Empire Southpass Tarpon Rodeo

[capt hoop]

Last minute my one trip for the weekend falls through. I was getting a depressed feeling. There is a small fishing tournament down here that I have never entered because I had charters or other things to do with the boat. I decided at the last minute to give a buddy a call. He had plans to use his boat and take his grandson who's father had passed away last month with cancer. They both needed something to help in the healing. I told Jimmy that he could leave his boat and we would use mine for the 2 & 1/2 days.

The event started at 11:00 am on Thursday and went through 6:00 pm on Saturday with weighins each day from 3:00 till 6:00 . It covers almost every type of fish you can think of. Every year it is run a little differently. The first day we were to get a late start and get out about 1:30. The crew was a little later than planned. Due to the late start we were limited as to where we could go and what we could do. We ran out 16 miles and Our first lines in were at 4:10 pm. I put them on a spot where the fish were hungry. We had a lot of good sized red snapper.




We were 5 short of a limit but decided to head in and try to make the weighin time of 6:00. We only went about 2 miles in when we found out the flud gates were broken so we turned around and went back to put the other 5 red snapper in the box. Our fish had to be iced and held over till the next afternoon for the weighin. One of our fish happened to be a very good kingfish that we felt would be in the top 3.




At the dock we took some pictures and put them in an ice box in the back of the pickup till the next afternoon.



The second day was an offshore trip and we got out of the barn early. At times we have a hard time getting bait but this time I only made 4 casts with the 5 foot cast net and had about 150 pogies / bunker. With the bait so easy I started to watch over my shoulder to see where the day would go wrong. We ran the 45 miles offshore and went straight to our targeted rig. A lot of boats and nothing being gaffed. I moved to anouter rig nearby and we lost a mahi on a popper. With nothing taking our live bait I decided to chunk. This was our ticket and Even had his first ever tuna on. After a good fight I stick the gaff and we have a nice 45 pounder in the box.



Our second one throws the hook half way through the battle. The next one starts hauling line and dumping my reel. It is loaded with 100 pound Jerry Brown so It can run a long way. I am in 3,000 feet of water and this guy can not be turned or stopped. I want to thank Alex of Super Strike charters for breaking up his drift and giving me room in the beginning of this battle. I increased the heat on it and it seemed to help. I only thought so. It was just leveling off and I was able to chase it and gain a little. This battle went on for a very long time and the fish had us about 2 miles from where I hooked it up before the $--# hit the fan. A high stick move from a very beat up man broke the rod and we had to put on gloves and try to splice the line to another pole. This tank could not be turned or headed up no matter how hard we tried. As soon as I had the splice made, I did not even attempt to trim the bitter ends, I started to reel in the little slack we had when this monster cut the line through the XL fit gloves and cut Jimmy's hand as it also broke the line. I lost a lot of line and what I think may have been a large bluefin tuna.

One of my buddies calls me over to a Whale shark for some blackfin action. He was getting blackfin and we were getting bonito. The storms were getting closer and being 45 miles from shore and 65 miles from the dock we decided to call it with 1 yellowfin and attempt for some other types of fish. Running around the massive storms on the way in consumed a lot of time. We made some attempts to fish when we got nearer east bay but the courant was running very hard. We hook up to a shark about 200 pounds and I foolishly try to save an amberjack hook that is crimped with 300 pound leader Just before the leader broke the shark goes balistic and the leader melts through the top of my glove and burns my skin leaving a 3/4 inch burn on the top of my left hand. Let's just be sure to make it in time to weigh the fish. Running in I strike something that jars the boat and almost stops it dead. We look back as I test out the operation of the motor and see something fairly large in the water. I have struck porpuses before but this time, upon investigation, we find a shark not doing well.

Our King fish caught by Jimmy's brother in law was 35 pounds and in first place. The yellowfin at 45 pounds was first in that class and we had a pair of low 13 pound red snapper that were 2nd and 3rd. Not a bad first weigh in post.

Saturday Our last day to fish and Every body is fishing today. Our plan is to be at the boat and under way by 6:00 am. With a train of storms moving across our area we had a dock party for about 2 hours and watched the light show. We are still trying to best our red snapper so we work our way out to the spot we hit the first day. I found the reef but everything that was there was gone. The structure was there but the fish were gone. We could not get a drift going because the storms were changing the wind direction almost every 10 minutes. We were just on the edge of them. We moved to a nearby rig and found a nice king that was about the size of the one we had on the board in first place. Even nailed this one on a drift line with a live pogie.



We moved over to another rig and found some red snapper. all of these came out of the same mold at 12-13 pounds. We lost several fish in the rig and had a lot of bites we could not hook Becides the snapper we managed to find several ribbonfish. We also found out what was steeling our bait when we nailed a bull croaker and I managed a large white trout.



A quick stop in state waters and we find a bull redfish which went up on the board in second place but in the last hour when all the boats came in it was bounced down and out of the running.

We fared well in this with 3 first places and a second. We had 1st tuna.




1st and 2nd kingfish.




And not to be outdone my white trout at 2.97 pounds caught on 150 pound leader and a 16/0 circle hook took 1st place in it's catagory.



This was my first time entering this event but it has always been a fun time even at the dock and I am glad I decided to get into it this year. Looking forward to being in it next year and regretting the years I did not enter. I now have rods, reels, line, sinkers, swivels, and hooks to fix and or replace but it was all worth it.

Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM