GI 6/15/13 - Fish Won this Battle
 

Hit the water at 5:45 and was greeted with a beautifaul sunrise over a falt GOM. Made the 1hr 40 min run to the rig that we had success at last weekend.

First drop and my buddy is hooked up to something big. I eventually stick the gaff in a ~30lb lemon fish and his goes bat **** once on deck and slings blood EVERYWHERE!!! Bloody Decks!!!! Love it!


Out of 4 fisherman on the boat we each landed a nice ling along with a couple of bull croaker, 3 mangrove, and 1 red snapper.

The seas kicked up around 11:00 and we decided to leave them biting instead of getting stuck out there in some bad conditions. Made the long run in and finished cleaning the boat here in Broussard at 7:30. What a day!

The real story of the day was the fish that we did not land. We fish with the Penn reel and rod combo from Academy that most people use for snapper fishing. Well we have never been rig fishing before and not been able to land a fish because of our tackle. Well.....today was a first.

We hooked onto at a minimum of 10 fish that were hooked solid and fought for at least 5 minutes before either the fish taking all of our string (with drag at max) or breaking of liters or string (60 lb). We were adjusting our drag as necessary and there was no sign of the string rubbing on a rig leg. After all we were hooking these fish between 50' -100', Some of these fish we could turn and bring up to the boat but as soon as the fish would see the boat it would take off and break our tackle. We had our drag set but we had to tighten it up when the fish would head for the rig so that the fish wouldn't go into the rig and rub the string until it brekas. I was pulling with all I had and was not able to turn the head of these fish.All of these fish fought exactly like the ling that we landed fought. I do believe that it is time to upgrae our tackle. Any redommendations? Not trying to catch Marlin or tuna but a setup that will handle anything I hook up to while rig fishing.

Thank

We were in ~370' of water and getting bit HARD between 50' and 100' while dropping or retreiving bait.

We tore up A LOT of tackle and blodied the decks pretty good and had a wonderful day on the water. Coming home with 6 ziplock bags full of my new favoritre fish to eat (lemon fish) definitely was a bonus.

I was still whooped form last saturday but my dad wanted to go again so I figured if he wanted to go fishing for Father's day that is what he is gonna do. Rig Fishing is my Dad's favorite type of fishing and it was awesome to see him get so pumped up hooking up to those huge fish. Wouldn't trade today's memories for the world! Can't wait to go cook lunch for my dad tomorrow for father's day and reflect on the trip.

Is it common to have a spot that produces almost exclusively lemon fish? I thought one or two hung around a rig but I have never heard of anyone getting into them like this.

Hope the pics turn out ok.

That's some nice ling. could have been a amberjack but I dunno if you were out far enough for that. Nice Grouper throw down.

I have caught AJ on Charter Trips and they tire out easily and tend to pull down.

These fish were running side to side and away from the boat just like a ling.

We were having problems with the 30lb ling that we landed so if we got hooked up on some 50-60lb ones I could see our tackle not holding up. This was what we were thinking but could be way off.

Not bad at all.

Could be. Good be shark too.

Leader needs to be longer than the fish you are fighting.
Too tight drag will break the line. It's best to let them fight it out.
If you are using mono or floro leader, a King will cut it easily, unless you are using circle hooks.

I caught some 70 plus lb AJs. I wish he tired out easy and he pretty much went wherever he wanted. I use a 6500 ambassador with 80# braid for my ling rod. I've caught some 40-45lb ones on it. Them things throw down once they above 30-35lbs and be careful throwing them in the boat " green " they will break everything and them bones on their backs will slice you leg like a hack saw.

Nice catch Mako, I'll have to chip in and fill an empty spot next time you have one!

Penn 209 to a 6/0 with 80# braid or Mono. If you use braid put a big swivel on it with a 6-8' Mono or Flouro Leader. Also helps to use the boat to pull the fish away from the structure. Sometimes we would drop a hand line made of 1/4" rope down.

Try and Free Gaff one of them bad boys !

I cant wait to upgrade the tackle and get back out there after them.

Couldnt sleep last night thinking about those suckers that got away.

We thought about that but we didnt catch one shark all day. Usually when sharks move in that is all you catch.

Meat haul....

Ha ha. I know that feeling.

It's better to have fished and lost than never to have fished at all.

Nice haul. Your nemesis sounds like an amberjack!

Nice haul. Ill take a box full of ling ANNNYYYY day.

I didn't even notice that giant croaker !

I saw it but didn't wanna say anything. Didn't know if I was gonna set myself up. Didn't know they got that big so I didn't think that's what it was. That thing is huge

Thing gotta be close to 5 lbs