# Petronius Saturday 7/26



## 82montauk (Nov 5, 2007)

Left Pensacola Friday at 6:30pm headed toward the Petronius. Stopped at the Hogue for bait and preceded to some bottom spots in 170'. The water looked like bayou chico on a bad day. Needless to say we bounced around multiple spots and only had one snapper @ 13lbs. Picked up and headed to the Yellow Momma for some bait. Huge hardtails hit diamond jigs every drop. Blackfinwere present, but the cuda's wouldn't leave our plugs alone so we shot over to the Petronius. At 4am it was a parking lot of boats, mostly just hanging out waiting for the sun to peak over the horizon. The water was green/blue at best, but there were tons of flyers so it wasn't too discouraging.

At 6:15 the first tuna began busting on the southwest side of the rig. Blackfins, yellowfins, bonita, and flyers were going nuts - yft from 5 - 100+ lbs. We chased the schools and managed one 50lb yft along with several bft. Most of the people we saw hooked up were throwing topwaters. Several sporties were trolling through the crowd, but I never noticed them fighting a fish. There were two larger boats flying kites, and I am curious as to their success. If anyone has info on the success of the kites, please let me know. Anyway, the fish went down from 8-9am and popped back up from 9-10, although there were fewer schools and they wouldn't stay up long at all. 

Here are a couple of pic's, the yft ate a Yo-Zuri popper and the3 yr oldhit an Oreo on a circle hook. 

JWG


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## Barry Cole (Oct 3, 2007)

Congrats... We caught our YFT there early afternoon on Saturday. We were live baiting with no luck and then caught our fish chunking... Ours weighed 53 pounds and those schools jumping all looked like clones.


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## Heller High Water Mate (Apr 14, 2008)

Sounds like an awesome trip!!! Nice catch too! How did you get the oreo to say on the hook  HAHA! Another quick question...about how far out of the Pcola pass is the rig? Thanks


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## SKATR JIM (Oct 2, 2007)

We fished there Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Saw literally thousands of tuna jumping when the storm came through Sat. evening, but were not able to really fish for them due to weather. Lost a 65 lber Saturday at the boat, and caught 5 yellowfin up to 50 lbs Sunday morning, all on poppers. We destroyed the blackfin on jigs during the night, and picked up a few rainbow runners trying to chunk for yellowfin.


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## Mohican (Feb 20, 2008)

you really saw thousands busting? we were there sat evening and only saw 3 or 4 bust in the midst of the whitecaps SW of the rig. my guys wimped out on me and we headed in late sat. night. lets see some pics of your yfts...congrats if you arent BSing.


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## skullworks (Oct 2, 2007)

the3 yr oldhit an Oreo on a circle hook. 







Congrats...how do they grill up? LOL!



Congrats on the fish!:clap


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## SKATR JIM (Oct 2, 2007)




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## SKATR JIM (Oct 2, 2007)

These are the two biggest. We lost a 65+ lber sat evening right before the storm that was in a school that surfaced 10 yards from our boat. After a 45 minute fight on a spinning reel the line broke. 

We were on the 40 ft Cabo Flybridge, and yes we saw thousands of tuna. They were in every direction about .5-2 miles from the rig. Several schools with fish that were well over 100lbs. 

Saw a good number of tuna Sunday morning, and caught 5 like I said, but didn't see anything like the numbers we saw Saturday evening.


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## Mohican (Feb 20, 2008)

congrats...thats awesome. looks like we missed out...shouldve gotten there earlier and stayed later. i cant believe my atlanta boys wimped out. were yall on the Reel Obsession?


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## SKATR JIM (Oct 2, 2007)

That was us. The folks that own the boat bought it a month ago, and have NEVER done any offshore fishing.They didn't even own any fishing gear. Needless to say, they are fired up about fishing now.


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## Reel Rowdy (Oct 4, 2007)

> *jamesm1976 (7/29/2008)*


Congrats on the Fish. We were on the Marlin and Beer Can all morning with nothing to show for it. I heard it was a parking lot at the Petronius. Damn that looks like ice from a freezers auto ice maker????? What do you do, bag it and store it?


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## 82montauk (Nov 5, 2007)

JamesM1976 - where do you get your does did - is that tuna-red? Looks like you guys did well - I lost 2 good fish - one spit hook and one broke off (operator error). What time did the afternoon bite start/stop? Any word from the kite fishermen? Just curious. 

JWG


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## SKATR JIM (Oct 2, 2007)

I don't remember what time the fish started busting. Probably 2 hours before dark. Never heard from the kite fisherman. The only boat I saw flying a kite was a charter boat from Orange beach Sunday morning. We did talk to a Bertram that had been out there since Thursday that had caught 4-5 yellowfin every morning with poppers.


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## 82montauk (Nov 5, 2007)

Thanks for the info, JamesM - I bet a livewell full of cigs would get some attention, I'm bringing some next time.

JWG


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## sirmashalot (May 13, 2008)

i was onone of the boats flying a kite we had to use helium baloons to get it up with the little wind we had. one we got it dialed in it didnt take long we hooked a good fish using a hardtail and 10/0 hook fish went 117 we took first in the outcast


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## fishyfingers (Oct 3, 2007)

The kites

A buddy of mine was out there on the Sea Spray out of OB and they caught several yft all on kites with small hardtails, blackfins on chunks and jigs


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