Bloodied the Catch-22 pretty well this weekend.

[John Jones]

I was headed a little way offshore with the wife, son, and his GF.  We were hoping to find some kings or snapper.  We didn't have much luck with bait and were heading across Tampa Bay for another bait spot when we spotted birds swarming and diving.  Checked up close and saw the spanish mackerel skying on glass minnows.  It took a couple of minutes to find the small spoons and tie on but then we were into it.  We caught quite a few before the lady fish and about 20 other boats moved in.  After about a dozen lady fish and no macks I started looking around and saw another frenzy about a mile away.  Cranked up and ran over there and we were back into the macks.  We quit before we limited out but we could have done so easily.  They were not the big ones like last fall but there was only one throwback caught.

Son and his GF


The catch.


Damn they were good.

[RickK]

Good Job.  I have been reading about the mack attack in the Fl Sportsman forums.

[steved]

Atta way!  We get schooling mackerel just outside the port in Italy where I keep the boat every evening in the summer.  It's kind of funny because around 6:00 in the evening you see a bunch of boats bobbin around doing nothing - maybe 25 or more boats.  Everyone with line out with bits of sardine for bait or sabiki rigs.  Then in the space of maybe 15 minutes the water seems to boil and every one of the boats can have a catch of 10 or more fish.  Then it calms again as if it never happened.  You can get pretty sick of mackerel after a while but it is a pretty good guarantee of not having a wasted day from a fishing point of view.

The real deal is to forego the mackerel in favor of what is chasing them - last summer one guy in a tiny boat with a hand line out latched into an amberjack weighing over 40 pounds! Was pretty funny to see him steaming away from the rest of the boats under fish power!

Tight lines.

[RickK]

The real deal is to forego the mackerel in favor of what is chasing them - last summer one guy in a tiny boat with a hand line out latched into an amberjack weighing over 40 pounds! Was pretty funny to see him steaming away from the rest of the boats under fish power!

Hey Steve, I have a neighbor originally from Greece and I took him and his son out fishing in the boat one day.  He shows up with a hand line and a small aquarium.  (His son has a regular rod and reel) I asked him what all that was for and he told me that the glass aquarium was for looking fro fish under the boat.  I introduced him to my fish finder.... It was fun watching him sling the hand line out - he didn't catch anything but he was "fishing" none the less.  He's bought regular rod and reel sets since then but I think he'd still use the hand line if I take him out - maybe for the chance at something like the jack in your story.

[John Jones]

A hand line would have worked fine Saturday.  I had a small silver spoon dangling in the water maybe 1 foot down while undoing a tip wrap on the rod and got hit.  Caught him too. The school of baitfish was trying to hide under the boat and that just kept the fish right there.

[JimCt]

Hand lining was what I did as a kid.  The H-frames of the "rig" were red painted wood with brown twisted line, marlin probably.  Caught plenty of fish and that was what counted.  Sometimes I think all the fancy fishing gear you see on boats is more to impress the guy on the next boat.

This sounds stupid, but one of the handiest little rods I have is a Snoopy casting rig.  Yup, it has Snoopy on it.  Neat little rod I keep handy on the boat & can whip out in an instant.  Have caught blues with it.   Also good to keep aboard for any kids we have along.  These are great little combos with quite a following...

Speaking of steelhead fishing, Rob got a bunch of close friends together back in early January for the first annual
Snoopy Rod Classic, held on Washington’s Bogachiel River. Yes, that’s right, the "Snoopy Rod Classic!!!" We all know
how tough it is to land an explosive steelhead on our new technologically advanced, Lamiglas fishing rod. Well, imagine
landing one on a Snoopy Rod!!! Rob bent the rules a bit to include Tweety Bird, Taz, Scooby Doo, Mickey Mouse, and Star
Wars rods, but no matter what rod you chose, the favor would be greatly tilted in favor of the metalhead

[JimCt]

So-called Snoopy rods are the lowest of the low in fishing tackle. They’re designed to draw little kids into fishing who could care less about fish but love Tigger and Mickey Mouse. Real fishermen have long ridiculed these things, but the maker of one brand told me he sells about 500,000 of them a year.

[John Jones]

Due to the influence of our Cuban friends, the hand line in FL is called a Yo-Yo.

You would be amazed at the distance of the cast and the size fish that can be caught on one.

[JimCt]

Those are neat!  Never seen anything like that up here.  I'll have to "import" some to keep aboard.

[RickK]

Due to the influence of our Cuban friends, the hand line in FL is called a Yo-Yo.

You would be amazed at the distance of the cast and the size fish that can be caught on one.

That's kinda like what he brought with him.  Had a big weight on it. He'd unroll it all, spin the line/weight round and round and then sling it about 30 or 40 ft.  Like Steve said, you just hang on if you catch something and ride it out until the fish tires out.  Not a good catch and release approach though.