# Evelyn Gale Rig Trip



## reel_crazy

Finally get to post a fishin report.. been watching the weather for weeks it seems waiting for a 24 hour window to get out to the rigs 

Got a motley 7 crew of myself, jeremy (duckhuntinsailor), his friend kenny?(sorry i suck at names), bonita dan, mark (nextstep), paul, and matt.

Jeremy made a run to tgills for me and fueled up 10 5gallon cans of diesel (53.4 gal) for 1.70 / gallon including tax!.. got the boat loaded with ice, bait,fuel,beer and crew and set a course for horn mountain.. seas weren't to bad, but we banged our way out at 18 knots or so.. 

Made a stop at the marlin rig after talking to Wayne on hammertime , they had stopped at the Petronius and bagged some blacks.. 

Not a whole lot happening at the marlin except blackfins, the guys jigged their arms off but no yellowfin, we kept thinking we saw topwater action but it was mostly just whitecaps 

The hammertime crew showed upand had thesame results and headed off to horn mountain, we refueled with our 50 gallons, stowed them, and headed there as well , seas were really starting to pick up now and we only made 16 knots or so just plowingour way there... 

We had high hopes for the horn, but started to get discouraged after landing blackfin after blackfin...waiting on sunrise jerermy chunked up a few so we would be ready, 

Sunrise came and still hardly any sign of topwater action, and no yellowfins... finally wayneo hails us said they were hooked up to a good fish on a chunk, we started to see some topwater activity and paul got hooked up on a nice fish, and soon (not soon enough for paul) we got a 60lber or so on the deck compliments of jeremy's gaff skills.. next up was ken, and when he had enough he handed the rod off to mark and another nice fish hits the deck..they even let me try for a bit and i get hooked up to what seems like a nice fish initially but it starts acting very odd, making surface runs all around; its a pretty nice cow dolphin, lit up like a neon sign.. cool.. 

Things were really starting to pick up , we saw some flying fish go higher than i have ever seen with big yellows right behind them, we were chunking like mad , and dan wanted to fish, so i went up in the tower.. around nine the hammertime crew had enough and headed north, about ninethirty i told the guys lets bag it around ten or so as the seas were building up again and it seemed we were surrounded by water spouts , then dan gets hooked up... 

Dan has a nice fish on , and it is kicking his butt.. after an hour or so he finally passed the rod off to jeremy... he gets whipped and passes it off to matt, who you guessed it, gets whipped and passes it off to paul.. meanwhile im getting a little concerned... we need to head back in and now its getting near noon.. after much discussion about what might be on the other end of the line, and my suggestion (begging was more like it) to bump the drag up and lets end this..dan tweaks the drag up and paul finally starts making headway.. and its a big tuna... jeremy mans the flying gaff, dans got the rope, matts on the other gaff and with some verbal persuasion from jeremy they drag it over the transom and into the boat...

Its time to go home , but for some reason my gps chartplotter is off...turn it on and it says something about all data lost and it is restarting .. crap...all my waypoints and tracks are gone.. fortunately i have one just like it in the tower , go up there , press goto pensacola pass and start getting out of dodge.. renenter the pass numbers on my other one turn on the autopilot and we are headed home with following seas, a boat full of fish and 7 exhausted crew members.. 

About 20 miles from the pass its starts to get a bit foggy and looks a lot foggier in front of us, and as we get closer it gets thicker.. crap.. im running with a gps that has no tracks, or waypoints..and it has us headed straight in to the pass.. not the way i want go in.. finally i go up top and get us close to the channel , go back down and now we can pick up the sea buoys on the radar and we pick our way in.. once in the bay we could see again.. 

ps

thanks and kudos to scott brown for use of his icey tek, and all the help cleaning fish.. 

rich


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## Ultralite

c'mon rich...gotta be more to it than that...read where ya'll were going and was waiting for a report...glad ya'll made it out and back...


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## reel_crazy

Mike sorry the dang thing posted before i was done typeing , made a few more edits, im still kinda of tired i guess... 

rich


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## Ultralite

alright rich! and crew...:clap that's what i'm talking about! sounds like a great trip even with all the problems with the electronics...like i said, glad ya'll made it in and back with a bunch of fish...

thanks for the report rich...want to hear from jeremy, dan, paul and the rest...


