# Fantastic Trip!



## rustybucket (Aug 18, 2011)

Each year my brothers and I try to get together and do one offshore fishing trip. One of them lives in Houston, the other in Michigan. I'm in Georgia.

Over the years the boats have gotten bigger, the distances further, and we have added crew members, mainly in the way of kids. So this trip officially the Brothers Trip, is now the Brothers and Nephews Trip! 

Plan was to pull away from the dock Friday 6/22 afternoon, but a few boat issues caused us to not get away til right at dark. Forecast was calling for less than 3' but the wind was really blowing so I was expecting more.

Pulled through the pass to be greeted by choppy/windy/nastyness in the 4-6 range on about 3 secs. We throttled back to 9 knts and just poked our way through it throughout the night. 

Stopped at appomattox and sharav and a few others on the way out Sat Morn. Our target was Independance hub by Sat night. We trolled the rigs all day sat with several Mahi and wahoo to show. At dark we started jigging independence hub, blackfin were reasonably easy to catch but no yellowfins to show for it. We saw a few 40-60 class fish busting top. The water was dirty and rough, tons of current with all three wind, waves, current going in different directions, made it almost impossible to chunk or do much at all really.

We left the hub at about 1:30am heading south to find better water. At sunrise we were in good water but the grass was MEGA scattered. Made trolling arduous and almost impossible. We cut the spread back to 2 lures to cover ground and hopefully find some open water.

Eventually turned back toward the hub unable to really find an edge to the grass.

Hub at sunset Sunday night, calm, bluewater everywhere, grass patties floating around. Had a billfish knockdown on a splittail mullet but our 14 yr old captain errored and learned a life lesson, lead to a missed fish (put boat in neutral at strike, never came tight on the fish).

Started jigging, blackfin everywhere, got enough for chunking. First chunk picked up 25lb blackfin, second chunk 90-100lb yellowfin.

Brought the yellowfin almost straight to the boat, right to the tuna door, and my older brother missed the gaff shot and the fish sounded. 2hrs later we finally land the fish after an hour and a half death spiral battle.

After that we motored back to the rig and did a couple more chunk drifts with nothing to show for it. Blackfin were still everywhere so we let the kids catch them until they couldn't reel anymore.

Had to pull away from the rig at 1am to start making our way back to the hill. Kids were not happy that we had to leave, lol. To be honest I wasn't very happy for it to be over either!

Made landfall about 4pm Monday. Did not have a single ice cube left in the cooler but everything was still VERY COLD. Burned about 1k gals of diesel over the 3 day, 3 night adventure. Our furthest out point was approx 180 miles from pensacola. Soooo many memories made on this trip it's amazing. By the end of the trip we had the two boys working as a team on the blackfin, one would reel and the other was the gaff/wireman. So cool watching them grow up and develop a love for this stuff.















Enjoying the bounty back in GA!


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## lees way2 (Oct 7, 2007)

Sounds like yall had a blast,and from looking at the pics yall did.


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## bcahn (Jan 10, 2013)

Great post, awesome pics and safe back to port. I'd say epic adventure, thx for sharing!


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## Realtor (Oct 1, 2007)

Great!!!!


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## Catchemall (May 8, 2018)

Looks like a great adventure, especially sitting down to those tuna steaks.


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## YakAttack (Oct 8, 2007)

Sounds like you did well despite rough conditions. Awesome that the nephews got to enjoy time together on the water, and the joy of catching fish. Great report and pics!


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## oldflathead (Oct 3, 2007)

Thanks for sharing, the trip, pictures and the good eating fish!
Those kids will never forget that trip.


Tom & Bobbie


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## rustybucket (Aug 18, 2011)

YakAttack said:


> Sounds like you did well despite rough conditions. Awesome that the nephews got to enjoy time together on the water, and the joy of catching fish. Great report and pics!


The first 30 or so hours of the trip were very rough, and almost miserable. Then like a light switch Sunday, the waves parted and it was like heaven on earth. The ride back in was bliss. Funny how she can go from hell to heaven in just a few hours.

I kept telling the crew it was supposed to start calming down, I think they quit listening to me friday night on that! haha.


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## rustybucket (Aug 18, 2011)

oldflathead said:


> Thanks for sharing, the trip, pictures and the good eating fish!
> Those kids will never forget that trip.
> 
> 
> Tom & Bobbie


Couldn't do it without you guys!! Thanks for all the knowledge, hospitality and experiences you've shared with us over the years!! Love you guys!!


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Very good report! Great adventure with the family. Fifty years from now at family reunions, those boys will reminisce about this trip.

Who's the Delta Chi? Is that you?


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## rustybucket (Aug 18, 2011)

Bodupp said:


> Very good report! Great adventure with the family. Fifty years from now at family reunions, those boys will reminisce about this trip.
> 
> Who's the Delta Chi? Is that you?


That would be me.


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## jack2 (Mar 19, 2010)

the only thing i can say about that awesome trip is not about the eats.
your little guys will be just like us in 10 years. you did good. 

jack


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## rustybucket (Aug 18, 2011)

jack2 said:


> the only thing i can say about that awesome trip is not about the eats.
> your little guys will be just like us in 10 years. you did good.
> 
> jack


This pic pretty much says it all. I was down below asleep when this was taken. My little brother on left, nephew in middle and step son on the right.


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## Michael f sights (Jun 19, 2012)

Congrats & Great Pictures!


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## TwoRs (Jun 26, 2013)

Thanks for posting!


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## hebegb again (Oct 9, 2017)

Wow!!! I would love a trip like that


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## OP-FOR (Jan 23, 2010)

*Great Post!*

Great post and thank you for the visit here at Appomattox. We were keeping an eye on all of the fishing vessels that were around us this past weekend. Especially during the bad weather.


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