# PC report, Slow bottom fishing, Cold Rain, Calm seas, and a Big Wahoo



## neuby (May 8, 2009)

After a slow cobia season between bad weekend weather and poor water clarity, we were anxious to finally go bottom fishing and bring something besides sheepshead and bait (i.e. spanish and bonita). Apparently everyone was equally anxious as everyone got to the dock on time at 4 AM and we pulled away at 4:15 AM. Our hope was to get an early start and beat the weather that would be moving in from the west. Target was red grouper in area 32 miles out where we managed a limit of 24 on only a couple of numbers next weekend last year, and then AJ's closeby with hopefully some Triggers, beeliners and black snappers in the mix. We were greeted by flat seas at the pass and had about 2.5 hour run at 14 knots to the first #. Hopefully weather would continue to cooperate...

On the way out we passed some small weedlines trying to form into something larger- no dolphin but did see some life including turtles, a small tripletail floating next to a bucket, and schooling bonita. Got to the first bottom spot a around 7, hoping for instant red grouper but bite is a little slower than we liked. Caught two pretty quick, then worked our way up to 7, along with some nice gags and 10# and over red snapper despite our best efforts to avoid them and eventually we got into some larger triggers. At this point it had started raining with some thunder rumbling. This continued to get closer so we decided to make a move to an AJ spot. We had a couple of closeby #s- as we pulled away we had a flash bang boom VERY close- good time to leave! Here is one of the bigger triggers that came on a jig- not sure if this is the biggest one weighed 7 lbs on sunday when we cleaned fish!










Next spot was the AJ spot- machine was lit up but could not get them to chew much- we did get this one who came in at just over 30 lbs:










At this point as you can see everyone is either wearing a rain coat or very wet and we are still dodging the occasionally lightning. Not a stellar trip, but we decided getting to the dock at 4 pm with a small box of fish is better than dark with potentially the same small box of fish. We put the high speeds out and about 5 miles in one of the goes off- water was blue-green clear and we were hoping wahoo, but it turned out to be a 30 lb king who was gaffed in pretty short order:










We put the two panhandlers back out and continued running in and about 18 miles from the pass the reel starts screaming again. My buddy Chris quickly got on the reel (it was only a TLD25) and we realized this was a much better fish than the king. Sent the captain to the controls up top so we could keep pressure on the fish (the TLD25 was rigged with braid and very little topshot of mono so at 15 knots we knew he would have a pretty big hole in his mouth). About 30-40 minutes later we got this guy over the side of the boat (we have 30 minutes of video and cut camera off sue to low battery about halfway through to make sure we had enough battery left for gaff shot).



















I will get the video up shortly- full disclosure first: After effortlessly gaffing the AJ and King right behind the head, everyone said just pretend Mr. Hoo is another 31 lb king- easier said than done- as the video illustrates, the fish is so big that I did not realize he was still 5 feet down when I first attempted to gaff him! 

Here is a pic with the angler and his fish back at dock Saturday:










At the end of the day the count was 7 red grouper, 5 beeliner, 1 lane snapper, 12 triggers up to 7 lbs, 31 LB King, 29 lb AJ and a big wahoo (more on that below):










Since the hand scale only goes to 50lb, and the fish houses are closed saturday PM, we used a bathroom scale with me holding the Wahoo and practiced arithmetic- It came to 84lbs- most everyone thought he was closer to 90. Length was 62 and girth was 29.5. Regardless he was over 80# and easily the fish of the day.


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## Capt. Myles Colley (Mar 12, 2008)

Nice fish


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## neuby (May 8, 2009)

*Wahoo Gaffed Video*

http://youtu.be/WgtS1Be3RRE


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## Realtor (Oct 1, 2007)

Freshly caught wahoo are one of the most beautiful fish. Nice catch!


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## my3nme (Oct 9, 2007)

Nice, congrats, how deep we're the grouper in?


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## neuby (May 8, 2009)

my3nme said:


> nice, congrats, how deep we're the grouper in?


150-175


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## Steel Hooked (Jun 29, 2009)

Nice! Braver than we were!


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## MillerTime (Jul 6, 2011)

Beautiful fish, congrats!


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## recess (Oct 8, 2007)

very nice bunch of nice thats a big ole hoo , they have been some studs so far.


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## andrethegiant (Sep 14, 2010)

Nice fish!!!


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## grey ghost (Jul 24, 2011)

NICE WAHOO, dude thats biggun for sure! Them bare feet is trouble though bringing in that suka! lol great pics


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## PaulBoydenCustoms (Dec 3, 2008)

Nice fish!!!


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## philthefish (Aug 10, 2009)

That is a serious hooter right there and a nice haul of fish. I've gotta ask, what kinda rigs were you pulling on a TLD25 at 15 knots? I'd a thought that a 2Lb trolling weight and an islander would have made that TLD wimper... Were you pulling naked lures?

Again, nice job!


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## Lexcore (May 5, 2012)

Look like you all had a GREAT TIME nice fishes!:thumbsup:


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## k-dog (May 15, 2013)

philthefish said:


> That is a serious hooter right there and a nice haul of fish. I've gotta ask, what kinda rigs were you pulling on a TLD25 at 15 knots? I'd a thought that a 2Lb trolling weight and an islander would have made that TLD wimper... Were you pulling naked lures?
> 
> Again, nice job!


 x2:thumbsup:


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Man that is an awesome wahoo! I would love to have that one Memorial Day weekend!

Robert


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## CRC (May 15, 2013)

philthefish said:


> That is a serious hooter right there and a nice haul of fish. I've gotta ask, what kinda rigs were you pulling on a TLD25 at 15 knots? I'd a thought that a 2Lb trolling weight and an islander would have made that TLD wimper... Were you pulling naked lures?
> 
> Again, nice job!


We were pulling the panhandler lures... for smallish lures, they are amazing at how fast you can pull em with no weight. This was by far my biggest fish ever (not counting sharks of course) and the biggest hoo I have ever been on the boat when caught. Just happened to be I picked the rod up this time. I know the TLD was way undergunned, but it has about 500 + yards of 40 lb PP and about 150 mono backing... I saw the backing for the first time in 5 years twice during the fight. I never thought we were going to get it in the boat, but it happened, and having a great boat driver and gaff men were key. If you watch the video closely, you will see he spit the lure out into the water when they gaffed him and he shook his final shake. That is what you call clean livin!


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## bigtallluke (Jul 14, 2012)

Awesome job out there!! Definitely good job getting that stud hoo in the boat.... Definitely took a good crew and teamwork to assist with that. Thanks for the great report, pics, and video!!


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