Offshore Fishing Reports - Rough and Ready late report - I had the pleasure of joining Capt. Joe and Jack on a commercial trip on Friday. What a hell of a trip. The fish wanted to bite slow. It actually took about 3-5 min. to get a bite sometimes. Whaen
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:37 pm Post subject: 12-8 Rough & Ready Charters Gag Trip
Sorry this is a long post, but this was a great trip!
After planning this for several weeks, myself (ScottK) Sean Summers- (Buzode45) Frank Mills- (Jonafare) and Greg Manning- (Gmanning) decided three weeks ago to charter the local Grouper God to get on some near shore gags, learn some new techniques, and partake of some of the funniest verbal flogging NC has to offer.
We left out Friday night after meeting at Greg’s house in Broadway and boogied on down to his place in Sneads Ferry. After a good meal on the way many adult beverages when we arrived and unpacked, we were primed for a great trip with Captain Joe.
The weather and seas could not have been better. When we booked, the weather was old, nasty, and blowing seas, how we picked such a perfect day, we must have had someone looking down on us for sure.
After a Hardee’s breakfast and a quick stop at a convenience store, we met Joe at New River Marina and departed at 7 am on the dot. Joe realized it would not be a normal day when the badgering and poking fun began very soon after we boarded.
Busted through the inlet was as easy as a jaunt on a local lake…..can you say flat!
A little cold near land and through the inlet, but sure did warm up the further we got out. First few stops about 16 miles out produced our first Gags on board, courtesy of Greg Manning, he was the only one that produced grouper, and the comments started flying from Joe about us other three. Some nice sea bass mixed in and they went in the box too.
So Greg is on the crews sh*t list and Sean, Frank and I are looking for keeper grouper retribution! The bite was very soft; Joe commented that was not typical at all. The day before he had put 400 lbs of fish in the boat on a commercial trip and the fish bit very strong. We threw a few comments about how the spots were cleaned out by the time we got there or something……
Frank Mills (Jonafare) has earned a new nickname….Pelagic. He tried to instruct Joe on how he trolls for these fish, and how these “other†top dwelling fish acted, better pulling…blah-blah….etc…and Joe ate him up man! Frank’s new nickname stuck on him the rest of the day. Frank had yet to land a keeper gag and needed to make some points with Capt. Joe quick or continue the abuse (which we were all relishing in BTW)
We make several other stops results in short gags, very nice sea bass, some good size grunts, and two beeliners. I think we picked up a one more keeper gag on these stops, but it was getting later in the day and many more stops did not result in keepers.
The sea bass were so nicely sized we had the pleasure of needing to gaff one.
Well, a good sized one got off right at the boat just out of arms reach and was floating kind of stunned and I yelled “Get the gaff, get the gaff!†Joe stuck him like a pro an in ‘da box he went!
We played with a HUGE school of AJs for a while, caught a couple and used one for strip bait.
Greg caught an (estimated) 18†flounder off the bottom using a dead cigar minnow….we were all impressed. Joe decided to move offshore (25 miles) a bit since the weather and seas were so nice to get into some red grouper territory so we could get more fish in the box. The reds did not show and we were starting to look around at one another.
Still very short our limit of gags, Joe decided to move inshore about 15 miles to get on some spots he was sure would produce some fish for us and get the limit. Joe was insistent on putting us on fish no matter what it took.
Joe was right…..we got slammed with gags and myself, Sean and Frank finally got to pull up some of these keeper arm pumpers off the bottom. These last two stops filled the limit and we were some happy, tired guys. Sean’s rods and mine kept going down like synchronized anglers several times. All you would here is grunting and groaning in the rear cockpit when we were hooked up pumping those bruisers up to the top.
Everyone on board are experienced boaters and we were all coping with feelings of not being in control at the helm, navigating, dictating to the crew, etc….we were the crew!
It was a great change of pace being able to get off the boat, shake a few hands, and leave.
No boat loading, cleaning, gear straightening, towing, what a day!
