06-19-2010, 09:00 AM
Staying in Miramar Beach Fla. for the week 6-14-10. The big news no oil yet! As for the fishing, we started the week pecking around in the Choctwhatchee Bay in the small flat bottom we brought down. Been a while since I had fished in shore but it was fun. We caught mother loads of lady fish who were eager to blow up on any topwater we threw. We got sick of those and realized we had to move around to get away from them. Mid day we found a pack of trout that was eager to bite. They were eating up a berkley gulp shrimp on a 3/8oz. stand up head. These fish were located on a point that had current from the tide going out and they would blast our shrimp. We had to weed through the little ones to get a couple keepers which made great sandwiches for lunch-some very fine meat indeed.<br /><br />In between everything else we goofed off on the beach catching ladyfish and hardtails on the berkley gulp shrimp set up. A live shrimp would not get a bite but the gulps got one every cast! even the wife and sis n law got in on the drag screaming action.<br /><br />On Wednesday We booked a boat out of Grayton Beach with Captain Kerry Jones and &quot;Not a Dog Charters&quot;. We started by catching ruby lips and rock fish about a mile out on hard bottom areas for bait. After that we continued on out to about the 20 mile range on a wreck looking to cash in on some amber jacks but they were not hungry. We started working our way back in hitting a combination of wrecks and natural hard bottom areas. We started smacking the big red snappers and a limit of good fatties filled the cooler pretty quick. I got on a roll off the back corner of the boat, landing 3 black grouper in a row that all went well over the 22&quot; size limit. At one stop, I had a ruby lips get plowed and I started winching what I thought was a grouper off the bottom when It all stopped. I thought he took me in the wreck but then my rod bowed up and headed for Cuba. After a 15 minute fight I passed the rod off to Landon who surfaced the foul hooked Bull Shark that had eaten my Grouper. He was about 5-6ft long and about 125lbs or so according to the captain. Just as we were about to get his picture the line popped so all we have is the memory. To end the day, we trolled live cigar minnows and caught 4 nice kingfish and a small &quot;chicken dolphin&quot; or mahi-mahi. We got back to the beach about 5 and spent the rest of the evening filleting and grilling. Its been great down here and as of today everything is clean and oil free. Sorry I dont have more pics but we were all reeling and fighting the whole time. Its been a fun vacation.<br />Check out www.notadogcharters.com if your heading down. Its a great trip and much cheaper than the charters out of Destin Harbor...I feel like a stranger in strange land...