Captains Log / KOBO WPB

A tail of two days

Demo Days

INTRO

Where to even begin, I’m not really sure. Trips planned long in advance or on a whim - I’ve had them both go amazing and terribly well. This time though back to back trips only 24hrs apart could not have gone anymore differently.

Planning a last minute trip to fish Florida this time of year can be tricky based on weather. We had an opportunity for a decent window and decided to make the trek a week in advance. Well the seas turned out to be terrible on day one and technical fishing aspects could not have gone worse. Getting our baits out day one the seas were a large washing machine in the stream.  While deploying our tip rod the main line snapped 800 feet from the bait.  Daytime windon-on, bait, 12lbs of lead, flashing lights, and 800’ of braid all gone in a moments notice.  So we decide to reset and are short a daytime wind-on so we rig one in the slop.  30 minutes later, the same thing happens – main line pops at a few hundred feet!  We then swapped out the rod and the problem went away on the 3^rd drop. THATS FISHING.

Working and rough days (fishing and seas) is a real mood killer but tomorrow is a new day, we have to keep grinding.  All that planning and travelling when thoughts start to creep in – did we rush it, should we have skipped this, what are we doing here?!  Tomorrow is a new day though.  Seas laid down and we head out fresh grounds. In less than 60 minutes we were tight on fish one.

I have known Jarrett now for a couple of years.  He has been a pleasure to fish with and better to get to know personally.   He is a fishing fool and very detailed oriented – you can tell by how he runs his operation.  He also loves big baits for big fish – rigging whole mahi is a regular on his sword baits or large butterflied Spanish mackeral.

We also brought a new fisherman along on this trip Kip Garret.  I have been talking with Kip since KOBO put out our first social media.  He had been actively considering to running some KOBOs in his own operation.  This would be a great chance for him to see a KOBO in action for the first time.  He quickly realized all features KOBO offers are truly beneficial to the fisherman, especially the sword dedicated crews.

Today both fish came off of the buoy rods.   We were running the baits at 1000 and 1200’ deep.  I personally like to run my buoys “higher” in the column and use the tip rods for lower columns. 

I’m always looking forward to the next trip out of Palm Beach Florida.  This trip the Smart Motor and digital drag displayed really shined, particularly since we had buoy bites.  It is tough to read how much pressure you have on a fish when its not straight up and down.  Secondly the Smart Motor allows you to stay tight and reel only when the drag is not slipping, helping to keep a cool smooth drag.