What is the most interesting thing you have seen while offshore? - Page 5 - The Hull Truth

rockn n rollin · 12-21-2005, 09:55 PM

the first outing on our maycraft, we had about a 6ft sailfish clear the surface less than 50 yds away from the boat and we were less than 1/2 mile offshore. that was last year. even more interesting was this year almost in the same area, my fishing partner that day hooked up with a sailfish of the same size while we were grey trout fishing. needless to say that using a stingsilver jig with a single treble hook and a light weight rod, the battle lasted about 5 minutes with me following the fish taching from 1500 to 2000 rpm. he had spooled the reel once or twice and all that was holding him was the knot. he surfaced one time and it was all over. i was trying to work the boat like a drag on a fishing reel by gaining on the fish and trying to keep up with him but it didn,t work too good. we had a blast! im sure that was a once in a lifetime experience.

oldmako · 12-21-2005, 11:40 PM

35 miles east of virginia beach while wreck fishing.....a great white swam right up to the boat and just eyed us. This thing was huge....I'd guess 12-14 feet easy and probably well over 800 pounds. His head was about 3-4 feet across. He swam slowly around the boat and scared the crap out of us. Gorgeous!

I was just about to jump over the side to unwrap a croaker (amberjack bait) from the propshaft!

Housecall · 12-22-2005, 03:03 PM

While I didn't see it, last year someone found 3 suitcases filled with body parts floating near the CBBT!

jeffsmith · 12-22-2005, 05:31 PM

About 20 yrs ago while fishing out of Duxbury, MA the Concorde flew right over us outbound from Logan Airport. It had landed there to fix a mechanical problem.

Rickster · 12-22-2005, 06:46 PM

Like others sunfish, whales, dolphins.

Most interesting was a Great White off Marathon Humps chewing on a whale. What a site seeing him tear huge pieces off a huge whale. I was about 13 at the time and me and a buddy asked his dad if we could take the 9/0 out of the cabin and try to hook him. Well his dad had more sense then us and said I dont think so.

Strike1 · 12-23-2005, 10:47 AM

Housecall, the person that was in those suitcases was from the town right near me. His wife has been arrested on murder charges. Very very intriguing story. She's hired some NYC hotshot attorney. Destined to be a TV movie. I'll try to find a link to the story and will post it.

crackerasscracker · 12-23-2005, 11:00 AM

3 young Colombian ladies on sportfishing boat off of Coasta Rica..... The story is not suitable for this website.....

lasportsman · 12-23-2005, 11:08 AM

Sea Turtles, Spinner Sharks, a school of several thousand sting rays, flying fish landing on the bow deck, water spouts, another boat hand feeding Cobia hot dogs from the swim platform while trolling for Tarpon in the Delta off Venice.

Sandy K · 12-23-2005, 11:51 AM

While cruising south down the coast of NJ this past summer, saw a large family of dolphins broachig off of Island Beach State Park. Then came across a thresher shark flapping it's tail on the surface while dinning on a bluefish.

A few summers ago came across the carcass of a large dead whale off of Seagirt. It ended up drifting to shore in Belmar within a few hours.

Outrage22Cuddy · 12-23-2005, 12:41 PM

I saw a refrigerator floating 45 miles offshore. Too bad there was no beer inside.

Bolton · 12-23-2005, 01:13 PM

Quote:

ono loco - 12/21/2005 6:24 PM

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..

They call that a tsunami! Never seen rogue waves in sets

busbees · 12-23-2005, 01:20 PM

You may not believe this- a friend and I SAW one of those suitcases with the body parts the night before it was found. We were heading to the 4th island of the CBBT in the early morning hours. My buddy said" look at that thing floating-looks like a suitcase" . It was about 30 yards to our starboard side. We just kept going. A few days later I read in the paper that they had found the suitcase with body parts. Sure was glad we didn't stop and pick it up that night!

jyasaki · 12-23-2005, 01:33 PM

Quote:

oldmako - 12/21/2005 8:40 PM
35 miles east of virginia beach while wreck fishing.....a great white swam right up to the boat and just eyed us. This thing was huge....I'd guess 12-14 feet easy and probably well over 800 pounds.

