# GET SHORTY Rig Report March 27/28



## PELAGIC PIRATE (Oct 10, 2007)

Left sportsmans Marina on the first trip of the year at 5 am sharp headed to the steps. The weather report was for seas to be calming and north wind on the way out so the ride out was great till we stopped to fish . It was rough as always but fishable. We proceed to deep drop for groupers and ended up catching a nice box of yellow edge , snowy and long tail seas bass along with a ton of white snapper and other assorted bottom dwellers .

Around noon we decided to troll off to Petronius and try for what ever would bite. We picked up a few dolphin fish along the way which was a great sign for a good season to come. once at the rig we saw 10K dolphin working the area and proceeded to catch blackfin tuna on jigs and poppers , along with some bait fish we snagged off the rig legs. 

Didn’t see or mark any yellowfin so we moved to the drill ship behind it at dark and found it to be loaded with nice schools of larger Blackfin but again no yellowfin. We tried chunking but that only brought in Giant sharks, the kind that eat a whole blackfin in one bite ? Not sure what they where but they we big 12 to 15 feet long and not makos. I ended up catching two of these beast , one on my new LT100 lethal spinning reel and the other on a 50w. We stayed there for a few hours and dipped over to Marlin next where it seemed we would catch some YF as i saw a few 80 pounders jumping amongst the thousands of blackfin boils. We tried every trick in the book and could only catch blackfin no matter what we tried.

We played with the blackfin till midnight and rolled south to Horn Mountain we once again life was everywhere but the same results of blackfin city . I think there was just too many blackfin to wade though to catch a yellowfin . The fish were hamming tiny squid on the surface and we tried using them only to catch larger blackfin. 

At day break nothing really was going on so we moved inshore hitting marlin again on the way in with more blackfin . We rolled into the shallow rigs in 350 ft and caught Amberjack , Snapper, Scamp and small sharks topping off our box. We then rolled in toward port and along the way i metered what looked like a bus on teh bottom in 110 feet and dropped a few butterfly jigs down to see what was up : 20-30 Red snapper would follow each hooked fish up every drop is what was up . Not wanting to endanger the red snapper stock : we left for home saving that spot for another day when season is open .

all in all it was a great shake down trip after having our boat in the yard for the month before getting her ready for the coming season. Our new under water light made all the difference in the world and was well worth the money spent. For those looking for under water lights wondering what to get : we got the seas blaze x in blue and white and they are Bad Azz the new tuna tubes are killer as well and the boat ran like a champ .

Arrived in OB at 2 pm and cleaned 3 carts of fish , the boat and rods and got back to Atlanta at midnight : boy do I have a fishing hangover: Did not take many photos as i was running the boat and deck but please enjoy the few i took.

Headed out again on WED going long: report to follow.


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## PELAGIC PIRATE (Oct 10, 2007)

more pics:thumbsup:


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## cody&ryand (Oct 3, 2007)

Hate you couldn't find the yellow fin still looks like a great trip tho


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## atlantacapt (Oct 2, 2007)

lookin' good...nice report. ive heard yoyuu have to go further SW to get out of the Blackfins and into YFTs recently.


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## panhandleslim (Jan 11, 2013)

Great looking report. 

Were you at the Tom Madden?


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## PELAGIC PIRATE (Oct 10, 2007)

panhandleslim said:


> Great looking report.
> 
> Were you at the Tom Madden?


Yes : we fished Noble Tom Madden which is between Marlin and Horn.

saw one other small CC there which i though had a single outboard : and wondered what the heck they were doing out there . But later noticed they had twin in what looked like a 24 foot boat .

The ride out was horrible and the ride in was just aweful : really wondered how those dudes made it out and back alive. I am sure they got wet :thumbsup:

That drill ship has some monster sharks on it right now:

never saw another boat all weekend which had me thinking we missed the wetaher report or read it wrong but we just toughed it out. The 43 Viking can handle just about anything , its just the crew that cant


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## PELAGIC PIRATE (Oct 10, 2007)

atlantacapt said:


> lookin' good...nice report. ive heard yoyuu have to go further SW to get out of the Blackfins and into YFTs recently.


 
I will let you know WED : headed that way to try again.


