"Big E-Sept 1-3

[Uncle Russ]

Just back: Jason L, gimmedeal, drifter, Steve (not sure of handle), and Uncle Russ. Capt announced we would be going out 207 miles to Redhawk. We were vwey excited. All in all a good trip but not a great trip. Also went to some banks for bottom fishing. Saturday was very good into Sunday morning. Sunday-Monday: not so much. Plan B was Auger on the way home--not much action. Total: 17 YFT to 70 lbs + a numer of AJ s and a few Grouper. Our group had 3 YFT including the big boy. Captain was great and worked hard to put us on fish, but we all know it is sometimes tough. What a deck crew!!!!! Mercy. Pictures from the yahoos who take pictures of real men with their fish. Gimmedeal (Fred) celebrated number 57 with ribeyes and a yellowfin on a popper. Happy birthday for him.

Russ (the others are cleaning fish and Fred is eating chunks of it blood raw!). My cat used to do that but it got mangy and dropped dead. Lord knows, I couldn't live like that.

Russ

[mcgolfer]

uncle russ
how did you do and what did you catch? you had the best equipment and the best advice...lol..di any of our advice parlay into fish for you?....rick

[awesum]

57? Fred's just a kid .... happy birthday GD.

Glad you guys had a good trip and also saved some YFT for us this weekend.

[fishologist]

nice cant wait to see some picts, man redhawk is a haul, what did it take to get out there 8 to 10 hrs

[TeamOso]

i hope yall took pics of redahawk love seeing those pics of the E at the floaters

[Jason_L]

So its been a while since I have wondered on to this board since I havent done much fishing.But I figure I will give my 2 cents on the trip. Overall I had about 10 or so keepers. Black fin from 10-15lbs made up the majority of them,with the exception of one 13lb broomtail grouper.Caught tons of small blacks and a few small yellows as wells.Did hook up with a yellow,on a free lined live flier.Brought him all the way to the boat but couldnt get him gaffed,ended up coming unhooked. Besides the grouper,all my fish were caught with the blue glow Abyss 14oz speed jig,and the Benthos 14oz black jig on an oti jigging rod,and hoo-x reel. Must say I really did like the oti rod,light weight nice grip areas,and seemed to work the jig well. Plus it had enough back bone to let me bulldog some of the bigger fish in quickly.For my first offshore trip longer then 12 hours I had a really good time. Enjoyed it very much,even though I had to put with uncle russ . Hopefully next one I can boat a yellow.And for the record,my yellowfin would have swallowed uncle russ's lil 70lber.

[gimmedeal]

Man am I tired. Just walked into the house. It was a great way to spend a birthday, i'd highly recommend it.
On Saturday at the safety meeting, Capt Frank announced the game plan. He said tuna fishing had been very spotty and the plan was to set sail to Redhawk. This would allow a quick stop for bait, not bottom fishing en route and arrival at Redhawk before midnight. Sounded like a plan. The problems were it was a long distance there and then a long distance back during the day for bottom fishing. Fuel burn didn't seem to be an issue though. We travelled BIG miles in the Gulf in the 52 hours.
Arrived at Redhawk before 11p. Our bait stop wasn't greatly productive but time looking for bait was time away from fishing. We had some hardtails and maybe a couple hundred piggies. On arrival, I commence jigging. Used the OTI 600g rod and Jigger 5000P. The Ocea Jigger is an AWESOME jigging reel. Star drag but smooth and powerful. I didn't get a chance to handle a YF on it but after numerous BF I'm convinced.
A spotty but present topwater bite later sent me after my 1600F Stella and OTI 7 foot spinner. An OTI popper produced my YF, had the drag set for 20 lbs. I made a long cast from the starboard side and after 5 minutes had him at gaff on the bow in about 5 minutes. The OTI spinner had plenty of power and handled the fish easily.
Louis (Megabite) fought and landed a topwater YF on a Trinidad 30. Then we all watched and waited for about 2 1/2 hours while one fisherman caught his YF on a Calcutta (what do they have, 6 or 8 lbs of drag). When we returned to Redhawk for the next drift, the bite had slowed noticeably.
Am about to fall asleep, will update tomorrow. Did have a great time, met some great folks, and had ribeyes and corn on the cob offshore in the GOM. Pretty much a birthday that couldn't be beat. Only been on the Big E this once, but I miss her already.

