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capt hoop · #1 02-15-2012, 10:25 PM

Still nothing going with me untill March but I am deck handing for Eddie. We had a trip with 2 guys from Wyoming who had no idea what was in store for them. They had watched vidios and thought they had an idea. On the way out they talked about hunting in the mountains and salmon and trout fishing. Our first 2 rigs only produced 1 wahoo. We had 3 hits and lost them due to split ring failure. This batch of Bomber baits came with weak split rings. This was the biggest fish he had ever caught.

We went to another 2 rigs and struck out then on the third rig (5th for the day) we find the dreaded jack cravele.

This made us run from that rig in a hurry. We are trolling a rig and then jigging if we mark fish on it while constantly moving in the direction of one of the yellowfin spots in the area. We get a blackfin then another wahoo that was a lot bigger than the first. While jigging we get a few surprizes. One of them was this nice cobia.

We also pulled in a scamp grouper that went back due to the grouper season being closed and the biggest gag grouper I have ever seen. This was landed with a shimano talica 16 and a butterfly jig. Eddie guestimated the weight at 45-50 pounds.

All this jigging around some rigs that are usually loaded with amberjack and we could not find them. Don't get me wrong I was having a ball seeing all these other fish find our lines. When we hit our last rig before the tuna grounds we are not finding the AJ's. I tell Eddie I have found them on the opposite corner at times. This does not make sence due to the current direction but as we get close to that corner one of the guys hooks up. Eddie puts the boat in gear to pull the AJ out and within 2 seconds we have a double hook up. They found out why these fish are called reef donkeys.

We get a call from another captain that he just landed a good yellow. Let's roll! Our first drift marks nothing. Short drift and move. Second drift we get some blacks and a yellow as well as the kingfish and 2 big sharks. One of the guys fought it all the way to the boat and was whipped after that. Another set and we find Bonito and kings and a black. Suddenly one line starts singing and does not stop. The guy that just fought the shark was on it and said "What the _____ did I get into?" Eddie drops the line he is feeding out and I stop chumming and reel in that line. Eddie starts the motors and starts chasing the hog. I have the other guy get his line in as quickly as possable and tell him to rest. He will most likely get into this one soon. We get a harness on this guy and he is on it for over half an hour before giving in. The fish came up tail wrapped but just out of gaff shot it got free and made another monsterous run. In all fairness the guy was still hurting from that shark. He did well and had the fish within 60 feet. His buddy finished it off. That last 60 feet took about another 10 minutes or so.

They were done and happy after that so we headed in. Turned out to be a good move as the 30 mile run in got a little sporty before we made the turn into the pass.

2 wahoo, 1 cobia, 2 amberjack, 3 blackfin, and 2 yellowfin. The big one went 130 pounds even.

Life is Good!

Capt Hoop

wtretrievers · #2 02-15-2012, 10:48 PM

Nice Capt! When we worked down there we would sit up on the deck drink a few

& watch the fish come off the boats & the Yankees that sometimes came down for a trip were a freaking hoot! They thought those muskies were tough!!!!!!

Nice report!