# Rigs on Thurs Night 4/19?



## MikenBama (Feb 18, 2010)

Anyone else going?


----------



## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

Thinking real hard about it


----------



## MikenBama (Feb 18, 2010)

We are trying to decide between some grouper and AJ fun and then going over for a couple passes around Petronius or just heading straight to Horn, Ram, etc.


----------



## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

As good as the water has been around the edge and nipple I am thinking it's not worth it to go all the way to the rigs.....wahoo bite has been on fire


----------



## LRAD (Aug 13, 2009)

We are currently planning to hunt for wahoo around the nipple / edge on Friday. Will probably wait until more predictable summer weather patterns to run to rigs, though if the weatherman is right Thurs / Fri are looking pretty nice. Good luck and be safe.


----------



## Trophyhusband (Nov 30, 2011)

Last week I saw a wahoo 15 miles straight south of Destin. I'm taking my dad out tomorrow for his last trip before flying back home. He wants to catch more AJ's and doesn't want to go out super far and definitely doesn't want to go back to the edge. I'm kind of hoping there is no bite closer in so we can "work our way" out to where there just happens to be weeds and blue water. No reason not to high speed troll between wrecks.


----------



## Kim (Aug 5, 2008)

We decided to go to the Nipple and work our way to the Spur spend the night fishing for Swords and Friday the plan is to drag lures and hope to snag something in the lip.


----------



## BBreeze (Aug 26, 2009)

We are planing on hitting the elbow Friday morning


----------



## MikenBama (Feb 18, 2010)

We decided to make the run late this afternoon. Will do some rig fishing until after the morning bite, then hit some deep spots and fast troll on the way back in. Made up a few custom jigs we are itching to try. Will hopefully get some pics...and fish.


----------



## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

Good luck, we will be at the edge/nipple tomorrow dragging baits!


----------



## Capt. Ed (Aug 15, 2011)

*nipple east side*

Planning on leaving early and try to find the wahoo bite in fairly
close.
Capt. Ed


----------



## marmidor (Mar 15, 2008)

Good luck guys and be safe. Looking forward to your report!!! 

PEEPS.....you suck...I'll be working LoL!! Be safe buddy. Looking forward to your report also!


----------



## MikenBama (Feb 18, 2010)

*Thursday Night Rig Bonanza*

Left the pass at around 6:30 pm on Thursday. Stopped and added some ruby lips to the bait well. Made the decision to bounce past the closer stops and ran to the Marlin. Sky was super clear and the water laid down at 8:30. On our way out we saw some crazy lights in the sky. I think it was around 9:30 and it looked like fireworks—not flares, but like a low-budget fireworks show going on 70+ miles offshore. A little creepy. Got on the radio but never heard any useful info about what it was. 

Made it to the Marlin and the rig was wide open when we arrived. Started out by jigging and got hammered by footballs with a few larger BFs mixed in. Dropped some live bait and got a nice hook up on a mako. We cut him loose at the boat. Moved around the rig and did a little chunking. Hooked plenty of BF and then the sharks set in. No surface action. We ran to Horn Mountain when another boat pulled up next to us. 

Normally I am the guy who picks the wrong rig every time. If we go to Ram Powell, they are at the Beer Can. If we run past Petronius, we are just wasting our gas. This time we got it right. Got to Horn Mountain around midnight. Graph is blowing up and no other boats around. Kept 3-5 lines in the water all night. Hooked maybe 50 BF, kept plenty. Hooked 3 huge barracudas and countless sharks. Best tuna jig was a Shimano with gold on one side and glow yellow on the other. Had plenty of hard hits and break offs, including about a half dozen monster hook-ups that generated broken assist leaders, one broken hook and one straightened hook. Was trying out my new Avet and it was easy to apply too much pressure. Had a couple stud BFs get mauled by sharks. Took about a 30 minute break around 3:45 to make a sandwich and reconfirmed that we had left the dock with zero beer on board. Pouted for a little while, then started to see serious surface action and decided to troll under the light of the burn-off. Trolling starting around 4:15. Under the light we got smacked by sharks and barracudas when dragging at around 5.5. At the edge of the light I got a smallish mahi on a ballyhoo behind a blue and white jig. We edged outward from the rig and got a couple good hits. Had one awesome hook up on the long line behind the teasers, but eventually lost the fish. Billfish??? Right after daybreak we got a 35ish YF on the blue and white jig off an outrigger, followed by a 45ish YF on the next pass. Had a couple nice knock downs, then got a 120ish YF on a purple and black with ballyhoo. All trolled at about 5.5. Lost about an hour getting the 120# fish in the boat and probably lost another hour getting other fish in the boat or fighting them until they got off. Water was awesome looking and flat. Made 3 passes with no strikes and decided to try something else. 

