As usual, the PBGFC put on one hell of a tournament. Thank you for all the hard work that went in to this event. Jeremy looked great on the news, and even ole' baldy (Wade) represented our forum well.
We had the usual crew of Marlana, Wes Sherouse, Dave Woodley and myself. Unfortunately Hiller couldn't make it, but Blue Hoo (Woody) filled in the vacancy. We left the dock 5:30 Thursday night and headed to the pass. As we were turning the corner, we were hailed by a couple of boats that had turned around due to sea conditions. They said it was any easy 5-7 footers.
Well, we decided to head out anyways, and were met with a solid 3-4 ft chopped up Gulf. It was a bit sporty on the ride out, but by sun-up we were 115 miles out on a beautifu rip in the canyon. We instantly had a hook up that Wes fought for about 20 minutes. We had double line to the boat, when the fish decided to make another run...then the hook pulled. Wes and Woodley got a good look at the fish, and said it was a small blue....shoot!
We continued trolling and caught about a zillion dolphin in the 25-30lb range. These were good size fish, but no studs. At 1220 the right flat line goes off, and Wes again grabs the rod and comes tight on a small white Marlin. About 3 minutes later, Woodley has the wire in hand, and our first billfish gets a little jewelry courtesy of Woody and tag stick.
A little later in the day we saw monster YFT crashing, and decided to drop the spread back to see if we could hook one. Well, we had a volkswagon sky on our center rigger, but missed the hooks. That would have been a long fight! We did catch another smaller YFT a little later, but nothing compared to the studs that were being caught around us!
We decided to keep billfishing, and stuck with our balyhoo/circle hooks that had been producing all day. We caught several more fish, including two wahoo, a dozen mahi, and a cuda or two.
The next day was pretty slow. We eased back north where the water was nothing like it was way on out. I caught my only fish of the trip when putting out the lines at 0500. (a nice 8 lb cuda..yeah!) We decided to head back to the docks a bit early, and see how everyone did.
It sure would have been nice to convert on that blue...coulda done something for us. Oh well, it was a great trip. We were pleased with the whitey and box o' fish. Maybe next time we'll be on the board. The white Marlin won us some money in the calcutta, and paid for the trip....always nice to fish for free.
It was great fishing with the team. We sure missed Hiller...it just wasn't the same w/o you!
Woody Woods fit in nicely with the team, and proved to be a skilled fisherman. He can fish w/ us any time. Woodley, Marlana, and Wes...great job as always.
Sorry about the pic quality..they were taken off the video camera...
Tight lines,
Dave
We had the usual crew of Marlana, Wes Sherouse, Dave Woodley and myself. Unfortunately Hiller couldn't make it, but Blue Hoo (Woody) filled in the vacancy. We left the dock 5:30 Thursday night and headed to the pass. As we were turning the corner, we were hailed by a couple of boats that had turned around due to sea conditions. They said it was any easy 5-7 footers.
Well, we decided to head out anyways, and were met with a solid 3-4 ft chopped up Gulf. It was a bit sporty on the ride out, but by sun-up we were 115 miles out on a beautifu rip in the canyon. We instantly had a hook up that Wes fought for about 20 minutes. We had double line to the boat, when the fish decided to make another run...then the hook pulled. Wes and Woodley got a good look at the fish, and said it was a small blue....shoot!
We continued trolling and caught about a zillion dolphin in the 25-30lb range. These were good size fish, but no studs. At 1220 the right flat line goes off, and Wes again grabs the rod and comes tight on a small white Marlin. About 3 minutes later, Woodley has the wire in hand, and our first billfish gets a little jewelry courtesy of Woody and tag stick.
A little later in the day we saw monster YFT crashing, and decided to drop the spread back to see if we could hook one. Well, we had a volkswagon sky on our center rigger, but missed the hooks. That would have been a long fight! We did catch another smaller YFT a little later, but nothing compared to the studs that were being caught around us!
We decided to keep billfishing, and stuck with our balyhoo/circle hooks that had been producing all day. We caught several more fish, including two wahoo, a dozen mahi, and a cuda or two.
The next day was pretty slow. We eased back north where the water was nothing like it was way on out. I caught my only fish of the trip when putting out the lines at 0500. (a nice 8 lb cuda..yeah!) We decided to head back to the docks a bit early, and see how everyone did.
It sure would have been nice to convert on that blue...coulda done something for us. Oh well, it was a great trip. We were pleased with the whitey and box o' fish. Maybe next time we'll be on the board. The white Marlin won us some money in the calcutta, and paid for the trip....always nice to fish for free.
It was great fishing with the team. We sure missed Hiller...it just wasn't the same w/o you!
Woody Woods fit in nicely with the team, and proved to be a skilled fisherman. He can fish w/ us any time. Woodley, Marlana, and Wes...great job as always.
Sorry about the pic quality..they were taken off the video camera...
Tight lines,
Dave