I was able to provide comic relief when we were back at the dock, I volunteered to get the fish out of the box and up into the baskets and coolers we had waiting. Someone says “Hey use that medieval looking fish spike thing to jab the fish in the head and get them out of the fish boxâ€Â
Let me say I would not be a good Fishmonger trainee as I did good for most of the fish box emptying, and then through a combination of ice cold hands and a bad stick with the fish spike, a big ‘ol Gag slipped and hit the dock, slipped thru my hands…then gunnel, slipped through my hands….then into the water!
All you could see was my butt and the soles of my boots hung over the side of the boat as I almost jumped in the darn water to get that fish….thank God the swim bladder had him floating! No more fish spiky thing for me. After the fish box was emptied, I seen the mini hand gaff that had a hook on it, used for hoisting fish…….duh!
After Joe and audience laughed that one off I sulked over to the cleaning station to meet up with the rest of the laughing crew.
Anyone who went on the trip will attest to the skills of Capt Joe Hifko. He was great company, kept us heckled and fishing the whole day. His skills in locating and landing these fish are without a doubt something anyone wanting to catch grouper should experience for themselves. He will flat out put you on them, and then it is up to you to get them to the boat.
His expertise is awesome and anchoring skill very unique. We were all able to glean some bottom fishing knowledge from him, had some great laughs, talked boats, tackle and gear, caught some fish and look forward to doing it all over again next year.
Total haul = 21 black bass, 7 grunts, 2 beeliners, and 10 gag grouper. (Capt. got 2)
Just remember everyone……Grouper = Rough & Ready Charters.
After planning this for several weeks, myself (Scott Krieger) Sean Summers, Frank Mills, and Greg Manning decided to charter the local Grouper God to get on some near shore gags, learn some new techniques, and partake of some of the funniest verbal flogging NC has to offer.
We left out Friday night after meeting at Greg’s house in Broadway and boogied on down to his place in Sneads Ferry. After a good meal on the way many adult beverages when we arrived and unpacked, we were primed for a great trip with Captain Joe.
The weather and seas could not have been better. When we booked, the weather was old, nasty, and blowing seas, how we picked such a perfect day, we must have had someone looking down on us for sure.
After a Hardee’s breakfast and a quick stop at a convenience store, we met Joe at New River Marina and departed at 7 am on the dot. Joe realized it would not be a normal day when the badgering and poking fun began very soon after we boarded.
Busted through the inlet was as easy as a jaunt on a local lake…..can you say flat!
A little cold near land and through the inlet, but sure did warm up the further we got out. First few stops about 16 miles out produced our first Gags on board, courtesy of Greg Manning, he was the only one that produced grouper, and the comments started flying from Joe about us other three. Some nice sea bass mixed in and they went in the box too.
So Greg is on the crews sh*t list and Sean, Frank and I are looking for keeper grouper retribution! The bite was very soft; Joe commented that was not typical at all. The day before he had put 400 lbs of fish in the boat on a commercial trip and the fish bit very strong. We threw a few comments about how the spots were cleaned out by the time we got there or something……
Frank Mills (Jonafare) has earned a new nickname…Pelagic. He tried to instruct Joe on how he trolls for these fish, and how these “other†top dwelling fish acted, better pulling…blah-blah….etc…and Joe ate him up man! Frank’s new nickname stuck on him the rest of the day. Frank had yet to land a keeper gag and needed to make some points with Capt. Joe quick or continue the abuse (which we were all relishing in BTW)
We make several other stops results in short gags, very nice sea bass, some good size grunts, and two beeliners. I think we picked up a one more keeper gag on these stops, but it was getting later in the day and many more stops did not result in keepers.
The sea bass were so nicely sized we had the pleasure of needing to gaff one.
Well, one got off right at the boat just out of arms reach and was floating kind of stunned and I yelled “Get the gaff, get the gaff!†Joe stuck him like a pro an in ‘da box he went!
Greg caught an (estimated) 18†flounder off the bottom using a dead cigar minnow….we were all impressed. Joe decided to move offshore (25 miles) a bit since the weather and seas were so nice to get into some red grouper territory so we could get more fish in the box. The reds did not show and we were starting to look around at one another.
Still very short our limit of gags, Joe decided to move inshore about 15 miles to get on some spots he was sure would produce some fish for us and get the limit. Joe was insistent on putting us on fish no matter what it took.
