With a tropical storm in the Gulf there was a little concern over making this trip. On Thursday, the seas were still running 7-9 feet, but the winds were forecasted to be light and the seas were forecasted to settle out, so we still made the 3pm departure Friday afternoon. Once again it was a good call as the seas never got above 2′ and were glassy smooth most of the time.
Our crew consisted of John Billings, Steve Hardy, Fred Zeller, and Patrick Collier. Fred has been fishing on the Possession Limit for about 17 years, but this was Patrick’s first trip. Jacob Billings served as our master baiter, but had plenty of adult supervision from his dad.
First stop at the Pickett Fence quickly resulted in 5 Snapper and 3 Scamps. We continued moving from spot to spot and by 10am had our limit of nice snappers and 7 Scamp in the Frigid Rigid. The biggest grouper was a 25lb gag which had to be returned to the gulf due to the season closure. It may have even been the same one we caught last trip, judging from the size.
It was time to start trolling out to a deep drop spot, so we put out the spread and started heading south.
Just after 11am we came across a really nice weedline running east and west for about 5 miles. We quickly changed our heading and began working the rip. Wasn’t long before a small wahoo nailed the shotgun and was introduced to our friends in the cooler. We missed 2 more shots, probably wahoo. One simply came unbuttoned, but the other bit the shotgun lure completely off.
By now we were at our targeted deep drop location in about 1200′ of water and sent some squid to the bottom. On the first drop, JB brought up 2 tiles, one weighing over 20lbs. We continued bring up doubles on most drops until we decided to shallow up a bit and get some more grouper. Two spots later we had boated three yellowedge and a couple of nice snowies.
It was time to start the troll further offshore, so we left a little room in the cooler for Tuna and put out the 7 lure spread. JB had brought a new marlin teaser, referred to as a mudflap. We deployed it in front of the number 1 bait, but didn’t see a marlin. We did have one dorado hookup but threw the hook after several jumps.
We arrived at the Tuna Hotel about dusk, and two other sportfishermen were already there. I assumed my usual seat on the northwest corner of the rig and as soon as we had a blackfin in the bucket, we started the chunking. In just a few seconds we had our first buzz as Steve brought in a nice 65lb YFT. By 9:30, about the time we started catching YFT on the last trip, we had 3 YFT in the box. By 10PM we had landed a total of 6, the box was full, and it was time to start heading for the Sunday morning target area.
We relocated to the area known as the Butterfly for our Sunday fishing. While trolling over the structure we lost what appeared to be another Wahoo since the hook was bitten off. About 10am we began experimenting on a few new deep drop spots. Every single spot we tried resulted in a bite, mostly golden tiles and a few more yellowedge and snowies. As usual, the surly deckhand began complaining that the coolers had no room whatsoever and I was forced to go on a strictly billfish diet.
About 3pm, the Williamson bullet head in the left rigger gets nailed and line continued to roll off the spool as all the other baits were cleared. Steve H took the rod and cranked in what we suspected was a large wahoo, since it never jumped. However, as John B began to wire the fish he noticed it was a little bigger than a wahoo… turned out to be a nice sail, the first billfish of the season, and the first billfish for Steve H.
We continued trolling around the Butterfly and the TIC rig. Lots of bait was nervously plopping the surface at TIC so we worked it pretty hard. About 6pm our efforts paid off as a 40lb wahoo nailed the Joe Yee plunger in the short right positon. The crew had apparently misreported the remaining cooler space, since the wahoo disappered into the Frigid Rigid without complaints.
The sun set on glassy seas and the steaks went on the grill. Conditions couldn’t have been much nicer. There were a few grumpy comments about needing more cooler space, but after 3+hours at the cleaning table, I was informed that we had adequate cooler capacity. A 12 oz cup of frozen margarita seemed to help the crew recover from the trauma of 4 days offshore.
Till next trip…
Capt. Stout