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## panhandleslim (Jan 11, 2013)

I've got a friend that is on the Tom Madden. He's been on there since Namibia. He keeps me informed about what is being caught around there. He did mention that there have been a lot of sharks. They have been pulling casing and the BOP stack so there is a lot stirred up out there and that may be what is causing the shark frenzy. They have a better view from up high.


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## PELAGIC PIRATE (Oct 10, 2007)

panhandleslim said:


> I've got a friend that is on the Tom Madden. He's been on there since Namibia. He keeps me informed about what is being caught around there. He did mention that there have been a lot of sharks. They have been pulling casing and the BOP stack so there is a lot stirred up out there and that may be what is causing the shark frenzy. They have a better view from up high.


 
Very Nice Info :thumbsup:

that is some operation they have going on as there are two standby ship and the drill ship and all are massive.

Very impressive machinery


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## bcahn (Jan 10, 2013)

Great report, seas looked pretty rough.


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## Cap'n Davey (Mar 26, 2014)

Nice Hull! Er, I mean Haul!


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Mike, Glad to see that you were able to get out there and kick off the season! Thanks for posting the pics, love seeing Viking pics! Looking forward to seeing you out there this year!

Robert


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## Tim_G (Feb 22, 2008)

Great detailed report. Looking forward to your next one.


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## Dynamic (Oct 3, 2007)

Great Trip!!!...Congrats!!!.....Yall have got an excellent season ahead. Keep the reports coming.


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## bigtallluke (Jul 14, 2012)

Excellent report. Way to get out there and fill the box! Looks like a good meat trip with lots of action! Sorry to hear you didn't find the YFT, but glad you had plenty of action to keep you occupied. Thanks for the great report


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## recess (Oct 8, 2007)

Sounds like a non stop rod bending good time ! Thanks for the report


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## PELAGIC PIRATE (Oct 10, 2007)

Thanks GUY'S :thumbsup:

Headed out tonight and hope to have even better results :


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## Reid04 (Jul 25, 2012)

Nice Sled! me and my crew went to Noble Tom Madden Saturday night. But, like you said black fin tuna was there with every drop to a jig or even trying to troll. We only caught two smaller yellowfin tuna maybe 35-40 lbs, weeding through blackfin and sharks.


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## lookinlagit (Aug 3, 2009)

*Tuna tubes*

I have a similar boat and need tuna tubes ASAP. Would like to discuss your install and system in more detail. thanks for the help.


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## PELAGIC PIRATE (Oct 10, 2007)

lookinlagit said:


> I have a similar boat and need tuna tubes ASAP. Would like to discuss your install and system in more detail. thanks for the help.


 
I had Bill Swick at Gulf Coast Yacht Werks install the tubes and the new pump and intake.

This I know;

New thru-hull seperate intake needed : pretty sure its a 2 "

New pump of high speed ( bill has that all worked ou 12 volt or 120)

Tubes: I bought mine online which are kodiak tubes which we mounted where they are removable very quickly with quick detach lines. This is nioce because we dont always need them in the boat. We opted to mount inside the boat so as to not ruin the lines of the outside of the boat or damage the tubes when docking or fighting fish.

Bill makes custom removable boxes with tubes in them and he can also rig your existing live well to have screw in tubes and run tubes from inside your livewell with a new pump system.

Air bubbles kill your baits and this is the most important aspect of the tube install. Bill is the king of tuna tube installs and knows all about using them and installing them. He came highly recommended : and I second that recommendation as he did a great job for us.
:thumbsup:


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## PELAGIC PIRATE (Oct 10, 2007)

Reid04 said:


> Nice Sled! me and my crew went to Noble Tom Madden Saturday night. But, like you said black fin tuna was there with every drop to a jig or even trying to troll. We only caught two smaller yellowfin tuna maybe 35-40 lbs, weeding through blackfin and sharks.


well you did better than us on the yellowfin : Congrats :thumbsup:


Had planned to head out last night but last minute issues have canceled our plans for now. 

spring break next week : so we plan to fish then.


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## Reid04 (Jul 25, 2012)

Thanks man! i was looking forward to your post from the overnight trip last night!


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## Bilbo (May 21, 2014)

We have canceled three trips due to bad weather/sea forecast... I guess we are just going to have to suck it up and get wet to get a line in the water. Thanks for the report looks like a awesome trip!


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