# Beautiful Day on Betty B



## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Left Sportsmans at about 7:30 or so this morning (Monday) with plans to do damage on some big golden tiles. Our crew consisted of Philip, Ted T, Catlin (Cast-N-Call), Justin (TwoLaughingLabs80) and of course myself. This was Justin's first trip aboard the Betty B so we wanted to make it a good one. Hit one of our spots first thing to have fun jigging and in the process get bait. Justin's first drop results in a beautiful African pompano. Already stoked about the nice surprise we keep hammering 'em and end up with some decent jacks and lucky SOB Justin gets another, even bigger, African Pomp. Once we're good on bait we move off to our deep drop spots and as soon as we get down we're tight. The action was in spurts but the tiles averaged out nicely and we got one that bottomed out the 30lb Boga Grip. We also ended up with 2 jumbo Almaco Jacks at 700FT! One was the biggest Almaco any of us had seen and easily went 35+lbs. At one point we are bringing up a tile and feel some extra weight add on. As we get it up we see a nice tilefish head and a shark following it. I yell "MAKO" and Ted goes for his spinner with a wire leader and a chunk of cuda. Ted pitches the bait, we take the tile head away and its game on. The little Mako doesn't really do much and just kinda swims along until we get him boatside and decide he's too close to call and pop him off. At the end of the fight with the Mako we have a 40-45ft Sei Whale surface about 30ft from the bow and he just kinda hangs around the boat fro a while allowing me to get some good video footage. We play with the whale for a while and get back on the last spot where Catlin tops off the fishbox with a triple header of Tiles. The Whale comes right up to the bow one last time to see us off home and we head in. All in all it was an awesome day with great people on board.

Justin with his first AP










Big Golden that bottomed out the Boga










Ted and I with another big Golden Tile. Yes, I do realize I'm making a stupid face and look like a dumbass with the backwards visor.










Little Mako










Sei Whale. My still pics sucked but video was good. He came underneath the bow about 15ft down and I was standing above looking at his whole body. He was pretty big to say the least.










Catlin's last drop and a triple header.


----------



## true-king (Oct 2, 2007)

Nice pics! I don't know whats with all these african pompano, but they sure are tasty. Thanks for the report.


----------



## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

> *true-king (4/5/2010)*Nice pics! I don't know whats with all these african pompano, but they sure are tasty. Thanks for the report.


Thats 3 in 2 trips for us andI doubtthey will be the last this season. They are welcome regardless and put up a pretty good fight.


----------



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

Great Report. Cool Pics.


----------



## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Chris you guys certainly have the Pompano charm on your boat! Here is a stupid question, when you say getting bait in the same spot you caught the pomps, what kind of bait and are you sabikki ing them or small cut bait?



Thanks again for report and the nice whale pics, is it pronounced SEA or SAI? or some other way?


----------



## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

> *MSYellowfin (4/6/2010)*Chris you guys certainly have the Pompano charm on your boat! Here is a stupid question, when you say getting bait in the same spot you caught the pomps, what kind of bait and are you sabikki ing them or small cut bait?
> 
> Thanks again for report and the nice whale pics, is it pronounced SEA or SAI? or some other way?


Sei is pronounced "SAY". They are probably the most common baleen whale in the Gulf next to the Bryde's (Broo-des) Whale and we usually see several every season. The whale that was seen on the beach last week was a Fin Whale. They are not as common.


----------



## how2fish (Jan 21, 2008)

Congrats that was a very cool report..question I've done a little deep dropping for snowy grouper but never tile fish...how good of table fare are they?


----------



## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

They are one of my favorites and strongly resemble lobster in consistency. You can grill them like you would most fish or boil or steam them and serve with melted butter as "poor man's lobster".


----------



## Fiver (Nov 6, 2008)

awesome job, Chris. your reports always kick butt.


----------



## Deeplines (Sep 28, 2007)

Man, That pomps eyes looks PISSED. 

Thanks for the report and pixs.


----------



## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Those are some great looking :takephoto:takephoto:takephoto Those fish look very tasty!!! :letsdrink:letsdrink:letsdrink


----------



## Eastern Tackle (Jul 6, 2009)

Very nice mixed bag. Pretty work on your catch.


----------



## cobe killer (Apr 13, 2008)

NICE BUNCH OF FISH. I'VE BEEN FISHING THE GOM SINCE I WAS 4 AND STILL HAVEN'T SEEN A WHALE UP CLOSE. MAYBE THIS YEAR.


----------



## Razzorduck (Oct 22, 2007)

Nice job on the mixed bag Chris

Looks like a great day on the water and plenty of cool things to see as well.


----------



## Cast-N-Call (Apr 21, 2009)

Chris, I want to thank Philip, Ted and yourself for a great trip, and Justin it was great having you on the boat. This tripwill stick with me for a long time. It was nice getting to deckhand for ya'll for a change, I hope I did not disappoint.

Ted, you are the greatest fisherman that I know, I Love Ya B.


----------



## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

> *Cast-N-Call (4/7/2010)*
> 
> Ted, you are the greatest fisherman that I know, I Love Ya B.


Asshole. J/K


----------



## gulfwaterman (Nov 16, 2007)

nice work. Ted is definitly the better fisherman.:moon j/k sorry, had to throw that one out there.


----------



## CATCH-ALL (Oct 6, 2009)

Chris - that's a nice haul of fish, but especially on the Golden Tilefish. :bowdown

Looks like a SuperSmorg(tm) to me!

Catch


----------