Joe was right…..we got slammed with gags and myself, Sean and Frank finally got to pull up some of these keeper arm pumpers off the bottom. These last two stops filled the limit and we were some happy, tired guys. Sean’s rods and mine kept going down like synchronized anglers several times. All you would here is grunting and groaning in the rear cockpit when we were hooked up pumping those bruisers up to the top.
Left to right – Name (username)
Scott Krieger (ScottK) I am not really THAT big, I am just closest to the camera
Sean Summers (Buzode45) Congratulations on graduation and thanks for serving our country!
Greg Manning (Gmanning) Still sore you got the first gags (kidding)
Frank Mills (Jonafare) aka now known as "Pelagic"
Everyone on board are experienced boaters and we were all coping with feelings of not being in control at the helm, navigating, dictating to the crew, etc….we were the crew!
It was a great change of pace being able to get off the boat, shake a few hands, and leave.
No boat loading, cleaning, gear straightening, towing, what a day!
I was able to provide comic relief when we were back at the dock, I volunteered to get the fish out of the box and up into the baskets and coolers we had waiting. Someone says “Hey use that medieval looking fish spike thing to jab the fish in the head and get them out of the fish boxâ€Â
Let me say I would not be a good Fishmonger trainee as I did good for most of the fish box emptying, and then through a combination of ice cold hands and a bad stick with the fish spike, a big ‘ol Gag slipped and hit the dock, slipped thru my hands…then gunnel, slipped through my hands….then into the water!
All you could see was my butt and the soles of my boots hung over the side of the boat as I almost jumped in the darn water to get that fish….thank God the swim bladder had him floating! No more fish spiky thing for me. After the fish box was emptied, I seen the mini hand gaff that had a hook on it, used for hoisting fish…….duh!
After Joe and audience laughed that one off I sulked over to the cleaning station to meet up with the rest of the laughing crew.
Anyone who went on the trip will attest to the skills of Capt Joe Hifko. He was great company, kept us heckled and fishing the whole day. His skills in locating and landing these fish are without a doubt something anyone wanting to catch grouper should experience for themselves. He will flat out put you on them, and then it is up to you to get them to the boat.
His expertise is awesome and anchoring skill very unique. We were all able to glean some bottom fishing knowledge from him, had some great laughs, talked boats, tackle and gear, caught some fish and look forward to doing it all over again next year.
Total haul = 21 black bass, 7 grunts, 2 beeliners, and 10 gag grouper. (Capt. got 2)
The Money Shot:
A big thank you to Greg Manning for hosting us crazy guys, he is a great guy, hope to fish with him again in the future.
Just remember everyone……Grouper = Rough & Ready Charters!
The crew decided to not go Sunday and clean fish....something about wives divorcing us and Pelagic drinking too much wine. Did you and Phil fill up the box?
Really we were just tired from Joe standing on us all day _________________ World Cat 270HT..."Bite Doc"
Great trip Capt. Joe... arms are sore... and I thought Tuna pulled hard! You may have changed this trolling guy into a bottom fisher.
We discussed doing this as an anual trip, but we might want to do it in the warmer months. Picking another December day like this past Saturday will be a miracle! Can't wait to do it again. Think you'll have your new boat by then???... I can be your anchor man -- you've shown me the way!
BTW -- I am the old man in the group and I think I deserve the electric reel.
Joined: Mar 10, 2005 Posts: 925 Location: winston-salem
Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 4:08 pm Post subject:
Ken, we were at jerr's reef sunday around 9am..... WHAT A MESS!!!!!!!
Our 200 johnny decided to take a nap @03.30am and we could not get his a$$ up till now, so jumped on a 19' skiff without rodholders....... needless to say I left the gear in the truck and went sightseeing at the reef. Kinda looked like daytona 500 on a football-field. _________________
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Offshore Fishing Reports - Rough and Ready late report - I had the pleasure of joining Capt. Joe and Jack on a commercial trip on Friday. What a hell of a trip. The fish wanted to bite slow. It actually took about 3-5 min. to get a bite sometimes. Whaen
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