I had the good luck to get invited to go offshore fishing with Capt Scott Thompson and his Pipe Dream Charters last week, and was joined by Capt Brian Soucy and his friend Larry, and Capt. Scott’s mate, Jimmy. We all met at the Amelia Island Marina early Tuesday morning and Capt Scott was all ready to go. As we motored out of the marina Jimmy was already prepping the bait and as we ran out the river he had the rigs and rods ready to go. Capt Scott pointed it North East to his “honey hole” located off of Cumberland Island and after a comfortable run in the Pipe Dream Capt Scott studied his fish finder and then hovered over an area.
We were fishing bottom rigs – baitcasters loaded with 40lb test, 8oz weights and circle hooks, baited with squid. That first spot was in about 50′ of water – you’d release the spool and let it drop, to the bottom and when it hit it would quit spooling and in seconds we were all getting bites. We caught Seabass, Triggerfish, some small Red Snapper and a couple of “bait stealers” – one of which JImmy put on a spinning rod rigged with treble hooks and tossed it out to swim on top, and boy did that pay off! Capt Brian, Larry and myself were busy reeling up fish when JImmy noticed that top bait rod bent double and , BIG FISH ON! Jimmy had grabbed the rod and it was a battle, mayhem and crazy but he eventually brought to boat for Capt Scott to gaff a huge Cobia, boy what a fish!
Then we made a run even further north and east to find a good “bottom” and spent the next couple of hours hovering, catching, moving, hovering, catching, and moving – Capt Scott really knew what he was doing. HIs mate, Jimmy, took care of all the “issues” – re-rigging, de-tangling, -re-baiting, which made for an enjoyable day of just….catching! After a great day of fishing we made the long run back to the marina with a box full of Cobia, Seabass and Triggerfish which, after Jimmy expertly cleaned them, turned into a few gallon bags of fresh fish for the grill! It was an excellent day out on the water, one of the best ever I’ve experienced, and I’d highly recommend contacting Capt Scott Thompson with Pipe Dream Charters
