[DeepBlueGulf]

Hey Guys,

Here are some pictures from the trip, Not sure how to caption them on this board, but we'll see how it all comes out.

First Picture is the Red Hawk floater on our first night!


Second Picture - STXFisherman and Bret! Those Margaritas got those two acting real friendly!


Third Picture - The Cinco Cooking Crew cooking up some Peppers for dinner.


Fourth Picture - TJ watching Rick and wondering why he isn't following his fish! There were a few tangles on this trip, but glad I only caused one or two.


Fifth Picture - A Tackle Ho's dream! All the best tackle in the world! Notice that OTI Popper hanging ready to hook a YFT

 

[DeepBlueGulf]

Here are some more Cinco pictures.


Picture #1 - Bret and TxSeadog waiting on a bite somewhere over the Flower Gardens.


Picture # 2 - Bellyup(Fins) and Grescobia on the bow! Notice Gres is bowed up good!! He caught a huge, maybe 70lb Amberjack at the first stop on Saturday! Some good sized Grouper came from this stop!

Picture # 3 - Mr. Bill's t-shirts being thrown over!

Picture # 4 - Bellyup and TJ (Minnow) on the bow trying to wrangle a YFT out of the Gulf! Due to some serious "Victory at Sea" action, the topwater bite never materialized.

 

[STx Fisherman]

Great pics Tom!

The Cinco Trip was a great trip although the yellowfin tuna bite was not on....(yet).

We did however manage to boat close to or around twenty yft's, 60 +/- grouper, a few AJ's ... (John's was an AJ that he won't ever forget...70+ pounds???....let us know, John).

Also caught was a wall trophy trigger fish by Jerry, (snagged)....I bet it weighed close to five pounds or more. In my mind Jerry is the trigger king....lol.

A couple of Tile fish were caught....and LOTS of blackfin tuna were hooked.

All in all it was a fun trip....(except maybe for the last twelve hours where we probably experienced occasional twelve foot waves).

Thanks to everyone on the trip....it was a friendly group of very qualified fishermen...and the memories are etched in my mind forever.

 

[Bellyups]

Great pics!!

There were also 2 green moray eels caught.

I must admit it, I liked the marguerita and frozen lemonaide machines.

 

[awesum]

Thanks for the pics. It's good to hear that you'all were able to make the most out of a trip with less than ideal conditions. Sounds like a great time.

Bret is taller than Richard? That's pretty tall....


B

 

[ScottF]

Glad you guys had a good time!!!

 

[Ragman]

Great pics Tom!

I noticed the new gaff in the 2nd pic (of Scott and John in the pulpit)!

 

[newman]

SWEET! Thanks for the pics Tom!

 

[newman]

So what is the story of the shirts in the water?

 

[feeder]

Sounds like you guys had some fun. Thanks for the update and pics. The sight of blue water always makes the day go by that much slower

Were any YFT taken on poppers? What were they biting this time?

 

[bulllred]

Thanks for the pics!

 

[bpitcher]

Awesome report and pictures, ya'll sure do a good job of making me jealous. So most of the bite was on topwater?

One more month and I'm home free!

 

[Sea Crappie]

Brad, Feeder,

First night 1 YF was taken on a swimbait and 1 on a topwater, the rest came mostly on chunks with a fish or 2 taken on jigs. I stayed with topwaters all night (not many of us did) and caught dozens of BF but was skunked on the YF. The one and only time I took a 5 minute break, I look over the rail to see STxFisherman hooked up with the one real topwater YF of the trip. Chunks produced slowly but surely all night long, and we saw plenty of YF close to the boat near the surface, the bite just never got real hot.

2nd night I don't think we saw or hooked a YFT. The wind was 20+kts most of the night and the current was ripping. We drifted so fast, that to be effective jigging (even with 14oz jigs), we took turns at the stern casting our jigs ahead of the drift and them walking them back to the port side as the boat drifted by. If you just let them out without the cast, they wouldn't get much deeper than the chunks.

All that said, it was a really enjoyable trip, had a blast fishing with some great folks. Now I'm going back to planning my fish-centric dinner menu for the week.

 

[MrBill]

Questions:

Was there enough rod holders?
Do you think 40 fisherman is too many for the Big E?
Was there enough room for your coolers?
Any broken rods or tackle failures?
Where did you put the margarita machines?
How would you rate the gaffing?
Were the cuda's a problem?
Were you able to net any live flyers?
Any bottom fishing action on jigs?

 

[Sea Crappie]

Mr. Bill,

1. Exactly enough rod holders. I was the last one to board (I got on the trip friday morning) and there were exactly as many spare rod holders as I had rods. That said well over 50 rods were in milk crate rod holders, so if those crates weren't on board we would have had a serious shortage.

2. only when everyone wants to do 1 thing. The main reason I didn't chunk night 1 (even after realizing the odds of a topwater bite were low) was the incessant tangles generated by 38 fisherman jigging / chunking off the port side. By the same token, I've been on trips when only topwater would work and that gets crowded too, only instead of tangles you get attitude.

3. yes

4. Not that I saw. Then again there were not alot of tackle busting fish hooked up.

5. under the countertops in the galley where the microwaves are.

6. Better than before, which is to say, given a reasonably large target, they can stick the fish in the first 2 tries (typically in the belly or shoulder). While obviously head gaffs are the best, the only time I get PO'd at the mates is when the belly gaff bottom fish that have bouyed to the surface. They're just FLOATING there not moving, there's no excuse under those circumstances not to take the time for a head gaff.

7. they only took 3 of my jigs, so no, not really.

8. many, but the YF didn't care for them. I've seen this before, very frustrating.

9. I bottom fished with nothing but jigs and caught many nice almaco jacks and a nice marbled grouper. Many nice almacos, grouper and at least 1 of the big AJ's came on jigs. I felt like they performed as well or better than bait.

 

[THE JAMMER]

I am not a member of the Cinco group, but I was lucky enough to secure a spot on this trip through McGolfer, and am I glad I did.

I must say, they are a tremendous group of guys, gals, and anglers. I've only been on one other Big E trip, and this one was like night and day compared to the other one I went on. The level of fishing expertise and cooperation on this trip was excellent. Very few tangled lines- you always have some-, great cooperation among the anglers regarding things like alternating putting out chunking lines, etc. resulted in a very professional trip.

The food and margaritas were pretty good as well. It was a tough trip weatherwise, as has been said, but all in all a great trip. I'm not sure how, out of 40 fishermen, I totally missed out on that fantastic grouper bite (about 60 were caught), but I was lucky enough to get two yft's.

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip, and would fish with any of those guys again.

THE "VERY GLAD I WAS THERE" JAMMER

 

[DeepBlueGulf]

The important answer is --- The Margarita machine went on the floor under one of the shelves. It was a perfect fit, close to an electrical outlet and totally out of the way. No chance for it to tip either. And it served both frozen lemonade and frozen Margaritas! The machine was a big hit for everyone, and all drinkers were very responsible as well.

No comment on the Gaffing! Although I will say this was an excellent crew!

Cudas? I didn't think they were a huge problem, but I did get one on a Wahoo Bomb. There were several cut offs during the trip, but no more than usual I think.

At the Flower Gardens I was able to get a 15lb Grouper on a White Salas 6XJR, mostly just bouncing it off the bottom. Also took a 20lb Blackfin on that same Salas jig!

Hopefully others will add some answers.

Tom - DBG

 

[SkeeterRonnie]

guessssss who!!!

 

[SkeeterRonnie]

 

[Gunsmoke]

From the looks of this tuna, I'd rate the gaffing a "F".