# Nov 11-12 Rig Trip



## Head Kned (Mar 21, 2011)

I put together a crew and ran down to Destin Thursday the 10th. We had ben grinding over the weather for a week and the window we picked looked like it was going to be perfect. I bought a 5 day forecast from Wilkens and they were right on the money. 

Push off out of Sandestin Friday moring at 9am. We were not in any big hurry due to the forecast calling for the wind calm as day went on. 

We made bait at the pass. We could not find any hardtails but we did get a well full of Cigar Minnows. 

Headed South and put a spread out at the Nipple. We planned on trolling till dark. 

Had a good knockdown at 400 ft. It was a pretty good Mahi cow. She had friends, but we could not get them to bite. The bull followed our shotgun rig all the way in. we left it out and kept the boat going, but he would not bite. Turns out they had already short struck the ballyhoo and all that was left was the head. 









At about 700ft. we saw a huge school of yellowfin busting on Flying Fish. They stayed pretty much on our heading and when we got to within 150 yards of the fish on top 4 of our reels start singing. Luckily we had 5 people on the boat. Everyone gets a rod and all set up with belts etc. and the battle begins. I am driving the boat trying to make sure we stay straight and not get anyone crossed. 

The first to the boat was a Skipjack, i was all bummed thinking that all the fish hooked up were that. Got the Skippy in the boat and it was the biggest skip jack I have ever seen; I would say around 35 lbs. 

The second fish comes in and its a nice 40 lb yellow. Then the other 2. One a bookend to the previous, and the second a little bigger. 









You should seen the deck after that mess. I think it took us 15 minutes to get it clean. The school resurfaces and we get on the and throw a popper and hook up immediatly. He runs off 100 yards of line and then spits it. 

We kept on trolling with nothing else and cleared the deck at sunset. 









We started South, the seas were on our ass and it was a nice ride. We had planned on going way South to a rig that had been hot, but when we pass Petronious I slowed the boat and asked what everyone wanted to do. We were on the fence, but we decided to have a shot at 5 rigs instead of putting all of our eggs in one basket at the South Rig. 

We pulled up to Petronius and immediately put 2 nice blackfin in the box. Then the sharks found us. 

We drifted off and I cooked dinner on the grill. I grilled some Skirt Steak and Blackfin loins and made Tacos out of them. Served with a spicy slaw on Totillas. It was great. We also sliced up some Sashimi and had that too. 

We hit every Rig till we decided to spend the night at Horn Mt. 

Woke up at Horn and got ready. We started seeing flying fish get chased around and put out the cigar minnows. But there was not any Current to speak of and did not get a bite. Plus i think our bait was too small. Even wth downsizing hooks we could not keep them alive once we threw them out. We ran over to some fish on top but never got hooked up. After 2 hours of this we ran back to Ram. 

There were a couple boats there already. They said that they had only gotten Blackfin. Then some big splashes in the distance. We run over and there are some really good Yellowfin at the surface. One grabs a popper we threw and the reel starts smoking. The drag is set too light and we dont get the trembls to take in his lip and he spits it. Damn tremble hooks on these poppers are terrible. I am going to rerig all of them with assist hooks immediately. Then the bite dies and we head off. 

We start trolling North and went by Beer can and got a good knock down on the shotgun. It was a good 50 or so pound yellow. we get it boatside and the clip had come open and the leader was hanging by the snap in the clip. Luckily we were able to get a couple wraps and got a gaff in him. 









We trolled to the shelf and then cleared the deck and ran to Pensacola. 

We pulled in Pensacola pass to see the Blue Angels doing there thing. That was super cool. 

Ran the ICW back to Sandestin. 

It was a great trip, sorry for being long winded. But I like putting it on record on this Forum, also for my crew. 

I hope to come up with a couple more pics. 

Michael


----------



## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

Sounds like a good trip!


----------



## TinManMike (Oct 26, 2008)

Thanks for the report! Good job. :thumbsup:


----------



## Mattatoar (Apr 30, 2008)

Good report! Sounds like a fun trip.


----------



## PMACDIDDY (Jul 13, 2008)

You got me thinking about fishing again, after thinking only about hunting for two months!


----------



## Justin B (Apr 4, 2011)

Really good report and pictures. Thanks for posting


----------