Ran towards shore and saw some grass. Picked up more mahi by casting to them. Saw a nice bull, but could only pull out chickens. Chunked up wad of them and then moved on to try for something bigger. Got to an area that was noted for wahoo and tossed out some lures. Got a double hook-up within about 5 minutes on two weighted purple & black Hydro Magnums trolled at about 8.5-9.5. Really hard fight ensued. Got both fish to the boat and they ended up being a 40+ AJ and a 50ish AJ. Went back to the hook-up spot and began snatching out AJs on live ruby lips and then tossing them back. Got excited and dropped a big dead bait, over 5 pounds, and got steamrolled. The fish made a ten second screaming run and then broke off. Started using the boat to turn them, but never got a fish over about 60 pounds to stay on the line. It was fun to toss back 50# fish because they didn’t make the grade. 

About this time we realize we have a worse problem than no beer. No room for fish and the ice is not holding out. We filled the fish box, the Yeti, even the drink box with fish. We started wondering if we could put ice and fish in the bait well. Decided to hustle back in, but had to check out a weed line or two. Honestly, this was one of those trips where they never stopped biting and we had to cry “uncle” due to lack of cooler space and ice. It is really hard to motor away from a mile-long weed line when it is only 1:00 in the afternoon.

Made sushi last night and started rounding up pics from the guys. Trying to figure out when we can do it again.


----------



## MikenBama (Feb 18, 2010)

After the cooler shortage...


----------



## marmidor (Mar 15, 2008)

DANG my friend sounds like a trip of a life time! Well done and thanks for the report!


----------



## Kevdog540 (Aug 7, 2008)

Great report!!!!..now if this dang wind would lay down on a weekend


----------



## MikenBama (Feb 18, 2010)

thanks...more pics


----------



## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

Dang, yall crushed them, love seeing a boat get bloodied......It's always a bad thing when you run out of ice and fish storage, but then again it's always a good thing:thumbup:


----------



## Head Kned (Mar 21, 2011)

Great report. I hope they are still around Horn, we are running out there tomorrow night.


----------



## macala (Oct 4, 2007)

Great job on the big yft. we hooked up on a monster that pulled the hook after 30 mins. There were a few really big ones out there. It seems that the dirty water is already at horn now.  What boat did you fish out of. Wondering if I saw you out there.

Jeff


----------



## Realtor (Oct 1, 2007)

MikenBama said:


> Left the pass at around 6:30 pm on Thursday. Stopped and added some ruby lips to the bait well. Made the decision to bounce past the closer stops and ran to the Marlin. Sky was super clear and the water laid down at 8:30. On our way out we saw some crazy lights in the sky. I think it was around 9:30 and it looked like fireworks—not flares, but like a low-budget fireworks show going on 70+ miles offshore. A little creepy. Got on the radio but never heard any useful info about what it was.
> 
> Made it to the Marlin and the rig was wide open when we arrived. Started out by jigging and got hammered by footballs with a few larger BFs mixed in. Dropped some live bait and got a nice hook up on a mako. We cut him loose at the boat. Moved around the rig and did a little chunking. Hooked plenty of BF and then the sharks set in. No surface action. We ran to Horn Mountain when another boat pulled up next to us.
> 
> ...


Thanks! I needed a work out this morning! Felt like I was there!


----------



## samoajoe (Dec 28, 2010)

MikenBama said:


> Left the pass at around 6:30 pm on Thursday. Stopped and added some ruby lips to the bait well. Made the decision to bounce past the closer stops and ran to the Marlin. Sky was super clear and the water laid down at 8:30. On our way out we saw some crazy lights in the sky. I think it was around 9:30 and it looked like fireworks—not flares, but like a low-budget fireworks show going on 70+ miles offshore. A little creepy. Got on the radio but never heard any useful info about what it was.
> 
> Made it to the Marlin and the rig was wide open when we arrived. Started out by jigging and got hammered by footballs with a few larger BFs mixed in. Dropped some live bait and got a nice hook up on a mako. We cut him loose at the boat. Moved around the rig and did a little chunking. Hooked plenty of BF and then the sharks set in. No surface action. We ran to Horn Mountain when another boat pulled up next to us.
> 
> ...


