I took advantage of the calm weather last weekend and hopped on the boat. First time fishing in the GOM and I must say I'm very impressed with the boat and the amount of fish we caught. The boat left the dock around 7:00AM. First stop was for kingfish around 2PM. There were plenty of them and very good sizes. Some caught using cedar plug but most was on drifting dead sardine. I got a few bites but they chew through my 50lb floro leader in a second. After that I changed to wired leader and land one. The big surpise was that I also hooked and landed a big amberjack on dead sardine. My guess that it must be at least 30lb but dont know for sure. I also saw another big amberjack like mine caught at that stop. Then we moved to the first rig and start jigging for blackfins. It was pretty slow, just a few got caught, so the capt. moved to the 2nd rig and it even slower. I got none on those two rigs. Then we moved to the third one and it is pretty much wide open. I landed 7 blackfins before decided I had enough for the night and go to sleep. All was caught on one white Benthos jigs. I also tried some top water with Tuna Hunter lure but get no hookup. Next day, we tried for beeliners, the first stop produced all red snappers so the Capt. decided to move quickly to the next stop. I caught at least 20 there. Lots of them also caught by others. All in all, a very enjoyable trip. Lots of fish caught, include two big groupers, must be at least 50lbs. The people were all very nice, the boat is clean and the Capt. seems to know what he's doing. The deckhands also very friendly and work hard. Even this trip billed as a 36-hour trip, but I got more fishing time than the 2-day trips I normally went in San Diego. I only bring two spinning rigs. One is a 5'6 Smith WRC jig stick with Stella 20000, the other is the 7'3 Smith Kerama with Stella 10000 for poppers. But mostly used the Smith WRC jigging rod. Both rigs perform flawlessly, very light but powerful. Some pictures attached. Fishingduck
Fishingduck Welcome to the site. I am glad you enjoyed the trip. Nice pics I am Ben the 1st mate for Capt. John. Nice pic of me gaffing in the background in the blue jacket. pm me if anyone has ideas for improvements on these trips. Thanks, Ben
thanks for the report and pictures. sounds like you have the equipment figured out as you used quality reels and rods. the only drawback of their 36 hour trips is that they are generally only blackfin trips as they don't hit the floaters unless it's a drill ship and near the break....rick
Speaking of drill ships. There is a new field they are about to start drilling. Way out there! More than 300 miles out. Apparently it is a big find. I hope it doesn't translate to few floaters within range for us in the future. Good job Fishingduck!
Good report FD! I was the guy in the red rainjacket with the black croc boots. Its always funny to me to get back after these trips and see the posts. I often find out after the fact I was right by someone who posts regularly, and both of us know each other from the internet, but did not realize we were fishing together. Ben, good job on this trip, as always. See you on the water, Brian
someone caught a big ol Black bass, I see it hanging up on the first HOOK!!! I didnt know there were largemouth bass in the ocean!!! LOL!!! I think the next grouper I catch that has some size to it, I will keep it frozen and bring it back to Lake FOrk to "weigh in" and see what kind of publicity it gets.. LOL!!! Nice trip! Looks VERY fun!!
thanks all for the comments. I had a blast. I owed much of the success to the generously shared knowledege from people on this board and others. FD
