Persistence2
08-06-2007, 10:55 AM
My fatrher in law is in town from New England and I wanted to take him fishing. I was planning on taking him for flounder BUT Dave "I just got home from vacation" Trax wanted to go offshore. So this was a skeleton crew of three (Roger knows nothing about offshore so it was really just Dave and I running the boat.)
Anyway, our expectations were low based on reports so we hoped to get a nice fish or maybe two if we were lucky for Rog.
We dropped in on the cigar (middle part) and within 10 minutes of the spread being out, a wahoo airs out on the bird chain. Dave jigs it and we're tight. We make pretty quick work of a nice 30 pound Wahoo...WOW...the pressure is off!
We got the spread back out and 10 minutes later out of the corner of my eye I see the Spreader bar get hit...I jig it and see a marlin working it over. Rog cranks in the bar and the fish follows it. I try to feed it a small bait but nope, it wants the Ilander Express with a big bally! Dave hooks the fish from the bridge and we're on. I look at the other flat line and a Sailfish is trying to eat it. Pops out but it disappears. Then Dave's fish comes unglued. Just that fast, the long rigger Dave has on the bridge comes down but no dice. Then my long rigger comes down and I drop back twice and I'm hooked to Whitey. A couple of very nice runs and damn, the hook pulls. We had another hit on the short rigger too so we think we had 5 fish come in. We stuck two but both fell off.
We put a deep bait down and later another Hoo bit the bird chain but no hookup. Another hit the deep bait at the same time but no hook up. Wahoo drive bys...
We head SE to the 050 line in 50f and find a massive weed bed. We nail a nice 20 pound gaffer off the bed then troll away and get a couple more gaffer bites but miss them. Then Dave sees a MASSIVE Blue snooping around the spread (way back). He says it was the biggest he's ever seen but it just disappears. We put an Ilander (Rodney) large bally on the flat line and sure enough, not 15 minutes later a big Blue wails it and screams the Penn 70. It is grey hounding and putting on an awesome show. It takes the line down to like 1/8th of the spool in a hurry. I get hooked in and start fighting it but the fish is not stopping. Sure enough, the main line parts as the fish is up top just going ballistic. Had it on for like 10 minutes....that flat line bite was AWESOME...I saw it come up and just inhale that bait.
We end up getting one more nice Bull gaffer off the weed mat then troll back toward the Cigar. Another wahoo airs out on the flat line and belly flops it and cuts the leader clean...I guess he did not have enough fun because he also cut the long rigger shortly thereafter!
On top of the Cigar we manage to boat a 20 pound Wahoo on the long rigger bait.
So in the end, we went like 0 for 5 on Whitey (one Sail in there), 0 for 1 on a 300 pound class Blue, 2 for 6 on Wahoos and probably like 2 for 5 on Gaffers. The blue we hooked was not the one Dave saw...he said it was MUCH bigger
What a great day out there...it was definitely a sight seing that Blue put on a show.
Thanks again Dave for taking us out there...
Glenn
ps - I had a "scattered grass" nightmare last night ;-)
Anyway, our expectations were low based on reports so we hoped to get a nice fish or maybe two if we were lucky for Rog.
We dropped in on the cigar (middle part) and within 10 minutes of the spread being out, a wahoo airs out on the bird chain. Dave jigs it and we're tight. We make pretty quick work of a nice 30 pound Wahoo...WOW...the pressure is off!
We got the spread back out and 10 minutes later out of the corner of my eye I see the Spreader bar get hit...I jig it and see a marlin working it over. Rog cranks in the bar and the fish follows it. I try to feed it a small bait but nope, it wants the Ilander Express with a big bally! Dave hooks the fish from the bridge and we're on. I look at the other flat line and a Sailfish is trying to eat it. Pops out but it disappears. Then Dave's fish comes unglued. Just that fast, the long rigger Dave has on the bridge comes down but no dice. Then my long rigger comes down and I drop back twice and I'm hooked to Whitey. A couple of very nice runs and damn, the hook pulls. We had another hit on the short rigger too so we think we had 5 fish come in. We stuck two but both fell off.
We put a deep bait down and later another Hoo bit the bird chain but no hookup. Another hit the deep bait at the same time but no hook up. Wahoo drive bys...
We head SE to the 050 line in 50f and find a massive weed bed. We nail a nice 20 pound gaffer off the bed then troll away and get a couple more gaffer bites but miss them. Then Dave sees a MASSIVE Blue snooping around the spread (way back). He says it was the biggest he's ever seen but it just disappears. We put an Ilander (Rodney) large bally on the flat line and sure enough, not 15 minutes later a big Blue wails it and screams the Penn 70. It is grey hounding and putting on an awesome show. It takes the line down to like 1/8th of the spool in a hurry. I get hooked in and start fighting it but the fish is not stopping. Sure enough, the main line parts as the fish is up top just going ballistic. Had it on for like 10 minutes....that flat line bite was AWESOME...I saw it come up and just inhale that bait.
We end up getting one more nice Bull gaffer off the weed mat then troll back toward the Cigar. Another wahoo airs out on the flat line and belly flops it and cuts the leader clean...I guess he did not have enough fun because he also cut the long rigger shortly thereafter!
On top of the Cigar we manage to boat a 20 pound Wahoo on the long rigger bait.
So in the end, we went like 0 for 5 on Whitey (one Sail in there), 0 for 1 on a 300 pound class Blue, 2 for 6 on Wahoos and probably like 2 for 5 on Gaffers. The blue we hooked was not the one Dave saw...he said it was MUCH bigger
What a great day out there...it was definitely a sight seing that Blue put on a show.
Thanks again Dave for taking us out there...
Glenn
ps - I had a "scattered grass" nightmare last night ;-)