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## nextstep

good report rich! thanks a million for having us aboard. best fishing trip i ever had.

kenny was the photographer. he will be getting jeremy the photos and maybe some video for posting.(if kennys wife doesnt kill him for fishing on her birthday.)

at one point in timeoutthere, there was a rainbow, flying fish, flying yellowfins, 4 waterspouts and horn mountain rig looming, AWESOME!

right before dan hooked up on the big one, a frigate (tuna)bird flew over, again awesome!

thanks again to captain rich for the trip of a life time and to the rest of the crew for a wonderful time.:letsdrink

comin home










catch










captain rich










pirate dan










thanks to scott, he knew how to take them tunas apart










the motley crew










dinner!


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## cliff k

nice trip!!! any :takephoto


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## pogypumper

One word-AWESOME!!:clap:clap

I would love a slab of yellowfin and some wasabe right now.


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## TCAT

Great job!! I was sick to my stomach on Friday knowing a few boats from PFF were heading out.


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## bonita dan

Great trip guys,thanks Rich. Still a little sore but nothing a bunch of Motrin and a quick trip to the massage parlor(with Happy Ending of course:shedevil) cant cure. Big thanks to Scott Brown for coming down to the marina and carving up the fish since some of us were pretty useless,AKA Me! :bowdown Wheres the video Jeremy?


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## duckhuntinsailor

Rich, thanks for the trip, AWESOME!!! Scott, thanks for the help, cooler, and pole. I am working on the video's, uploading to youtube taking forever. Here are a few of the pics.

The sunrise, everyone had taken a small nap and we had a bucket of BFT chunked and ready to go, and saw nothing. We were a bit concerned. 









Then we heard Hammer Time was hooked up after chunking, so we repositioned and were quickly hooked up.









Paul (whose forum name will now be CRANK) hossed in this nice boy and made it look easy. No pics of the gaff shot from me but there is video, it was a dandy.









On our next pass Rich hooked up this fine lady.









We repositioned and I was having no luck, YFT started busting all over chasing the "high flying"flying fish so I gave up my chunking rod to toss a lure, a few minutes later Kenny hooked up. Kenny was our true rookie, first time in the gulf other than a partyboat,nice birds nest on thehook up but luckily Rich was close by to fix it.NOTICE the water spout forming in the back ground.









Kenny didn't last long, and passed of to Mark (nextstep) worked this fish nicely.









Team work does pay off. Kenny and Mark (withtheir first YFT)









On our next drift Bonita Dan hooked up, and after all the trash talking he had given Kenny we were not taking it easy on him. Here is Dan's fighting position about 15 min into the fight.









And about 30 min into the fight, DAN TURN THE SILVER THING!!!!!!









And after about 45 min this was it, I don't even think he could lift his left arm. This is also about the time Paul (CRANK) says, "why does that water look so weird off our bow". UH, I think that's a water spout, and it got a little close for comfort. Video later.









Finally Dan set pride aside and, reportedly for the first time ever, passed the rod off to me. With pole in hand I took back all the bad crap I had been given Dan and could feel this was a big fish. I did what I could to try to gain line, and with some great team work backing down on her I may have broke even beforepassing the rod to Matt (Oceanman), as soon as I began to tire. Matt came in fresh and we gained a lot of line by backing down again, then an hour and a half into this fight this fish made another nice run. Matt passed off to Paul (CRANK), and Paul put the hammer down on a somewhat tired fish. I have video of when we first see color and then when she gets boat side, I'll try to post later. 

One woreout/ happygroup of guys.









Rearranging, again Scott thanks for the cooler.









On the ride back, just before Kenny fell asleep.









Paul (CRANK) and Bonita Dan wore out.









Matt (Oceanman), the sun was in his eyes.









Awesome seas on the way in. And love the sound of those engines.









Our 3 YFT before Scott got ahold of them.









Scott working the Dexter, with Matt help on the other side. The rest of the crew pretty much set back, sneaking hunks and mixing with the Wasabi, I've never been so full off raw meat, PERFECT. THANKS AGAIN SCOTT!!!!!









Here's the end product, at least the YFT portion. That's a lot of meat 16 bags, estimate of 60#.









And here are the BFT fillets. We only kept 15, proably caught 50 and alot of them made there way into YFT bellies. The others well we just didn't have room, and that's never a bad thing.


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## JoeZ

How big was the big?

And Dan, you're a pussy.


