Running on our heading was easy. The GPS numbers we had dialed in were directly in the middle of the orange ball now making it’s way above the line between a dark blue sea and a hazy gray sky. The ride became smoother as we moved away from the near shore chop and got into the longer ground swell generated waves.
An hour run at 28 knots put us over the artificial reef we planned to fish, an accumulation of old A6 Intruder bodies, wings and parts. We spent a little time drifting over the area to get an idea of the current speed and direction, something very important if you plan to anchor over the wreck.
Baitfish were everywhere around us. Even without our GPS we could have found the wreck. Several huge schools of cigar minnows and Spanish sardines played and flipped on the surface. One huge leatherback turtle surfaced and submerged several times in the same area, a sure sign that some structure and live bottom were 130 feet below.
We anchored and broke out the Sabiki bait rigs. I thought about how great it would have been had we been privy to these rigs thirty years ago. They catch baitfish ten at a time as fast as you can get the rig into the water. We caught a good number of cigar minnows and sardines for the live well in very short order.
We were bottom fishing today, looking for some good red snapper or grouper. Rather than a bottom finder rig with the weight at the end of the leader and a branch leader with a hook, I opted for a slip sinker rig. The current dictated an eight-ounce egg sinker, which was on the line above the leader. The four feet of leader material was eighty-pound test fluorocarbon, and a 10/0 circle hook was tied to the end.
Anyone who has fished with fresh or live cigar minnows and Spanish sardines can tell you that cigar minnows are the hardier of the two. But, as you will see, it really didn’t matter today. I put a live cigar minnow on my hook, once through the eyes and doubled into the back of the fish, leaving the minnow relatively straight.
