# Rigs 17/18



## Mikvi (Mar 11, 2008)

Left Sherman Cove at 1130 to calm seas and headed straight for Beer can. Got there to blue/green water at 85 deg with plenty of bait and scattered weeds. Decided to jig and first drop produced a schoolie Yellowfin. Dropped around bait balls and chased jumping Yellowfin for a couple of hours and put 2 more in the boat on jigs, and one on a topwater. Weeds cleared up, and the Yellowfin went elsewhere although there were big schools of Hardtails in the area. Set out a trolling spread and trolled the bait balls for a couple of hours and then headed to Marlin and back. No sign of Tuna at Marlin. Just at dark got two hook-ups on trolled ballyhoo/seawitch combos. One broke the line and the other spat the hook. At dark we headed to Petronius for Blackfin. They were few and far between as we were at slack water by then. Turned the boat North at 10mph on autopilot and 1st light saw us 25 miles from the Pass. Water was dead calm first thing this morning. Good weed lines forming 8 miles out, but no life on them I could see. Hopefully someone will post photos.


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## JMB (Jan 2, 2009)

Thanks for the report!

Based on what Hilton's is showing.....you did better than most would have expected.


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## Kim (Aug 5, 2008)

It's always a pleasure to fish with Mike! We had a great trip.


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## samoajoe (Dec 28, 2010)

Thanks for the info, sounds like you had decent shots at fish given what the water looked like. I am hoping the blue water shows up better this weekend.


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## Kenton (Nov 16, 2007)

Nice report. Dont know unless you go. And to echo what others said, Hiltons is looking pretty grim unless you want to run 80 miles South East :thumbdown:

Thanks for sharing!


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## Mikvi (Mar 11, 2008)

Kim said:


> It's always a pleasure to fish with Mike! We had a great trip.


 That's only because you're a masochist


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## Kim (Aug 5, 2008)

This is the second attempt to flesh out Mikes report a bit, the first one is lost somewhere on the internet.

Like mike said we headed south to the rigs trying to leave the nasty green/brown water behind us. We saw our first decent weed line within sight of land. The best weed lines we saw were out about 25 and 35 miles respectively. They weren't real wide but they stretched East and West as far as the eye could see and with the calming seas should form up into some great fishing by the weekend. We had scattered weeds and broken weed lines all the way out to the Beer Can. 

As we traveled South we ran across three rips as well. The first two were well formed with lots of white water visible from a distance. The first was about 25 miles out and the second about 40 and the last one which wasn't as distinct as the first two was just south of the 252's. The South side of each rip brought with it better water color condition with the last one leaving us in fair blue/green waters at about 82 degrees.

We got to Beer Can with the intention of trolling a spread with visions of YFT in our heads and what we found was a whole lot of bait on the surface getting busted by hungry fish. It's fair to say that we didn't have writhing masses of tuna eating bait balls, they were busting the surface all around us on a regular basis. It was decided to drop some jigs on them and to throw a popper when the opportunity presented itself. The first drop scored the biggest YFT #45/50, Mike ended up getting one on a popper and two more were caught on jigs. Putting four YFT into the fish box in 2 1/2 hours wasn't too shabby.

Mike caught about a #40 on a Williamson JP7 popper, the fish didn't realize it was hooked until it saw the boat and then took off. John jigged up the first YFT, the biggest fish of the day at around #45 on a diamond type jig. Joel I believe jigged up the second one, a #35 on a diamond jig and I caught the third, another #35 on a orange Williamson Benthos 7. Around 4:30 the jig bite had ended and the tuna weren't busting on the surface any more so we decided to troll until sunset. We put out a five lure spread. On the short corner a Black Bart Tuna Candy Mahi/rigged with Ballyhoo, short rigger a small tuna feather lure rigged with ballyhoo, shotgun was a daisy chain lure purple/black, long corner Black Bart Tuna Candy Mahi colors, long rigger a small tuna feather rigged with Ballyhoo. 

We did a few laps around the Beer Can and were rewarded with one short strike. So we headed over to Marlin and started doing laps there, around the rig and patches of bait. We were joined by a CFH boat and neither no joy was found by either boat. About the time a big SF showed up and joined the pattern we broke off and headed back toward the Beer Can for the hoped for evening bite. No knock downs as we went back the Beer Can but we did see the weeds and schools of bait moving to the East.

By the time we got back to the Beer Can we had changed a few lures out trying different things to entice a strike. Short corner was a blue Yo Zuri deep diver, the short rigger was a Black Bart Tuna Candy Mahi color rigged with a Ballyhoo, shotgun had the same daisy chain lure, long corner a small green chugger rigged with a Ballyhoo and the long outrigger Ilander Sea Star Flasher black/purple rigged with Ballyhoo. We did laps until the sun was setting with no luck. Mike decided to keep doing laps until dusk had set.

The next 20 minutes were pretty exciting. The first hit was a short strike on the short rigger. Brought it in and baited up and back out it went. Then we took a real knock down on the long rigger, a solid hook up on a big fish which ended up breaking the line because I set the drag too high! We took another short strike on the short rigger, Dusk had found us and it was time to pull in the spread and head over to Petronius to try and round out the fish box with some Black Fin.

We arrived at Petronius, found no bait on the surface but some on the bottom machine along with some fish. The bite was pretty slow just picking away at them. I did hook up on a fish that doubled the rod over, and as Mike would say ..... my drag was a drag, I locked it down to winch in the Black Fin but failed to loosen it up for the YFT and let it take some line and I ended up pulling the hook. Shortly after that the bite died and it was time to head North at a leisurely pace.

Lessons learned, ease up on the drag! #10 should be sufficient for trolling. Rig the Ballyhoo with a long hook set putting the hook farther back towards the tail or add a stinger hook to the rigs. This is going to be the tough one for me, remember to take some drag off when the rod is doubled up.

Our trip didn't have a lot of things that you "should" have for successful fishing trips. We didn't have blue water, we didn't have temperature breaks, didn't have good altimetry etc. The one thing that we did have was lots of bait on the surface in the area we fished! The bottom line at the rigs is if you have bait on the surface you will catch fish.

Mike, once again, thank you, thank you, thank you! I really appreciate the fact that you didn't make me walk back.


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Thanks for sharing the details!


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## bcahn (Jan 10, 2013)

That Kim guy is everywhere I tell you! lol Great report guys, glad everyone is safe and rested. Can't wait to make my second rig run coming soon I hope!


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## Kim (Aug 5, 2008)

Mike I'm already rigging a tray of lures for the next trip. Going to make almost all of them long hook sets and that will put an end to the short strike curse. Just to be tricky I will have rigging ready to put out a few double hook sets even though I am lazy and hate doing things that aren't quick, easy and ready to go.


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## Cap'n Davey (Mar 26, 2014)

Kim, I always pictures you as Asian LOL!!!! Great report!


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## Reelbait (Mar 3, 2013)

Pics are great, details on lures, what worked and what didn't - priceless.


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## floorman1 (Jan 10, 2012)

Funny Capt Davey I pictured Kim as an Asian guy too. That cracks me up.


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## Kim (Aug 5, 2008)

This is one way that I like tuna. Tuna seasoned with sea salt and cracked pepper seared in sesame oil, a naked salad with salt and pepper and a side of avocado. Sometimes I like a spring roll or maybe some spicy Thai noodles in place of the salad.


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## YakAttack (Oct 8, 2007)

Thanks Mike for a great trip!
A great captain and crew made for an amazing experience.
Watching the YFT busting the surface was awesome.
Seeing Mike pitch a top-water and hook up was impressive!
Catching my first yellow fin was priceless!
Hope I can join you again.


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