# Fun Spur trip with friends



## FenderBender (Oct 2, 2007)

Mr. Tim, Mr. Irving, Mr. Ron, my dad and myself loaded up about 4 pm Tuesday and headed south towards the Spur. We stopped and made some live bait and the Massachusetts and pressed on towards ominous skies. 










We saw a boat headed in from the area of the Spur and it turned out to be Frenchy and crew (sorry we missed you guys!) and got there a little later than we wanted, put out a spread and trolled til dark. Nada. Time to put the sword baits in.

First bait down at 200 ft gets the "thump, thump" within 2 minutes of being down. Reel up tight and its fish on! Fish comes up pretty easily, sees the boat, and goes bonkers headed south. An hour and a half later and the strong tail thumps finally part the line  A heartbreaker, it was either a nice sword or a yellowfin. That's fishing though!

All night saw pretty steady action, every time I would close my eyes for two seconds another rod would go off. Caught two firsts, an escolar and a nice oilfish that gave a good fight. Several big runs that came unbuttoned, stolen baits, etc.

About 0500 I'm ready to give it up and get ready to troll. I had my 400 ft bait on an electric reel and about 50 ft from the surface coming up full speed my rod doubles over. Fish is taking drag at will and at first I try to use the electric to fight it, the motor was not designed for that and it quickly overheats and shuts down. I unplug it, have to run a few circles around the boat, and fight it with the bent butt and no belt by hand. Fish runs anytime he wants with the tightest drag I dare and just feels plain heavy. Everyone thinks its a shark, I'm secretly praying otherwise. An hour later we've got color, nice yellowfin! Some good boat handling and my dad and Irving on the leader and I sink the steel in it. It takes two of us to get her over the gunnels and I have my biggest ever YFT on deck. :thumbup:Weighed 100 lbs when we get back to the dock.



















Five minutes after the fish hit the deck all hell broke loose with the weather. Major lightning, pounding rain and no end in sight. We decide to run north and abandon the trolling plan. Get to the area of the nipple and the weather has cleared up nicely. Check one of my deep drop spots and it was game on, got some smaller goldens, a monster golden, and a nice yellowedge and we are ready to head to the hill. 





















Made it in earlier than we planned and navigated the zero vis rain through the pass and made it home safe by 2pm. 

It was Irving's and Ron's first trip offshore, and they were naturals out there and had a blast. Thanks Mr. Mowrey for the trip, can't wait to go back next time!



















crazy eye










Sushi time


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## skram (Dec 25, 2007)

Nice load of fish! Glad you guys made it through the weather ok, we dodged it all day too. There was some wicked storms out there


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## Mike Moore (Feb 10, 2010)

nice read! congrats!


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## JoeyWelch (Sep 25, 2009)

Very nice Josh and congrats on the YFT. That tile is a fatty also.


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## Water Boys (Aug 13, 2009)

Be careful with the Escolar. Not to much per serving! Google it!


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Nice report Josh. Thanks for sharing

Did you call me the other day?


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## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

Nice work!


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## bigrick (Sep 29, 2010)

Looks like you left a king out in the sun too long. Awesome trip man!!!


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## Head Kned (Mar 21, 2011)

Man, thats a great trip. I really would like to hook up on a Escolar, that is the best sushi you could ever eat. Just dont eat more than 8oz at a time.


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## submariner (Oct 2, 2007)

Nice post great looking fish looks a good time by all


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## Frenchy (Oct 2, 2007)

Nice report Josh, wish I could have take a picture of your boat coming in as we were leaving, you were a tiny white point cruising under a cloud black as night, amazing visually. My heart was with you and it would have been epic transfering on your boat at sea...
Well done and congrats to the first timers on board considering the conditions, should name the boat "OLD BALLS OF STEEL !!!
Let us know how the escoela taste.


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Very nice report and pics! Thanks for taking the time to write and post!

Robert


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## Xiphius (Oct 10, 2007)

great catch, i love those action packed nights drifting the deep ledges


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