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## nextstep

great post jeremy!

great pics kenny! 

scott estimated 130 on the big yft,none where weighed

:letsdrink


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## BananaTom

*Glad you guys had a great trip!!*


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## bellafishing

Good trip guys!! We were in the blue 31' Cape Horn out there with you guys. We loaded up on BFT at the Marianis rig and then headed that way. Ended up with 2 YFT. The 2nd one was brutal!! Wish I had realized you guys were forum members, would have loved to have met you guys!

Bob


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## mpmorr

Man what great report, way to go Rich for putting them on the fish. That crew must have been a great time. Congrats.:bowdown:bowdown


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## duckhuntinsailor

Videos: WARNING OBSCENE and FOUL Language, ADULTS ONLY!!!!

http://photo.xanga.com/NavyOC/albums/fa53ff54063927

Someone let me know if it is working.


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## mpmorr

Yup video is working and man that is just awesome, great job guys.:bowdown


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## Ultralite

worked fine jeremy...cool videos...thanks for posting..


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## JoeZ

Nice job guys.

I like Dan's mostly motionless fighting technique there.


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## reel_crazy

Nice pics and video jeremy and ken.. what a blast.. 

rich

jeremy i have your bat, if your missin it..

rich


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## Ocean Man

Thanks so much for taking us along Rich, I had a blast. First time in a long time that I am sore from reeling in so many fish. Blackfin after Blackfin on the jig at night, I think we could have sunk the boat with them. Then Sunday morning the Yellowfins started biting. We put the 3 big ones in the boat with the Dolphin and left them biting as the weather was starting to pick up and we didn't have any more room in the cooler. I got some really good pictures but my camera is messing up and I cant pull them offor even view them right now. Hopefully I can get it worked out without loosing them all together.....I put a bunch of Yellowfin steaks on the grill last night, and ate till I couldn't eat any more.:hungry


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## need2fish

Awesome!!! Great story and pics to boot.


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## diesel84

Hell of a trip guys, thats some damn good eating there. :bowdown:bowdown


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## Ocean Man

I think my camera is dead but I was able to get the pics off the SD card.

Paul hooked up with the first YFT










1st YFT being brought to gaff.










Jeremy and Dan on the action gaff shot.



















Jeremy admiring his gaff shot.










Paul with his catch.










Horn Mountain










Couple shots of Rich's Mahi in the water.



















Dolphin going crazy in the boat.










Rich with his catch.










Kenny and Mark holding their catch, the second YFT of the trip.










Dan bowed up to the Monster Tuna.










Last and final fish on deck.










Thanks again Rich for making it all happen.


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## bluffman2

Awesome .......nice catch......good gaff shot


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## P8NTMIKE

I do have wasabi......Tasty


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## Midnight Run

good job guys. i wish i was there with ya let me know next time ya go. ill be here for about 2 more wks maybe.


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## (CRANK)

ThanksRich for another great trip on the Evylyn Gayle. :bowdownThanks Jeremy for my forum name :dohThanks Mark for getting there before we left the dock :letsdrinkThanks Matt for cleahing all those fish with Scott B. and not getting mad at the rest of us for being wornout loosers:sleeping Thanks Kenny for all the great video:takephotoThanks BoBo Dan why: I DontKnow :letsdrink-and last but not least Thanks Scott for your cooler,your fishing rod, your fish cleanig skills and time:bowdown btw this is my first post


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## (CRANK)

Jeremy, youre estemate of 16 is a bit shy. We had 27 bags of YFT, w/around 5-7steaks per bag


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## LITECATCH

that was one heck of a trip!! good job guys!! Rich, where do i pick up my bag at??


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## reelhappy

awesome catch guys. i think that is the first time i've seen dan with out a beer in his hand. nice pics. merry christmas to all. fish on!

scot


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## LITECATCH

thanks for the tuna Rich!! it will be on the Big Green Egg tonight!!


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## brnbser

BH, WH, MR...find the pm button guys, leave their thread alone.....


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## Realtor

great videos.


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## kahala boy

Awsome Awsome report guys:bowdown:bowdown Would have loved to see Dan "passing" the rod off.:letsdrink:letsdrink Of course, when the fish is heavier than you guess you got to pass ....


