[jig]

DBG, here is my report posted on 2cool, Oct 9, 2006 where I describe the incident (see bold underlined):


Full boat, no surprise. I boarded number 38. Got debriefed, same as always. Headed out about on time. Ride out was pretty bumpy, but not too bad. Stopped to make bait twice and did pretty well for a few minutes, but quickly tapered off each time. Got offshore late, around 11pm. I believe we were fishing Deepwater Horizon. Moon was full. First drift I rigged up with knifes (the ebay kind) on a Newell 454 and US 1140 with 40#mono. Bad news, the BkFT were scarce. I usually catch fish every drop or so, but not tonight. The few we caught were scarce and small. Not a good sign. I finally caught enough to get bait and chum, and switched over to my TLD 30II on a new Colman 50-80# rod with 60 mono over 80 specta. Using a ball bearing swivel, about 8' of 60#flouro and a 7/0 circle with a chunk.

Several YFT were caught each drift. I finally got one about 30lbs. Pretty dissappointing. I switched back to a knife to try for some BkFT. On about the third drop, maybe 20-30ft down BAM I got hammered. Bad news on the newell. I had 15# drag and the reel was screaming! Took about half my line and then we settled into a tug a war. Give ten feet, get ten feet. About 30 minutes into the battle, I am in the middle of the boat, and a guy on the back of the boat hooks a smallish YFT on a tuna hunter. It ran under the boat, and then to the front, and out again. And the guy is still standing the the back of the boat! Not good. It wasn't long until his line was tight on mine. I went into freespool to relieve the pressure, but got sawed off anyway. Not a happy camper. He was a **** good YFT too, and I needed one badly.

Sunrise came up and we heading inshore bit for some AJ and grouper. I slept thru the first spot (not intentionally) but a few AJ and grouper were caught. We moved to a second, and not much action. Frank wanted to get back to the floater so we settled down for the ride out, about 4-5 hours. I got a few more blackfin on this one and got the chunks back out early. Much better tonight! Everyone seemed to be hooking up. I got two in the boat pretty quickly in the evening, est. 55-60# and 70-75#. I am pretty happy with a limit.

Time to switch tactics. I was really anxious to try my new Spheros 14000 and my "semi-custom rod" (more on that later). So I dedicated the rest of the trip to throwing topwaters. Not very productive, although one guy got a 100# YF on a frenzy flying fish. We could see the YFT swimming in the water (seas Sat. night were calm), but hook ups were few and far between. Maybe it was the full moon. I threw for HOURS without hooking up. But we were dedicated, one guy particularly so. I was watching him cast, and he made a Herculean effort, and then some. He was at back corner, leaned way back, put all his weight into the cast, and kept right on going. Literally. He cast HIMSELF right out of the boat! Calls of 'man overboard!" rang out. I ran to the back of the boat and there he is, bobbing, and he still had his rod in his hand! What dedication. We got him a bouy, and a ladder was dropped. In he came, after handing up his rod. It was a pretty tense situation, until Frank said "20 years, 1000's of customers, and that is a first for me." Everybody laughed, and the guy was really good natured about the ribbing that started.

Anyway, after that it was pretty much time to head back so after an uneventful ride back to port we unloaded two truckloads of fish. I think the final count was 79 YFT to 100#, and lots of good 60-70# in the mix. Not many blackfin since the few we got were chummed/chunked. A few AJ and grouper.

I did not get any pics of the catch back at port. Sorry, but my truck got broken into so I was a little preoccupied. But they caught the bastards, so that is good. I have some pics on a disposable camera, if I can get it developed and converted I will post them later.

Stuff of note. I brought a chair. WOW what a difference that made in hanging out between fishing. Never again will I go without one.

My spinning rod was a Gulfstream 7 foot casting rod in the 30-50# class. Paid $30 at the Academy rod riot. I had it modified by taking the bottom two eyes off, moving them up to the 3rd and 4th eyes, and then adding spinning eyes to replace the bottom two. I searched the rods to find one off spline, and amazingly found one exactly splined backwards. Sent it to the Academy rod repair guy and he charged $35 total. So I was in the hole $65. Not bad. The rod was fantastic to cast, I easily got past the lights with baits as light as 1 1/2oz. But did not get to fight a fish with it. Maybe next time. The spheros was smoooooth and I like it so far.

I had wind knots bad every 4-5 casts, but only on the topwater plugs (several brands). No other baits I casted had this problem, including the flying fish. So after every few casts with a plug, I would reel in to within about 10 foot, and let the plug hang. It would start to spin every time. I would let it go for a while, undoing the twist, and from then on no problem.

The ebay knife jigs work fine. Lots of guys were fishing them, and although the BkFT were scarce, they worked as well as the others I saw being fished. And I did hook up to a big YFT as well.

Most YFT were on Chunks. I feel pretty confident I would have had more if not dedicated to topwaters, where I just could not connect. Some were caught on tuna hunters and ballistic flyers, knife and diamond jigs.

Thats about it. This trip was great, and everyone was really friendly, sharing info etc. Esp. like to thank Bill S. for the advice and the late nite BS sessions. Was great fishing with you. See you in November.

Jig.