12 to 14 foot white is probably more like 2000 to 2500 lbs. 800 only if it was doing a really good Paris Hilton diet.

jky

Going Deep · 12-23-2005, 02:30 PM

While fishing off Miami in the mid 80's about 30, so called rafts that cuban exiles had floated over on. None were occupied but most held a pair of dolphin.

Extremely good day of fishing but very humbling experience seeing what someone had risked their life on for freedom. Always wondered if they had been picked up or whether they had perrished.

Kamper · 12-23-2005, 03:43 PM

Quote:

jyasaki - 12/23/2005 1:33 PM ... 800 only if it was doing a really good Paris Hilton diet. jky

Not much meat on them Paris Hiltons !!

prockvoan · 12-23-2005, 04:07 PM

About 10 years ago,fishing about 15 miles out of south pass of the Mississippi River,was washing my hands over the side and a 25'+ whaleshark comes swiming up along side.Made me sh-t!Had my head turn the other way.My son was aboard,his first one to see,he was 12 years old then.Bad thing was,we were in a 20' shamrock.That is when I told my son it was time to buy a bigger boat!
Another time washing my hands with the head turn,dam ling grab my fingers,made me sh-t!Don't wash my hands over the sides now after that one.

Hobieman · 12-23-2005, 05:48 PM

Back in 1983 I was the coxswain of a USCG 41ft UTB. We were about 8 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola Beach Florida heading out to pick up a vessel in distress. (If I remember he was out of gas) It was about 2 am...pitch black...the Gulf was as flat as a pond. We were runnng about 24 knots...watching the radar and turning on the spot light every few minutes.
Approx 5 mins had passed since the last spot light check...I turned it on and what did I see...A 16' Hobiecat sailboat with two souls on board...a man and a woman...about 50 yards in front of us. No lights...no sails..just the two people sitting on the trampoline of the Hobie...dead in the water. Directly in front of us! We stopped and picked them up and continued offshore to the orginal case. They told us they had rented the sailboat earlier in the day and got caught in an outgoing tide. Neither one of the occupants new how to sail. They were a couple of tourist from up north who new nothing about boats or sailing. They were glad to see us...they thought we were coming to rescue them. (There had been no report of any overdue vessels in our area. )
They never new how close they came to being run over...or being lost at sea... To this day I still get chills thinking what would have happened if I had not turned on that spot light when I did.

On a lighter note...same Coast Guard boat... different day....different stupid people. Two guys fishing in a canoe 2 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico at night with a Coleman latern for light. They said the light really attracted the fish.

clamsalot · 12-23-2005, 06:41 PM

Like a lot of the rest, we've seen the sunfish, whales, porpoises,, lumber, telephone poles, refrigerators, and all other manner of floatsum. But the darndest thing I ever saw was fishing in Toms Canyon for yellowfin one evening. We had just set up on the ball, and it was that gorgeous part of the evening just before sundown when everything gets a bit quieter. Nature called and I went to the side of the boat to take a leak and I look down and what do I see? Gumby dammit!

Sure enough there was one of those little green Gumby toys, floating on by, with one of his arms hooked over what looked like a chunk of styrofoam. I don't know where gumby was headed, but he was 87 miles offshore and looking fine.

LI Sound Grunt · 12-23-2005, 07:56 PM

land

moorhen · 12-23-2005, 10:36 PM

I wasn't offshore but was in a small boat gigging frogs one night in Florida when my friend and I looked into the western sky and saw a green burst that kept getting bigger and bigger. We had no idea what it was. It was almost like the cartoon of the two fishermen who saw a mushroom cloud in the distance, turned to each other, and said "screw the limit." We had visions of thermonuclear war with the Russians. We later found out it was an experimental rocket from a base in the panhandle that produced something like the northern lights.