FishFighter92
07-18-2012, 10:43 AM
Well I haven't gotten around to posting a report in quite a while... and I decided to take some time to post one up a week later after a quite interesting adventure with breaking in the new boat.
Well last week on Wednesday we headed out in hopes of catching a tuna, marlin, wahoo or any other pelagic species. We left the docks around 5:10 and were one of the first boats in the pass to catch bait and head out. We caught a whole mess of bait and already had set a pinfish trap the night before so we were set, and could not even see the bottom of the livewells!
The seas were glass the whole way out to the elbow, we got out there around probaly 7:45 and put out the lines to troll a good rip that we found in 1600 feet of water. After about an hour of trolling I think my dad got impatient after only two short strikes, and we never seem to stick to trolling whenever we go. I'm still trying to figure out how to convince him to stick to it and be rewarded.
We stopped at a nice patch of weeds and caught a couple chicken mahi, and there were a couple of bulls lurking around but we couldn't seem to get them to bite anything. So we left this patch (for reasons I don't know why) and headed even further west (almost South of Mobile, AL). We started dropping baits all the way to the bottom to hammer the scamp and grouper and put a mess on board. We did this for about 1.5 hours and picked up all the fish you see in the picture. Caught a couple of almaco jacks, I personally got 2 gag groupers, My dad reeled up a nice red grouper, and my friend and brother were putting the hammer to the scamp. We used live big herring and cigar minnows seemed to do the trick. The grouper weren't having anything to do with a pinfish that we dropped down except maybe a few subtle bites.
Then in the midst of a great bite of bottom fish the worst happens. We decided that we were going to switch to the saddle tanks, and we have never used the saddle tanks before. There ended up being water in the two saddle tanks and the filters could not handle it all. We drifted for about 3 hours and kept trying to contact a commercial boat that was about a quarter of a mile away, doing everything we could. After the 3 hours of drifting with two dead engines and the monitor saying "Water in Fuel" we finally got the commerical fishing guys to come over. We had been fooling around with everything trying to get the engines to pop back up with no avail. The com. guys threw us a strap wrench to get the filters off because It seemed as if they were glued. We got the filters out and cleaned them out and started pumping the main tanks fuel back into the engines to see if we could clear them out and get them working again. We started being towed back to port, but we never gave up on the engines and kept trying and trying so after 30 minutes of being towed we finally got power in both the engines. I guess thats what happens when you dont give up so easily!
We were all worn out and just gunned it home and got back to the docks around 5:30. We still ended up with a mess of fish though. The other pictures are from earlier in the month, and the small cobia I caught off of the bottom on a blue/silver williamson jig trying to catch some Gags. It was the first fish I've caught on a jig and I gotta say that I am hooked! I'm definatley in the market for a jigging rod now!
Tight Lines!
-Steven
Small Cobia
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o589/premier93/image-3.jpg
The fish board from my brothers and Dad's earlier trip
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o589/premier93/image-2.jpg
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o589/premier93/image-1.jpg
Engine Failure day
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o589/premier93/image.jpg
Well last week on Wednesday we headed out in hopes of catching a tuna, marlin, wahoo or any other pelagic species. We left the docks around 5:10 and were one of the first boats in the pass to catch bait and head out. We caught a whole mess of bait and already had set a pinfish trap the night before so we were set, and could not even see the bottom of the livewells!
The seas were glass the whole way out to the elbow, we got out there around probaly 7:45 and put out the lines to troll a good rip that we found in 1600 feet of water. After about an hour of trolling I think my dad got impatient after only two short strikes, and we never seem to stick to trolling whenever we go. I'm still trying to figure out how to convince him to stick to it and be rewarded.
We stopped at a nice patch of weeds and caught a couple chicken mahi, and there were a couple of bulls lurking around but we couldn't seem to get them to bite anything. So we left this patch (for reasons I don't know why) and headed even further west (almost South of Mobile, AL). We started dropping baits all the way to the bottom to hammer the scamp and grouper and put a mess on board. We did this for about 1.5 hours and picked up all the fish you see in the picture. Caught a couple of almaco jacks, I personally got 2 gag groupers, My dad reeled up a nice red grouper, and my friend and brother were putting the hammer to the scamp. We used live big herring and cigar minnows seemed to do the trick. The grouper weren't having anything to do with a pinfish that we dropped down except maybe a few subtle bites.
Then in the midst of a great bite of bottom fish the worst happens. We decided that we were going to switch to the saddle tanks, and we have never used the saddle tanks before. There ended up being water in the two saddle tanks and the filters could not handle it all. We drifted for about 3 hours and kept trying to contact a commercial boat that was about a quarter of a mile away, doing everything we could. After the 3 hours of drifting with two dead engines and the monitor saying "Water in Fuel" we finally got the commerical fishing guys to come over. We had been fooling around with everything trying to get the engines to pop back up with no avail. The com. guys threw us a strap wrench to get the filters off because It seemed as if they were glued. We got the filters out and cleaned them out and started pumping the main tanks fuel back into the engines to see if we could clear them out and get them working again. We started being towed back to port, but we never gave up on the engines and kept trying and trying so after 30 minutes of being towed we finally got power in both the engines. I guess thats what happens when you dont give up so easily!
We were all worn out and just gunned it home and got back to the docks around 5:30. We still ended up with a mess of fish though. The other pictures are from earlier in the month, and the small cobia I caught off of the bottom on a blue/silver williamson jig trying to catch some Gags. It was the first fish I've caught on a jig and I gotta say that I am hooked! I'm definatley in the market for a jigging rod now!
Tight Lines!
-Steven
Small Cobia
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o589/premier93/image-3.jpg
The fish board from my brothers and Dad's earlier trip
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o589/premier93/image-2.jpg
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o589/premier93/image-1.jpg
Engine Failure day
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o589/premier93/image.jpg