*THE HULL TRUTH is the world's largest FREE network for the discussion of Boating & Fishing. Whether you're researching a new boat, or are a seasoned Captain, you'll find The Hull Truth Boating & Fishing Message Forum contains a wealth of information from Boaters and Sportfishermen around the world.
What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
Notices
Welcome to the updated THT!
If you are having trouble signing in, please email feedback@thehulltruth.com with your username and we will help you. We thank you for your patience as we help you access the new site!
Random Quote: Boating - Antichrist vs. the "honey do" list.
Re: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
45 miles out of Morehead City on the day before Valentines day we saw what appeared to be a shiny red object floating in a trash pile. Turned out to be a balloon with the stamp on the side "Happy Valentine's Day".... We all looked at each other and realize this had to be a sign from above. So we all made sure we bought the wive's a Valentines gift.....
RE: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
A Great White came up to take a bite out of a lingcod I had on the hook right at the boat! Just 1/2 mile off shore in about 25 feet of water. It was a hell of a suprise.
__________________
1998 Pro-line 251 Walk-around with VP 5.7 GXi Duo-prop
2006 Pro-line 24 Super Sport w/ 225 Suzuki 4S
Re: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
Flatlining for Yellowtail on a head boat in the Keys, I had a dolphin grab my fish and take off. SCREAMED line for about 30 yards, stopped, picked his head up and let the fish go. I reeled like crazy only to have Flipper do the same thing again! Twice.
The mate, captain, & other fares were cracking up!
The other one was on a family friends boat. About 10 minutes after seeing big Hammerhead (first one I ever saw not in an aquarium), an engine overheated because the engine was tangled with rope. We couldn't reach the rope from the boat, so one of us had to go in. I was 25 at the time, everyone else was over 60 so guess who was going in? I darn near set a speed record cutting us free all the while the others were telling me "Don't kick, it'll attract the shark.."
Re: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
In the mid ‘70s while delivering a racing sailboat back from Bermuda to CT, about halfway across we just missed a container that had likely fallen off a ship. The freaky thing was that it was floating with only a couple of inches above the water, and was only really visible because of the waves breaking on it. I still shudder when I think about what would have happened if it had been at night and we ran into it!
RE: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
Back in the early 80's I was fishing offshore on my friends 30' Egg Harbour off the coast of NJ, about 30 miles out. It was a very overcast day, and while trolling we saw a bow rider of about 18 foot in the distance with its lone occupant frantically waving at us as he motored toward us. We brought in the lines, and allowed him to get within several feet of the stern, thinking he might be in trouble. He had a panicked look on his face, and asked us "which way to land"? We gave him the compass heading to Atlantic City, but he replied, "I don't have a compass, so could you just point in the direction I should go" Never heard any news reports of him being missing at sea, so I guess he made it.
RE: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
This was in the ICWW.......a huge sea turtle decided to poke his head up out of the water just a few feet from the boat........scared the crap out of me......actually thought the loch ness monster really lived. I was the only one on the boat.
Re: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
Inshore---On three different occasions while trout fishing in the exact same spot in Dunn Sound, (Little River Inlet, SC) I have seen a manta ray with a six foot plus wing span come out of the water at least six feet in the air and do a big fat bellyflop. No one was there as a co-witness on any of the occasions. I'm glad to read that others have seem the same thing. Anyone I tell claims that I'm loosing my mind.
Offshore---Last Summer. King Mack fishing at a spot refered to by the locals as the Shark Hole, +- 18 miles off of Brunswick Co., NC. Twenty minutes or so into a fight with a rather fiesty thirty pound king, I have him doing a nice wide circle of death off of port side of the boat. He's ten or so feet down. As he makes his pass towards the boat, I see an eight or so foot greyish blob streak out from under the boat. The king makes a hard dash away from the boat. The "man in the grey suit" pursues. Line goes slack. In the split second that it takes for me decide I've lost the back half of my fish to a shark, I look back in the direction of the fish I was fighting just in time to see the king come out of the water headed right at me. Seems that his evasive tactic was a 180 degree turn at full speed alond with a leap. I stepped to the side just fast enough to avoid the mouth full of teeth and hooks. My friend and I were standing no more than 18 inches apart and the fish went right between us. The fish was still attached to the line/rod and reel. The gashes that he left in the knee pads on my buddies 31 Fountain were just enough to help me to decide that I'd had enough for the day. An hour earlier a fish of equal size managed to bury a #6 4x treble in the back of my hand while I was trying to get the rig out and release him alive. I usually don't eat much King Mack, but needless to say, I cut both of those f*****s in nice little nuggets when we got back to the dock, broke out the frier, and ate as much fish as I ever have at any one sitting. I then proceeded to get just drunk enough to allow a friend to remove the remaining piece of hook that had been burried in the back of my hand all day. That was a long day.
