early January. I'd been working a ton of hours and hadn't seen my family much, plus my bank account was suffering as it tends to do between Christmas and tax returns. But then I thought about my response for about two seconds and recanted, "You know what, I'll go ahead and do it, let me just check with my wife real quick."

Danny added to the incentive by letting me know I would just have to catch the bait and he would cover gas. After getting the go ahead from Rebekah, I received a text from Danny, "We're going with Captain Glenn to the spring." Oh boy, did I make the right decision! I had the pleasure of going with this local charter captain who is a friend of Danny's before and we absolutely slayed the snapper last time.

The next morning I met Glenn and Danny at the dock at 5:30 a.m. and we headed to the lights under the Bayway bridge to catch bait. It was a dead calm, cold morning. I put some camo rain pants over my jeans and sported my rubber hunting boots. Nothing worse than running 50 miles offshore soaking wet in the middle of winter. As we pulled up to the bridge I cast my brand new 10' cracker bait net and spread it wide open on the edge of the shadow under the bridge. First cast and I pulled in a net full of nice whitebait and thread fins, snapper candy. I continued to cast the net catching only about a half-dozen at a time until it was time to pick up Dustin at the dock and head out.

I took off my rain pants and boots, changed my jacket and patted myself on the back for having the foresight to keep myself dry for a long day of fishing in cold weather. We gassed up, nearly forgot the ice and headed offshore. We decided to stop at a shipping channel to catch some bigger bait for the free-line. As Glenn was pulling up a couple at a time with the Sabiki, I noticed a big school of true goggle eyes coming right to the surface and decided to try a toss with the net. This is usually a vain effort in 40 feet of water but sometimes it pays off to try. This time it payed off with about 50 goggle eyes in the bait well!

after enjoying a 50 mile run at 40 mph in the Calcutta, we arrived at the spring and we're greeted by schools of tuna hitting the surface. We started by slow trolling some goggle eyes and caught a small bonita. Then on the second try I connected with a nice black fin tuna. I've been wanting to catch one of these for years and had finally succeeded!

It was time to anchor up! We found the spring and threw the marker. The water was clear and blue and the amber jack came up to investigate the boat. They were everywhere! All in the 40 inch range and hungry. They were hitting the marker jug! I really wished I had a bowfishing set-up because they we're putting their backs out of the water and sliding up against the boat. I reached out and pet one. As soon as a goggle eye hit the water it was mayhem! We caught a few nice ones right off the bat and then Danny who had managed to get a snapper rig past the A.J's and to the bottom connected with a monster! About 30 minutes later we we're looking at an 80 pound A. J. landed on 25 lb test leader and a number 2 hook! We had to cut about a foot and a half off his tail to fit him in the cooler!


We were limited out on A.J.'s and I continued to try to connect with another tuna but was spoiled by A.J.'s every time. I must have caught a dozen of em'. My arms were cramped and it wasn't even Noon yet. I tried to muscle one up to the boat too quickly, and underestimating my brute strength, snapped my Redbone heavy spinner rod in two. Bummer.

We caught about ten keeper red grouper, one big mango snapper and a bunch of nice red snapper that had to go back into the water till we come back for them in July. I took a nice bean bag nap on the ride in and then got busy at the cleaning table. It was a little tough because the knife kept getting locked in my hands because of my cramped forearms. A.J.'s will do that to ya!

I topped off the day by making tuna sushi-mi for my family and man was it delicious. I cut the filet in inch and a half thick strips, marinated in a ginger sesame sauce, rolled in sesame seeds and quickly seared in a hot pan of sesame oil. After letting them cool I sliced into bite size pieces. They were money with some wasabi and soy sauce!

It's been a couple weeks and my forearms have recovered, as soon as I get a new rod I'll be ready for another invite. I'll throw a net and clean fish as much as anyone wants if it means going on a trip like that.