Head Kned
04-27-2012, 08:12 AM
Our original plan was to run out to the rigs from Destin Tuesday afternoon. The weatherman had forecasted a nice window out there so we headed out of Atlanta at 10 on Tuesday morning. When we pulled into Destin the wind had not died like it was suppose to, but we looked at the actuals on the weather Buoys at Ram Powell and it stated that the wind was blowing 3-5 and 1 ft waves. So we loaded up and stuck our nose out of the pass. the wind was bucking the tide and there were 7 footers breaking in the pass. got through that and it was still snotty. I had talked to a charter captain that just came in and he said it calmed once you were 10 miles off. So the crew and I had a little pow wow. My concern was that after the 10 miles we would be wet and cold and the following 90 miles would be miserable. Plus I was affriad of getting out a ways and turning around and coming back and I did not want to run that pass in the Dark. So I called the Rig trip. We decided to regroup the next morning.
I had read some reports of a great weedline south of the Nipple and that is what went in search of Wednesday morning. We stopped off at the bay side of crab island and quickly loaded up on some perfect tuna sized threadfins. They were THICK.
Cleared the pass and headed south, still a little snotty with the SW wind on our nose, but we made it to 150' and put out a Spread. Had just about everything in it. Found a small weedline and i was affraid that was the big one that everyone has been talking about and it had been broken up by the wind. We worked that for a little while and then I decided to work our way to the west, I took a wide turn south and that is when I saw 100 or so birds working. As we got closer there was the weedline. Headed right toward it, about 100 yards from it our Starboard Rigger pops on a green and blue islander ballyhoo combo. It was a big hit and I handed the rod off and got her boat side. Big Cow Dorado, I say 30 plus. Got her in the boat and then as we drifted into the weedline I saw more Chicken Dorado than I have ever seen. We worked on these guys for an while and one after another went in the box. After we got bored doing that I wanted to see if there were any billfish or wahoo around and put the spread back out. But there were to many scattered weeds around to effectively work the area. We picked up some more Chickens and then headed North.
By this time it had really calmed down and we just trolled our way north and enjoyed the ride. In about 130' we had a big hit on the shotgun. Few minutes later a nice fat Blackfin hit the deck. Icing on the cake i guess.
Did not take all that many pics, but this is what I got. I will add more as my crew feeds them to me.
236841
I had read some reports of a great weedline south of the Nipple and that is what went in search of Wednesday morning. We stopped off at the bay side of crab island and quickly loaded up on some perfect tuna sized threadfins. They were THICK.
Cleared the pass and headed south, still a little snotty with the SW wind on our nose, but we made it to 150' and put out a Spread. Had just about everything in it. Found a small weedline and i was affraid that was the big one that everyone has been talking about and it had been broken up by the wind. We worked that for a little while and then I decided to work our way to the west, I took a wide turn south and that is when I saw 100 or so birds working. As we got closer there was the weedline. Headed right toward it, about 100 yards from it our Starboard Rigger pops on a green and blue islander ballyhoo combo. It was a big hit and I handed the rod off and got her boat side. Big Cow Dorado, I say 30 plus. Got her in the boat and then as we drifted into the weedline I saw more Chicken Dorado than I have ever seen. We worked on these guys for an while and one after another went in the box. After we got bored doing that I wanted to see if there were any billfish or wahoo around and put the spread back out. But there were to many scattered weeds around to effectively work the area. We picked up some more Chickens and then headed North.
By this time it had really calmed down and we just trolled our way north and enjoyed the ride. In about 130' we had a big hit on the shotgun. Few minutes later a nice fat Blackfin hit the deck. Icing on the cake i guess.
Did not take all that many pics, but this is what I got. I will add more as my crew feeds them to me.
236841