We decided to fight the weather and head out of POC.
Left the dock around 7 am on Saturday morning. We did some slow cruising until about the 20 mile mark and hit a couple of platforms looking for some bait.
Nobody was home but cudas.
By this time it was about 10 am and the water had calmed down a lot. We jump up on plane and headed to the Brazos reef on our way out the Falcon. I was trying to take some pictures and didnt have the strap on my camera. We hit a good bump and it went flying as I reached to hold onto the boat. Splash! There are a couple of rigs right around the Brazos area and some of the crew wanted to stop again. Nothing but cudas again.
We finally get to the Brazos reef and immediately get a couple of fish hooked up on jigs. First fish was a huge Jack C.... Then we started getting a couple of AJ's up but they were just an inch shy of being legal.
We get a jigs down to the bottom and get something hooked up that took the line into the rigs. It was stuck but after about 15 min of pulling the fish came out of its hole. It ended up being a warsaw in the 30-35lb range.
After catching jacks one after another we finally boat a keeper AJ and started heading toward Falcon.
We arrived at falcon to find not a great deal better action. We were boating a bunch of jacks and a few small AJs here and there. We did learn once back at port that some of these were lesser AJ and could have been kept.
After jigging at Falcon and retying leaders and jigs on for the newbs we got one more keeper Aj before the sharks moved in. There must have been 30 or so Dusky sharks just circling the boat. Two of our crew were really wanting to deep drop bait for grouper but the sharks were not letting anything by.
The highlight for me was getting to play with my new Stella 18000. I mounted it on the tuna sniper and wanted to put it to work. I was on the bow of the boat casting a shibuki and I had a huge blowup. I had preset the drag to 24lbs and this fish as tearing it out. I fought the fish for about 5 min on the bow before moving to the back of the boat and cranking the drag a little more. Had the fish to the boat in another 2 mins and it ended up being the biggest horse eye jack I have ever seen. Must have been around 70 lbs.
It was a fun little battle but back in the water he went...
The weather was not looking to be as forecasted so at about 10pm we decided we were going to scratch the original plan to fish for swords at night at the East Breaks and go ahead and head closer to port.
We had been running for about 10 miles when the sh!t hit the fan. The starboard motor just shut down in the middle of our move and decided that it was not going to run for the rest of the trip. The seas were building and we were only able to move about 7 kts. This boat does not like rough seas and it was a bath all of the way in to the 20 mile rigs we had stopped at on the way out. We decided to get tied up and wait for daylight to continue on.
The next morning we woke up to even worse conditions. We immediately starter back in getting soaked on every bump.
Made it back to the dock about 10 am and was in the hot tub by 11.
Not the best trip but I was glad to get out on the water.
Left the dock around 7 am on Saturday morning. We did some slow cruising until about the 20 mile mark and hit a couple of platforms looking for some bait.
Nobody was home but cudas.
By this time it was about 10 am and the water had calmed down a lot. We jump up on plane and headed to the Brazos reef on our way out the Falcon. I was trying to take some pictures and didnt have the strap on my camera. We hit a good bump and it went flying as I reached to hold onto the boat. Splash! There are a couple of rigs right around the Brazos area and some of the crew wanted to stop again. Nothing but cudas again.
We finally get to the Brazos reef and immediately get a couple of fish hooked up on jigs. First fish was a huge Jack C.... Then we started getting a couple of AJ's up but they were just an inch shy of being legal.
We get a jigs down to the bottom and get something hooked up that took the line into the rigs. It was stuck but after about 15 min of pulling the fish came out of its hole. It ended up being a warsaw in the 30-35lb range.
After catching jacks one after another we finally boat a keeper AJ and started heading toward Falcon.
We arrived at falcon to find not a great deal better action. We were boating a bunch of jacks and a few small AJs here and there. We did learn once back at port that some of these were lesser AJ and could have been kept.
After jigging at Falcon and retying leaders and jigs on for the newbs we got one more keeper Aj before the sharks moved in. There must have been 30 or so Dusky sharks just circling the boat. Two of our crew were really wanting to deep drop bait for grouper but the sharks were not letting anything by.
The highlight for me was getting to play with my new Stella 18000. I mounted it on the tuna sniper and wanted to put it to work. I was on the bow of the boat casting a shibuki and I had a huge blowup. I had preset the drag to 24lbs and this fish as tearing it out. I fought the fish for about 5 min on the bow before moving to the back of the boat and cranking the drag a little more. Had the fish to the boat in another 2 mins and it ended up being the biggest horse eye jack I have ever seen. Must have been around 70 lbs.
It was a fun little battle but back in the water he went...
The weather was not looking to be as forecasted so at about 10pm we decided we were going to scratch the original plan to fish for swords at night at the East Breaks and go ahead and head closer to port.
We had been running for about 10 miles when the sh!t hit the fan. The starboard motor just shut down in the middle of our move and decided that it was not going to run for the rest of the trip. The seas were building and we were only able to move about 7 kts. This boat does not like rough seas and it was a bath all of the way in to the 20 mile rigs we had stopped at on the way out. We decided to get tied up and wait for daylight to continue on.
The next morning we woke up to even worse conditions. We immediately starter back in getting soaked on every bump.
Made it back to the dock about 10 am and was in the hot tub by 11.
Not the best trip but I was glad to get out on the water.