It's Rockfish time in Tennessee!

[jad2t]

I fished from 10 until after dark yesterday. My plan was to spend all day chasing Tilapia and Crappie and then the last hour or so I'd go after rockfish. Many of you know how badly I wanted to catch a "real" one instead of the couple small ones I've caught and especially to land one in my kayak. I caught short Crappie all day, no Tilapia and wound up with only one keeper slab. I was really just waiting for the sun to start going down...

Well I got what I wanted and had one of the best fishing outings of 2014! I landed 4 total, all on a KVD SexyDawg and also had several big blowups that missed. It kept my heart racing the whole time. Two smaller ones about 18 inches, one 26" that weighed about 8.5lbs. The biggest one I wasn't able to weigh because the guy with the scale was gone and I was alone out there. It was 34" but my guess from looking at it and looking at length/weight charts is about 15 pounds.

One of my goals this year was to land a big rockfish from my yak and this sure made for a memorable night. Now I understand why Chris spends most of his time chasing these beasts. I get it now.

I wish someone was around to get a pic of me with the biggest one, I tried to get one with my cellphone on timer mode in the cupholder of my yak and wound up with half of my face blocked by the fish. I needed to get her back in the water though so I just gave up.

I took home an 18 and 26 inch Rockfish for some fresh, tasty meals and hope to get after them again next weekend. Until then, tight lines and God bless.

[Alphahawk]

Congrats on your catch.



Regards

[jad2t]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9EwEtIJWz0

GoPro footage. Watch it in HD!! Otherwise the video doesn't look good especially as the sun goes down.

[Heiny57]

Congrats

[tbona]

Congrats on a great day. Great video too! Lots of fight in the 34 incher!

[FloatNFish]

Good looking fish, Jimmy! Congrats!

Alex

[tsuggs]

Now that had to be fun!

[Fishaholic]

nice job especially given the barriers you faced LOL

[Dakota]

Congrats Awesome Awesome!! I'm a regular, Ill be there soon in my Hurricane boat.

[Travis C.]

Nice fish Jimmy and video captures on the blowups.

[jad2t]

Thanks everyone, definitely a night I won't soon forget especially since one of my goals this year was to land a good sized one in my yak. That is my biggest rockfish to date excluding the one I got with Old Sailor a while back but that one doesn't really count because 1) it was live bait and 2) he actually hooked that one and let me fight it. Still very exciting but not near like doing it on my own with an artificial.

What makes it crazier is the lure that I caught them on I found floating in a pile of leaves near the barrier! It's a KVD Sexy Dawg... I think I have a new favorite topwater lure! I'm definitely going to buy a couple more to have as backups.

[Jim]

Nice fish and cool video!

[FloatNFish]

Originally Posted by jad2t

What makes it crazier is the lure that I caught them on I found floating in a pile of leaves near the barrier! It's a KVD Sexy Dawg... I think I have a new favorite topwater lure! I'm definitely going to buy a couple more to have as backups.

They do fish nicely but they are also almost $8 a pop! Better make sure that knot is good!

Alex

[jad2t]

Originally Posted by FloatNFish

They do fish nicely but they are also almost $8 a pop! Better make sure that knot is good!

Alex

Palomar knot always when fishing braid, it hasn't failed me yet! But, when fishing for those it's inevitable that one will break you off someday so that's why I want to buy a couple more as backups!

[lupanfreitag]

Let's start calling GSP Rocky Tilapia Inlet.

I'll make t-shirts.