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## biggamefishr

great job guys.....thats a hell of a crew though, i might tie myself to the anchor and toss it over the side if i was stuck on a boat with ya'll for a day


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## bonita dan

Alright,let me set the record straight. First off I was stretching my back during the duplicate pics that Snooze Boy posted and not in any way,shape or form struggling with said big ass tuna that did not exceed my personal weight so HAH! Still no matter what,said fish where still boated,cut and bagged up without the aid of a wireman,who wires a tuna anyHOO. oke Seems to me that anyone that does will only come up a finger or tHOO short the next morning so we prefer to sink the provided steel gaff into said big ass tuna and drag his ass over the side like real men. WeHOO save the big stories for the bar room Bullsh$t to impress the ladies and not try to derail other peoples real adventures on this forum. Thanks yall for the kind words about our trip,was one to remember.


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## Stressless

Hate that I missed that trip - thanks for calling!! Next time buds! Great report and pics - looking forward to the next one.



:clap

Stressless


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## bonita dan

Yea,ya missed a classic Bob. Sorry you couldn't make it,lots of laughs and PAIN. Holler when ya get back. :usaflag


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## Marine Scout

Great crew, great boat, great report and pics!!!

:clap:clap:clap


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## Midnight Run

> *bonita dan (12/23/2008)*Alright,let me set the record straight. First off I was stretching my back during the duplicate pics that Snooze Boy posted and not in any way,shape or form struggling with said big ass tuna that did not exceed my personal weight so HAH! Still no matter what,said fish where still boated,cut and bagged up without the aid of a wireman,who wires a tuna anyHOO. oke Seems to me that anyone that does will only come up a finger or tHOO short the next morning so we prefer to sink the provided steel gaff into said big ass tuna and drag his ass over the side like real men. WeHOO save the big stories for the bar room Bullsh$t to impress the ladies and not try to derail other peoples real adventures on this forum. Thanks yall for the kind words about our trip,was one to remember.


:clap:clapwell put sir well put:letsdrink


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## bonita dan

No harm,no foul Jeff. Me andThe B.H.communicated last night thru PMs. I didn't see the posts made last night before the crazed delete happy mods(Thanks Scott :clap) got hold of the thread and cleaned things up. Just some simple questions about gear and tackle used to help make him a better fisherman and absorb more knowledge. I can appreciate that,Its still a learning game for all of us and anyone that says differant,well they have reached fishin heaven and should learn how to play golf or something else.


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## kahala boy

Bonia Dan being civil?oke 
there is hope for the world after all....


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## reel_crazy

Kenny helped me fuel the boat up today so i finally have the numbers:

Fuel: 166.9 gallons at 325.00 or about 1.95/gallon

Bait 60.00 ? dan bought a flat of boston macks and i think that iswhat he said he paid.

Ice 20.00

Grand total 405.00 split 7 ways is 57.86 

We put 217 nm miles on the gps, for 1.3 nm/gal... avg 16-18 knots going out and 20-21 on the way back.. 

oops 

i forgot that we used 40 or so of pauls zip lock bags and a good bit if his wasabi and soy sauce.

rich


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## LITECATCH

so it looks like we are not going to call the T-Gill truck!


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## duckhuntinsailor

Rich,

THAT'S AWESOME!!! I'll come back early if you want to put together another trip....  I doubt we would have any trouble finding guys to go. Stressless, wish you could have made it, Maybe next time.


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## Hard Core

Guys...



An incredible trip...!!! and a fantastic job of providing the pictures and videos for the rest of us to enjoy..!!!



Ronnie


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## nextstep

man thats sounds great rich! the evelyn gale is a sweet sippin machine. hope to see ya this wedesday meet up!:letsdrink


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## Snagged Line

Bump for a Great Read.............................


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## Boat-Dude

WOW, now I know what you guys were talking about good fishing reports.


Plus I miss
the way Nexstep would
type when he was
posting more.


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## Bill Me

Is anyone else getting blocked images rather than the pics from this thread?


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## panhandlephinsphan

No pics for me either but it beats the vast, barren wasteland of posts lately. I hope we get a weather window soon............I need to scratch that itch.


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## Bill Me

We want pic! We want pics! We want pics!


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## jaster

Post was 11 years ago, pictures were loaded right to the forum then. They are probably long gone, lol


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## Bill Me

Snagged by Snagged Lines. Crap. I want so badly to see a good Tuna report I am getting suckered into rewinds of old reports.


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