We bought a new offshore boat this year and had planned a big shin dig in Port A over my birthday but, the boat wasn't quite ready! I am just now going to get it in Florida on Saturday.
Either way I was determined to go offshore fishing while I was there. We made a dumb decision to drive all night thursday night and hit the ferry at 5am sharp. I looked at the ship channel and knew I was in trouble, glass slick and the NOAA forecast had said 2ft seas.
Headed to the house, unloaded all the girls junk and headed to the bait shop.
Left the house about 7am in my 24' bayboat and made our first and only stop about 9am to the sight of beautiful blue water and bait everywhere! Water was perfect and smooth and we made around 30 kts getting there.
Before I get started, these are all pics from a cell phone so sorry about the quality!
I had one of my best friends on board and his two kids. Gary had been offshore once on a party boat and his kids had never been offshore. Gary had only caught lane and vermillion snapper so I was hoping to show them a good time.
We made quick work of our Snapper limit after about 20 minutes.
Then we started for kingfish. I don't care for kingfish other than for fun but, I wanted the kids to catch all the fish they could. I wanted them hooked! We started catching them at will and then the kids wanted to catch a shark but, for some reason they were eleusive this day??
Finally the little girl hung a small sharpnose and it made their day!
About half way through the shark battle one of my 30w flatline goes to smokin line off if it. I grabbed and set the hook but, it just kept on truckin. I thought man, thats a good kingfish and hollered for Gary to get a belt on. I handed the rod off and went back to getting the shark in the boat for a picture.
Well, about 20 minutes in to Gary's fight I was thinking maybe we hooked a bigger shark or something because he could just not get it to the boat. We had not seen color and they were locked at a stand still. If he put any pressure on the fish it stripped drag and if he just hel tight the fish never gave up. I finally pushed the lever grag ever so slightly over strike just to give him enough to start moving the fish.
As you will see in the video once I saw the fish coming to the surface there was a lot of excitement in the boat. The gaff was tied up, the kids were in the way and I wasn't sure where we were going to put a big ol Wahoo! They had heard me talk about wahoo but, I was only in 150ft of water and I never dreamed we would catch this sucker. (Disclaimer** Video was taken on a cell phone by an excited 16yr old! I did not edit anything because I think the excitement shows in the crazy video!)
Needless to say he came to the gaf (what a gaf shot right!) and we boxed him up! He ended up tipping the scales at the Fishermans Wharf at 59lbs. Pretty good fish.
The icechest would not hold him and I wanted better pictures than what I took on my cell phone so I just iced down the rod locker that doubles as a fish box and slid him up in there! Thank goodness for that or we would have been in trouble.
We headed in early because we were out of ice and tired since we had not slept the night before.
Needless to say, they are HOOKED forever on offshore fishing. Not sure what the total number of fish was but, I bet there was not 5 minutes between a bent rod somewhere on the boat.
I also took my 5yr old out the next Thursday for her first offshore trip along with gary, his kids and wife and my wife. i was not going to take my little one until we got our new boat in but, she would not except that as an answer!What a boat load of inexperienced fisherman!!!! I took my buddies 33' worldcat but, I do not have pictures yet.......I sure hope I get some. It was short because I had more first timers and we just caught our snapper and came in. Took about an hour.
Here is the end result.
Either way I was determined to go offshore fishing while I was there. We made a dumb decision to drive all night thursday night and hit the ferry at 5am sharp. I looked at the ship channel and knew I was in trouble, glass slick and the NOAA forecast had said 2ft seas.
Headed to the house, unloaded all the girls junk and headed to the bait shop.
Left the house about 7am in my 24' bayboat and made our first and only stop about 9am to the sight of beautiful blue water and bait everywhere! Water was perfect and smooth and we made around 30 kts getting there.
Before I get started, these are all pics from a cell phone so sorry about the quality!
I had one of my best friends on board and his two kids. Gary had been offshore once on a party boat and his kids had never been offshore. Gary had only caught lane and vermillion snapper so I was hoping to show them a good time.
We made quick work of our Snapper limit after about 20 minutes.
Then we started for kingfish. I don't care for kingfish other than for fun but, I wanted the kids to catch all the fish they could. I wanted them hooked! We started catching them at will and then the kids wanted to catch a shark but, for some reason they were eleusive this day??
Finally the little girl hung a small sharpnose and it made their day!
About half way through the shark battle one of my 30w flatline goes to smokin line off if it. I grabbed and set the hook but, it just kept on truckin. I thought man, thats a good kingfish and hollered for Gary to get a belt on. I handed the rod off and went back to getting the shark in the boat for a picture.
Well, about 20 minutes in to Gary's fight I was thinking maybe we hooked a bigger shark or something because he could just not get it to the boat. We had not seen color and they were locked at a stand still. If he put any pressure on the fish it stripped drag and if he just hel tight the fish never gave up. I finally pushed the lever grag ever so slightly over strike just to give him enough to start moving the fish.
As you will see in the video once I saw the fish coming to the surface there was a lot of excitement in the boat. The gaff was tied up, the kids were in the way and I wasn't sure where we were going to put a big ol Wahoo! They had heard me talk about wahoo but, I was only in 150ft of water and I never dreamed we would catch this sucker. (Disclaimer** Video was taken on a cell phone by an excited 16yr old! I did not edit anything because I think the excitement shows in the crazy video!)
Needless to say he came to the gaf (what a gaf shot right!) and we boxed him up! He ended up tipping the scales at the Fishermans Wharf at 59lbs. Pretty good fish.
The icechest would not hold him and I wanted better pictures than what I took on my cell phone so I just iced down the rod locker that doubles as a fish box and slid him up in there! Thank goodness for that or we would have been in trouble.
We headed in early because we were out of ice and tired since we had not slept the night before.
Needless to say, they are HOOKED forever on offshore fishing. Not sure what the total number of fish was but, I bet there was not 5 minutes between a bent rod somewhere on the boat.
I also took my 5yr old out the next Thursday for her first offshore trip along with gary, his kids and wife and my wife. i was not going to take my little one until we got our new boat in but, she would not except that as an answer!What a boat load of inexperienced fisherman!!!! I took my buddies 33' worldcat but, I do not have pictures yet.......I sure hope I get some. It was short because I had more first timers and we just caught our snapper and came in. Took about an hour.
Here is the end result.
Comment