Fred

[Ragman]

Great report teasers so far!

Glad to see the OTI rods are performing well for you guys too!

Sometimes it's a gamble to make that initial run to Redhawk, but with the Big E's capability to cover water, I like taking that chance when no other reports are saying go somewhere else.

Glad you guys are tired too! Means a lot of fishing!

Really glad to hear about the DH's!

[Uncle Russ]

Rick: I managed 1 pretty good YF on an ATD 50 that I bought from some old Tackle Ho and an AJ about 25 poundson the same rig. Jigged a while but after going down 300-500 feet with a 14 oz jig and sp7innin reel for BF is a lot more attractive if you are Jason's age and built like a Hummer. I missed the topater bite but got in a lot of practice casting.Getting a lot better at it. The answer to your question about advice requires me to turn off my humor button for a minute. Everything I know about OS fishing came from the folks on this board, from knots to casting to fighting technique. Still haave a long way to go! I will comment further on the trip when I am off this damned Blackberry.

Russ

[Uncle Russ]

fishologist: I think the captain originally said it would be 12 hours. The seas were so calm, however that we made it out in about 10 1/2.


Rick asked what I had learned. Here are a few items:

(1) It really does take a real man to drop a heavy jig down deep and when folks like Kil and others told me the lightness of the equipment was important, that was not B.S. The rod I used on the small amount of jigging I did (maybe 15 drops) was a Smith 5 1/2 foot Nirai that is rated for PE8 and weighs 11 ounces--no problem there. But the 32 ounce Twinspin also had to be lifted every time along with the rod and a jig that outweighed it by 3 ounces. I chose the Shimano long lift and reel down, partially because someone (I think it was you Rick) felt that YFT prefer it slower, but mostly because the process was so tiring that I was in reality pumping up and reeling down on the freaking jig!!

2. Using the rail is for real. Even though I could read and write when Fred was born 57 years ago, I greatly adimire his ability to fight fish--any fish--without a harness. So I decided to do that the entire trip. And it was successful, but in addition to the gimbal and plate putting the rod down on the rail in low gear and honking down on that crank was slow but sure.

3. I learned that reasonable people can differ and all be right. I had previously used size 5 and size 7 super mutu hooks for chunking--with some success. But the deck hands on the Big E had little rigs made up of 64 pound mono tied to a little bitty circle hook that was about the size of the end of my little finger. I decided to use one even though Louis gave me that look he has that means "If you lose a big one on that piece of $hit, don't blame me." But as I told Steve and Fred, I was willing to take that chance just to be able to lord it over him if I landed a 150 pounder on something that looked like a perch hook. You would have to know Louis to understand.

4. I learned that people rarely ever change much. I learned many years ago that if you really want to catch a fish, you use bait--live bait--dead bait--but not plastic, wood, or iron. And hour after hour, nothing in my limited experience has changed that opinion. Catching a yellowfin on a jig is hard. I didn't try it real hard but I watched a helluva lot of other people do it and only one yellow was caught by one guy on a jig the whole trip--not counting a couple of babies. And the bites on top are brief--especially when some guy decides it is OK to use bass tackle--Hell, nobody matters but him. See below.

5. Fred was being nice about the yahoo with with the light rod. I will not be. He was selfish and cost the rest of us a lot of fishing. It was rumored he was a regular, but that should have been no excuse. We work as hard for our money as he did. I hope you are reading this, my friend, whoever you are because, although I doubt you care, when you went back to using the same crap after that marathon, you showed how little you care about your fellow anglers.

Now I know not everyone can spend as much money on tackle as some do. I am by no means rich, but decided if my future hobby is going to be fishing, I need to be equipped for it. Some of us just have to prioritize. Two rigs would do it. Oh well, this fellow probably logs onto the internet with dialup and a Commodore 64. Used Dells cost too much.

6. I learned one other thing: those gorgeous women on Jason's posts are not ones he actually knows. I personally saw 3 girls come up to flirt with him at different times in restaurants and gas stations. Only one of them had all her teeth and the other two had wide load signs on their back.

That is the rant. I may think of more later. You would never know it but I loved the trip.

Russ