# Fat Jax 4/7-8/12 report (Rig Trip)



## Realtor (Oct 1, 2007)

Departed Sherman Cove about 10AM on Monday, Crew was Myself, Mark (Brother) and Brandon (Millerttime) Boat loaded to the gills with ice and everything else. We headed SW in a 1-2 foot following sea, and a SE breeze. Made for a couple misty spritzers, but extremely doable. We stop at the Marathon donate a couple jigs the Barracudas, on to the MP255, trolled around it and we see a school of fish on the surface a little ways off the rig. Mixed batch of Black Fin Tuna and the BIGGEST Bonito I have ever seen! We are casting to them like we were possessed. I foul hook a Black Fin and it proceeds to hand my but to me. He ended up on the ice, so I guess I won….. couple more Black Fins and did I mention the BoBo’s were HUGE?

On to the Pretorius, water was extremely clear something was chasing fish towards the rig because they were proposing like dolphins, cool, they were ‘runnin for their lives” Managed a few Bonita until the sharks showed up in force. Kind if shut that down. 

On to the Marlin, the water was as blue as I have ever seen it, we look to the North of the rig (we were naturally at the SE corner and the shy is dark with birds, and HUGE and I mean HUGE tune on the surface. These friggin things were at least 200 pounders and better. All this from the time we trolled from the SE leg to the SW leg of the rig. We are excited as hell, not gonna happen, they disappear, birds and all just as fast as they appeared. We do the jigging thing, cant chunk because of all the sharks till nap time.

We move several miles away from the rigs and set up camp for the evening. This was to get away from all the slam Silky Sharks. Out goes the 50’s with you guessed it, those huge Bonita. About 4AM, a 50 slowly starts the clicking…… (what a cool alarm clock)…. Mark gets on the rod, I start to clear the other. The Shark, slowly cruises in a large arc around the boat. Mark figures he has swallowed the bait and leans back to bring the circle hook into its place. The Shark takes steady drag, not running, no hurry, just keeps going. I am preparing to give chase, the fish lets go of the bait, the crazy thing was just holding it in its mouth. Very large teeth marks in the bait. Back out everything goes….

Following morning as you can see by the pictures, a beautiful morning and flat calm seas. We troll back to the Marlin and see sporadic surface action by what we are guessing 75-100 pound tuna, we play wait for them to get closer, ease over there so they can go to where we just were for several hours. Can’t get close enough.

Decide to move on the Ram Powell. Same blue water, nothing happening. Only saw 5-6 flying fish. Dead at the Ram.

Wait for it, wait for it, Beer Can (Neptune) here we come.

3 support boats scattered about and birds, fish, everything was here, including the sharks (see video). We saw LARGE, did I saw HUGE, or LARGE, or even GYNORMIOUS? Tuna jumping….. Holy shit these friggin things were huge. We cast, we cast some more, we jig, we jig some more, could not “match the hatch” to save out lives. Chunking was out of the question, (see video). I hook a big one and it goes deep, about 3-4 hundred feet in in just a few seconds. Big fish, I see the backing on the reel and it starts the death circle. Mark and Brandon are messing with a shark, I am on the bow grunting and feeling the line, rod and leader as well as the reel just on the point of something breaking. The while thing felt soft and spongy if that makes any sense. I do this for 15 minutes and I start to gain some line, a little more, okay I am telling the guys, when you have a shot to gaff, GAFF before the sharks mug this thing…… There I was talking smack about “Tuna.com” has nothing on the “Fat Jax” “Take a picture of this bitch and I’m gonna send it to Dave (FEDEX)” type stuff ha ha, I was not happy with that shark for the next few minutes……… gone. I shut up pretty quick…..

Brandon lands a school fish with only one bite mark, which I still think the sharks were napping (or full). 

More wait for them to come closer for casting and jigging, nothing doing. We can see the big ones that were just keeping out of range. One time the Yellow Fin Tuna went straight for us and under the boat, they looked to be as big around as a 55 gallon drum coming at us. We just could not get these things to hit anything with a hook. They were so close to the boat going by, only about 30 feet, it was an awesome sight committed to memory. 

It’s starting to get close to 1PM and off we go NE, we stop at one of the shallow rigs on the shelf and play with the Barracudas, then head home at 30 MPH. we stop to verify a spot on the GPS along the way, everything came up to the boat (weird) 40 Lb Aj’s Bonita, Lesser AJ, even a few red snapper mixed in there. We catch a few, then I get hooked up again on what turns out to be a shark. Long fight on lighter tackle but fun. 

30 Miles Per Hour all the way to Pensacola Pass. Not a huge amount of fish to bring home, but anytime you can get top the rigs you’re doing pretty good. Great crew and even though a tempers flared once in a while, “shut up and cast at those damn fish”!!!!!! nah, great time was had. 

Not all my video came out, but Brandon had a go pro, so am excited to see what he got…..




*Here is some of the Video:*
*http://youtu.be/41OndZliDps*


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## PompNewbie (Oct 1, 2007)

Nice job Jim.. and sweet video


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## Head Kned (Mar 21, 2011)

Boy these sharks are no joke. Every report they crash. I hope they thin out soon.


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## TinManMike (Oct 26, 2008)

Know how you feel about the sharks. They killed us Friday night. We could only bring the smaller fish to the boat.

Good job on what you caught!


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Great report, pics and video, thanks for the details! Water looker perfect!

Robert


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## Deeplines (Sep 28, 2007)

Nice report Jim.


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## Captain Mickey O'Reilly (Dec 18, 2008)

Very cool Jim! Thanks for the report!


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## reel_crazy (Oct 1, 2007)

great report jim.. sounds like we need to bring the finners back to thin the shark herd ... 
rich


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## BILL_MONEY (Feb 17, 2009)

we were in the 18 Mckee at the bentleg when ya'll arrived... we had ran east that monday morning on a report of a hugh gass mat but the matt and GREEN water had pushed in.... caught a few small dolphin between the nipple and the bentleg... caught 3 good AJs and a nice gag sucks having to release big fish... 
Rusty


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## Realtor (Oct 1, 2007)

BILL_MONEY said:


> we were in the 18 Mckee at the bentleg when ya'll arrived... we had ran east that monday morning on a report of a hugh gass mat but the matt and GREEN water had pushed in.... caught a few small dolphin between the nipple and the bentleg... caught 3 good AJs and a nice gag sucks having to release big fish...
> Rusty


Yeah I remember, you the green boat. You guys were pulling a Aj over the side when we saw you, We moved on to that school on the surface just to the south, got several blackfin out of it. then on to the south. did you spend the night?


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## Captain Mickey O'Reilly (Dec 18, 2008)

Jim maybe we need to get a huge group of people together and go shark fishing, then all we would probably catch was Tuna!


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## BILL_MONEY (Feb 17, 2009)

we usually do overnight... i had to head in for my anniversary the next day (tues.)... and then to work... @ 1:15 am (tues.) night... or we would have been there with yall all night... that boat has killed many tuna.. the largest was 150... and a 80 pund wahoo and been to the ram powell many times .. just have to do it on days like when we saw you guys... it does alright for a little boat... we carry 60 gallons in deck and 30 on top for overnight and usually have a 1/4 tank when we get to the dock.... LOL


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Good report, sounds like some great line strippin'!!!!


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## Hired Hand (Nov 25, 2008)

All in all what a blast.


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