 
Were you fishing with Curtis? I heard his version of the trip today and it sounded the same. I made the resin head lures he was using. I let him borrow them a couple years ago and have not seen them since!

Great catch!


----------



## SoCal619 (Nov 18, 2011)

Awesome report, I can honestly say I've never had the "problem" of not having enough room for my fish and I'm only pushing a 17 footer. Can't wait for the glorious day where I run out of room to store my catches. Great job fellas!


----------



## Gamefish27 (Nov 13, 2009)

Sweet....


----------



## MikenBama (Feb 18, 2010)

Yeah, we were fishing with Curtis on a 30' Pursuit. I tend to be more interested in big fish but had some guys with me who wanted to just jig and jig and fill the box. I think with a little different plan and a slightly smaller group of guys we would have had better quality fish. Would have liked to put in more time trolling or slow trolling some live bait. But, it was still a great time and Curtis is the man in terms of getting fish in the boat. Samoajoe, you made the big Black Bart looking lures? Sweet! He had some clever stuff in his personal lure bag. I think he also added soem kind of custom weight to the Hydra Magnums. I had good luck with vertical jigging lures I had made or customized, but we also had a major dud. Three years ago I saw a guy from Venice take a diamond jig and add blades like you see on a spinnerbait or buzz bait. I made a couple and murdered some small YF and big BF the first time I took them out. I had them beat up pretty bad, so had to refurb them. We tried the new ones and they were like a fish repellent. Nobody got a hook-up while they were in the water. Weird. They got great results before, but total waste of time this trip. I just kept swapping between a tweaked Shimano and a custom jig I got from Blue Water Dan in Oregon. Both seemed to produce consistently, but if I charged up the glow side of the Shimano it was the jig to beat.


----------



## samoajoe (Dec 28, 2010)

MikenBama said:


> Yeah, we were fishing with Curtis on a 30' Pursuit. I tend to be more interested in big fish but had some guys with me who wanted to just jig and jig and fill the box. I think with a little different plan and a slightly smaller group of guys we would have had better quality fish. Would have liked to put in more time trolling or slow trolling some live bait. But, it was still a great time and Curtis is the man in terms of getting fish in the boat. Samoajoe, you made the big Black Bart looking lures? Sweet! He had some clever stuff in his personal lure bag. I think he also added soem kind of custom weight to the Hydra Magnums. I had good luck with vertical jigging lures I had made or customized, but we also had a major dud. Three years ago I saw a guy from Venice take a diamond jig and add blades like you see on a spinnerbait or buzz bait. I made a couple and murdered some small YF and big BF the first time I took them out. I had them beat up pretty bad, so had to refurb them. We tried the new ones and they were like a fish repellent. Nobody got a hook-up while they were in the water. Weird. They got great results before, but total waste of time this trip. I just kept swapping between a tweaked Shimano and a custom jig I got from Blue Water Dan in Oregon. Both seemed to produce consistently, but if I charged up the glow side of the Shimano it was the jig to beat.


Most of them are smaller clear resin heads, but there is one with purple/black combo that is about 9in long that landed us a small blue.


----------



## Eastern Tackle (Jul 6, 2009)

samoajoe said:


> I made the resin head lures he was using. I let him borrow them a couple years ago and have not seen them since!


LOL. This made me laugh. I dont yall, but thats funny no matter who you are :thumbup:


----------



## samoajoe (Dec 28, 2010)

Repo mission still planned but they are getting more use with him .......oh well


----------



## MikenBama (Feb 18, 2010)

We used the big one on the short line, but it didn't get any love. I think it was one of yours that scored the most whacks. Small clear or clear-ish head and a pretty healthy skirt. Good job. Man, we are jones-ing to get back out there!


----------



## Snatch it (Feb 17, 2009)

Dang hand


----------



## MikenBama (Feb 18, 2010)

Here are some more pics. Had fish for almost every meal last week. Some of our fresh tuna was chopped, mixed with sesame oil, black pepper, salt, tiger seasoning, mayo, srichacha sauce, and shredded mozarella, then stuffed into avocado halves, topped with more cheese and grilled. Yum.

The other big hit was chunks of AJ that had been rubbed with pepper, tiger seasoning, and lots of brown sugar before getting wrapped with bacon and grilled. 

Have to give another shout to Mitch and Curtis. The one shot shows the filet stack when we were about halfway through the first cart of fish. By that point we had made up for our lack of beer at sea.


----------

