PELAGIC PIRATE

Took off early Friday to head to Florida to get a shot at some off the awesome offshore fishing that's been going on.

Made some bait and cleared the pass at 7 pm into a nasty head sea for a 6 hr pounding all the way to the canyon.

Arrived and proceeded to park with about 10 other boats. UW Lights go on and the sword baits go over , don't even get bait two out and we are on .The fish started off like it might be a good one , but came in quickly after 5 min on the 80 seemingly to small to keep and unbuttoned ,so lines back in and never another bite all night in the heavy seas and choking heat (I swear is was like 90 degrees at midnight).


As the sun was rising the spread was out and we were headed into the head sea again till I told my boat partner , DUDE this sucks ...........!


So with no real action early and just a horrible sw swell and wind that makes you wonder why you even went fishing, we turned toward home to troll back from the spur over the dumping grounds and along the 600 line and east to the blue water hanging near the Johnny walkers ridge and the wings. About 30 min into trolling we hook up on a huge Sailfish which dumped a ton of line before we could get the other 8 rods in. We were able to finally get the boat in a position to gain the line back and made quick work of the biggest sail we have ever caught in the gulf. After a few pictures and a revival of the sail we troll on and not much later my buddy who had been puking since we left the dock was up next on what turned out to be a 40 pound wahoo.

By now the sea were not as bad and we are thinking we may piece together a nice day with the wind also dying !


Only issue now was it was 1000 degrees out and scattered grass everywhere making it fun to troll. I cleared lines at one point for 3 straight hours never stopping just to keep the spread right. This paid off big time a we picked away at the Dolphin boxing a dozen nice fish along the way . Around 3 pm I'm on deck and Reggie is in the tower.I'm. Clearing a line and letting one out when a nice blue Marlin comes in and crushes the daisy chain off the starboard side then hops on the seastar Bally combo I'm dropping back and just crushes it and were on , then off that quick. He then comes back and crushes the other side of the spread and then poof gone.........total bummer but that's fishing sometimes . So we troll on and pick a few more dolphin and decide to head for some deep grouper spots as we head for the barn.


After a short 10 mile ride we are on a hump and comes up to 213 feet from 240 . We had some awesome bait we made offshore paddy hopping and I dropped a huge hardball down on a 50w and hook up instantly . After a short tussle on heavy gear I basically low gear wound a 45 pound gag grouper up with ease on my trolling rod. So I drop again , and same results 4 times in a row catching 3 grouper over 40 pounds and half of the biggest red snapper I've ever seen.Half because the tax man took his share but the piece that was left weight 20 pounds holy chit man......



We caught a few huge back breaker amberjacks on jigs up to 50 pounds as well a hooked a huge fish we think had to be a Warsaw grouper because all 3 of us fought that fish for 1.5 hrs on a stellla and had it coming up about half way using the boat and holding the spool . Then it sings off a 200ft run and rocked us .........I was able to un-rock the jig and started pumping it up and wham .....on again ?....this one I hand off to my buddy and up comes another huge gag grouper.


We pull the plug at 7 and head back in slick seas to the dock capping up another epic venture into my backyard playground bringing home a boat load of tasty fish once again.
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Eastern Tackle

Very nice pics.

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MSViking

Sounds like a great trip (sans the heat and seas!) You have always impressed me with your ability to catch a wide variety of quality fish, especially gags!

I am definitely spoiled now with the AC on the Viking, I never knew how hot I got till I had AC to get into! No going back now, I might go broke but gotta have the AC and fresh water showers now! Ha ha!

Robert

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MSyellowfin
2008 54C Viking "Jacquelyn"
2010 36 Yellowfin "Forgiven" (sold)
2010 24 Hurricane Deck Boat
2001 Contender 25 (sold)

coolbluestreak

Awesome pictures and report!

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DISANTO

Great trip!

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Downtime2

Nice catch Mike and crew!

skram

Nice Sailfish

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bayougrande

wide kind'a ride is that? looks sweetoh ya, impressive trip!!!

mcoaker

Nicely done! Great pics

PELAGIC PIRATE

The funny thing Robert , we were looking at new boats on the way home


I'm turning 45 this year :

Bucket list is being compiled and AC may be in our future.


I may miss the tiny fuel bill , but I would pay up for Ac and cold showers plus once your out there staying an extra day is actually doable due to the accomidations and the recovery factor of a bunk in Ac, always come home


I started with a jon boat and I'm slowy working my way up the chain to what your riding in


Thx for the comments Robert and if you are Ever looking crew Reg and I are ready to come run the deck of your battleship.............