__________________ Mac Solo
1985 25' Parker Sou'Wester---2005 F250 Yamaha
RE: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
Off NJ
whales,sharks, a 6ft leatherback turtle, sunfish.
The best was one time when my kids were little and I spotted two sunfish-one big, one small. I got the boat close, took the engines out of gear and drifted to within a couple of feet of them so the kids could get a good look.
Another time we were shark fishing and had hung a bigeye tuna carcass partially in the water off the stern cleat as additional chum. We see a fin about 75 yards out which then disappears. About a minute later the shark's head comes out of the water at the transom and bites the tuna carcass in half. It was a big dusky about 8 or 9 feet. On the same trip we hooked 2 white marlin simultaneously on the shark baits. Needless to say they both threw the hooks after a couple of jumps.
RE: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
You guys covered most of my stuff already:
Inshore: Back in the 70's we were new to boating and pretty jumpy about things. We pulled into Cuttyhunk and the damm Sea Plane landed about 20 yards off our bow. We didn't know a Sea Plane landed there. Now it is old hat, but I always do a quick scan of the sky when ever I am pulling into Cuttyhunk.
The Tall Ships under sail entering Boston Harbor...pulling my parents 20 footer up and under the flight deck of the JFK Carrier and trying to toss a beer up to the crew in the hanger door...the world was different then...
Offshore: Standing on the bow sprit of a Fortier while dolphins played in the bow wake. You are basically standing on top of them. I would whistle and they would whistle back. Then they took off. The last one blew out of his blow hole and covered my legs in Dolphin snot...too cool.
Whales all around...the one that surfaced about 20 feet from my boat scared the tar out of me...they are pretty big when you are on a 23 foot boat...Full breaches...Fluke slaps...and my kids eyes while watching it all...
6 foot round turtles....
Momma dolphin pushing a 2 foot long baby over towards the boat. You could almost hear her say, "Look Junior, this is a boat." While this was going on a juvenile 6 footer was doing the Sea World jumps about 40 feet away. You could almost feel that he was just showing off...
Swimming in the Med with my six year old and a school of dolphin...unlike the dolphin around us, these guys were very stand off-ish...dammed French
Things I hope to see next year: A marlin tearing up my spread....Manta Rays.....A really big Shark and a really big Tuna...
Re: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
we had many a bluefish taken at boatside by gbft when I was young close enough to get wet from the splash
saw planes droppin stuff for waiting boats more than once
had a small humpback lift a 19' trophy out of the water a couple inches on the nw corner of stellwagon very gently put us back down
They were around but off the boat for most of the day then this one just cameup under us
This year we had a sunfish leap out of the water 3 or 4 times really cool
Re: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
Running to Catalina in my 20 Whaler an a glassy night in early October. The phosphorescence was so intense that the girl with me swore that there were spot lights under the boat. I slowed down to let her put on a jacket and a school of purposes surfed my bow wake. The purposes were only a foot or two away from us standing on the bow and the phosphorescence was illuminating their bodies. As we got closer to the island I was flanked by another dolphin, it looked like one of those WWII torpedo coming at me through the water.
Re: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
saw a set of 30' rogue waves hit the beach down by Ixtapa - we were down there surfing and fortunately we'd all just gotten out for the evening. You could see them comming from a long way away - by the time they hit the entire village was there to see it - truely awsome. another time, While surfing in a nearby rivermouth spot the water instantly turned brown and was full of whole trees - there had been a flashflood in mountains and the river turned violent quick - unfortanetly we had to paddle across the river to get back to camp - pretty gnarly..
RE: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore?
Fishing off Cabo San Lucas on the Pacific side about 20 miles up the beach and out about 2 miles there were thousands of porpoises working a huge school of tuna underneath them. We were trolling jet heads and working the football sized tuna over pretty good. Suddenly, about 100 yards off the starboard bow there was a huge splash and a big cloud of green and red blood. We motored over in the 31 Bertram and saw that a big porpoise had been cut in half by a mako. The porpoise looked at us with wild eyes and tried to get back to the surface, but only a stump for propulsion, it had no chance. It sank into the black water with blood trailed by a large cloud of green (because of the saltwater) blood. I cancelled my dive trip that night.
Re: What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore? 
Never heard any news reports of him being missing at sea, so I guess he made it. 
That was a long day. 
