# Ram trip 7/30



## panhandlephinsphan (Aug 25, 2008)

Finally had a decent weather window and time so we headed out on a friend’s boat for a rig run and to troll a line we hoped would be the blue water/green water color change line.

Sea conditions were supposed to be 1-1.6 but for the first 40 miles it sure seemed like 3 feet at 3 seconds apart. We all knew it would be worth it once we got there so off into the night we went…

Made it to Ram Powell rig which we thought would be in blue water and started jigging. SLOW bite all night long. Caught lots of hard tail, chunked, live baited a little and jigged a LOT (my shoulder can certify that). Not as many black fin as we thought- still a lot but not thick as in past trips in he winter. I don’t think John slept until the ride home. He was doing EVERYTHING- one minute he was jigging up 2 or three black fin and the next they were in small pieces and he had a chunk line going. I could not keep up with him. 🙂 

Around 3:30 to 4 am Garrett FINALLY decided to take a break from the wheel- i think he had been on it since putting the boat in- I could not keep up with him either- I guess I am getting old. Lol. Al was at the wheel which seems to be a pattern for whenever I catch a good fish. Garrett did not get to rest long. I just tied on a new jig after what I think was a barracuda took my previous jig. First drop down on the new jig and at around 150ft BAM! And the fight was on…this was the first good fish on my rod and reel combo Cheryl Drake got me for my 50th (fin-nor 8500 with a custom built rod with “Cheryl Sue” inlay ) and I had no idea how it would do but it was perfect! Smooth drag, good bend- it performed well. While it felt like an hour it was probably only about 10-15 minutes an we had her circling the boat and John drove home the steel and into the boat she came! Beautiful gaff shot. 

Started trolling at sunrise only to realize we were NOT in good water so we headed south towards Horn Mountain with the hopes the line was not too far.

God smiled on us and the line was there and it was an AWESOME line. Blue on one side, green on the other with good stretches of well made up grass lines. We could not stop catching mahi- double, triple hookups- they were EVERYWHERE. What a blast. Had a hoo try to eat one mahi on the hook- quite a show. 

The goal was to troll that line for several hours but a nasty thunderstorm was quickly overtaking us and we decided to pack up and head home. 

Thanks to Garrett, John, and Aaren for having Al and I on your ride for the trip

Great trip and cannot wait to do it again.


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## Realtor (Oct 1, 2007)

awe MAN!!!!! NICE, I get excited (in a good fishing kind of way) to see reports like this. Thanks for taking the time and sharing. So looking forward to getting back out there.... where did you leave from, and how much fuel did those 200's burn?


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## jack2 (Mar 19, 2010)

awesome. those are some good-size bulls. 
jack


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## panhandlephinsphan (Aug 25, 2008)

Realtor said:


> awe MAN!!!!! NICE, I get excited (in a good fishing kind of way) to see reports like this. Thanks for taking the time and sharing. So looking forward to getting back out there.... where did you leave from, and how much fuel did those 200's burn?


I have not seen that any posts lately so I wanted to make sure to get our trip in here.
headed out of mahogany mill to hit pensacola pass and I think we only burned around 120-130 gallons.


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## iJabo (Jul 6, 2013)

Thanks for getting that YF in the boat David, I am buying poke bowl ingredients right now! Not a bad feat to boat a 50-60lbs YF in under 20 minutes with Spinning Tackle!



Realtor said:


> awe MAN!!!!! NICE, I get excited (in a good fishing kind of way) to see reports like this. Thanks for taking the time and sharing. So looking forward to getting back out there.... where did you leave from, and how much fuel did those 200's burn?


We left Mahogany Mill Friday @ 7:00 PM and reached the Ram around around midnight if I remember correctly. We have done the similar runs in smoother water much faster and burning less fuel, but this trip came out about 130 gallons burned. ~60 gallons to the Ram, 10-12 burned idling and trolling and ~60 gallons coming back. Our extra fuel alleviated all fuel concerns, but we could've technically done it on just our 175 gallon tank.

We wanted to work the rip longer, it was really well organized and ran for miles- no doubt we could've pulled more fish off of it had we stayed longer. It was about halfway between the Ram and Horn Mtn, but there was a squall line coming from the North that looks NASTY, so we got out of Dodge.


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## iJabo (Jul 6, 2013)

Here is a quick little highlight video I made of the trip. Bought a new computer so I am going to try to start making more videos!


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## Corpsman (Oct 3, 2007)

Great trip, and great report! Thanks for taking the time to post.


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## Bluecape (Sep 29, 2016)

Great trip and very nice video!


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## SurfRidr (Apr 24, 2012)

Nice job, thanks for the report!


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## Lipz (Mar 19, 2013)

Great report and good eatings!!!!


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## specktackler57 (May 15, 2011)

Great report and video. Thanks


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