December 3 was a glorious day in Sattahip. The group consisted of the usual suspects Jeff and Khammoon Doutch, John and Marney Haddon, Phil and Nat Langley, Peter Hyland and me.
I arrived at 7:05 and was immediately dragged over the coals for being late, but never mind we were leaving from the Sattahip pier for a day fishing the gulf. We made it out to the boat that in itself is a miracle considering the condition of the pier. Everyone made it without falling through the decking or tripping on one of the lose boards, so I figured Buddha was smiling on us, probably to celebrate the King’s Birthday.
The PSC fishing party prepare to set sail.
We left the pier for the fishing grounds, about an hour and a half trip. Phil and Peter put out the large rods and trolled for the big ones. Halfway out Phil’s rod took off so we cut the power and went back to watch the action. He fought the fish for a while, but snap and it was gone along with a $30 Rapala lure. When he pulled in the line we found the steel leader had parted at the lure. That’s the third lure we have lost with the same problem, thanks Rapala. So if you have one of these overpriced puppies, replace that leader.
The group was expecting a banner day because of the impressive catches they had on the last trip to that area, but the fish don’t give a hoot about last week, or maybe they were getting ready to celebrate the King’s Birthday.
We started the first drift and were into fish right away. Most of the fish were smallish grays, snapper and grouper and then the biting was off. We would reposition, get a few than stop. That’s the way the day went. We did get a couple of nice ones, I caught a nice coral trout and Nat got a couple of nice grouper, nothing I could capture on film, even with my superior digital zoom.
Even with the slow fishing conditions we all ended up with bags of about 6 to 10 kilos and most of us felt we had a good day. If nothing else, we had a great boat ride on flat seas, cool temperatures and light winds, what could have been better.
We have had a lot of interest from PSC members who would like to fish, so Dene is talking about adding another trip or two a month. We are looking into this to see if the added trips can be scheduled cost effectively to our agenda. We will probably have something together next month when the holidays are over. The next scheduled trip will be 7 January 2012 – look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!
