# Outboard Classic Trip



## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Me, Capt Woody, Superchicken (aka Herb) and my buddy Chip fished the Outboard Classic this past Saturday. Like everyone else we had been following the path of a great looking rip on the satellite charts all week. As luck would have it cloud cover killed Thurs and Friday images so we were going on faith it was still out there. We left after the captain’s meeting heading for a new rig called Ensco 8500, that sits arrox 125 miles or so from OB. Previous images had shown it east of the rip and in blue water. Idea was to go there and troll west till we found the rip. We putted all night and were sitting at the rig in glass calm water at sunup to find no signs of tuna. We trolled some scattered grass around the rig then went in search of the rip. We searched and searched and we searched! We ran a total of 385 miles and we never found it! Turns out it had dissipated and was gone. Most of the water we saw was ugly MS river looking water. Would have had better luck fishing for carp! 



There were no billfish caught, only 4 wahoo brought to scales, a handful of small dolphin and tuna. It was a fun but tough day for all.

Long story short, we somehow managed to catch 4 small wahoo during the day. One other boat caught an even smaller wahoo so we swept the wahoo division and managed to win right at $5000. I am embarrassed to say this, but our largest wahoo was 12.1 lbs!! I guess it goes to show that you just never know what will win some of these things!
We had a great time, good crew, flat water and a check!


Ensco 8500 at dawn, with Woody getting the spread out










Take a look at the boat Icon on my Sirius weather map to get idea where we were, long way out! (we are the little black tear drop thing)










Capt Wood, Herb and one of the tournament winning wahoo












Wahoos 1,2 &3 and the crew












Proudly holding one of the two checks we one


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## PELAGIC PIRATE (Oct 10, 2007)

Congrats on the WIN and the Check , thats just awesome !


Keep up the good work and report :thumbsup:


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## JMB (Jan 2, 2009)

*Wahoo for the wehoo*

Nice going!

Maybe not a sized wahoo that most people post about, but he was a good return on investment. 

Sorry that more didn't transpire for you all. But with the water like it is...at least you put something on the board and made some money too. 

We debated about going to the RP (not tourney fishing) to look for tuna and pelagics. Decide to snapper fish instead. 

Thanks for sharing.


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## sail7seas (Oct 2, 2007)

great report and pics. nothing embarassing about the return on those hooters. as with any sport a win is a win no matter what the score was. congrats on sweeping the division.


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## bombtosser (Oct 5, 2007)

Although that was a heck of a boat ride, it looks like was worth it to get in them money. It goes to prove you always weigh the fish in! CONGRATS GUYS!:thumbup:


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## samoajoe (Dec 28, 2010)

Great pics of the winning wahoos! Our mahi would have been on the board for 5 mins if we weighed it. The seaweed kept my spread from being any sort of effective out there. Just think what one little rat marlin would have done. I was a good time for my first tourney experience. Good meeting you Robert.


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## GAHUNTER (Jan 30, 2008)

What was your total fuel burn after covering 385 miles in one day?

I have a friend that had a 36 Contender with triple 250s, and we could count on putting back in gallons almost exactly what we covered in miles when fishing out of Venice. (Just wondering if the Yellowfins are any more efficeint than that.)


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Samoajoe: It was very nice meeting you as well, I hope you guys fish the Monkey Boat at the end of July as well! fun tournament

Gahunter: I recorded all the fuel data, but have not tabulated it yet. I know that the worst mpg we were getting was on way out at 17 mph pushing thru the seas and it was .9 to 1.0 mpg, best was running home at 45-55 mph and it was 1.2 t 1.3, but you have to remember we carried over 2.5 TONS of fuel and fresh water, plus almost 500 lbs of ice, we were as the say "loaded to the gills"!

Robert


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## GAHUNTER (Jan 30, 2008)

Gahunter: I recorded all the fuel data said:


> Yeah, sounds about the same as the Contender. I'll bet you end up putting 385 gallons back in to fully cover the 385 miles covered.
> 
> The good news is the same friend had a 31 Contender before the 36 that had twin 2-strokes, and that boat stuggled to get 1 mpg, usually getting between .7 and 1 after a trip to the floaters. Four strokes are a Godsend in this day and age.


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## Cast-N-Call (Apr 21, 2009)

Congrats on the sweep, it doesn't always take a big fish to win. I think a 40 lb wahoo won the Emerald (70 something boats), not many caught over the weekend.

Buddies took "Privateer" out fun fishing last Tues evening and stayed out till Sat. They also started at the 8500 Wed morning and stayed in dirty water all day. They wound up running East a pretty good ways and finally found the rip mid day Thur. They released one small Blue and caught several wahoo and dolphin Thursday, biggest hoo around 35 lbs and biggest dolphin at 40 lbs. They said the bite was not there Friday or Saturday. 

Wish things would have held together for ya'll. That picture of the three winning hoo is classic.

Looking at that screen shot, looks like you might have gotten a couple of those waypoints from the middle man in the picture below : )


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

GAhunter: If we are doing a normal canyon trip with 330 gallons of gas and running on plane, we tend to average 1.4 or better for the day.

cast n call: It was funny as I tried to sleep around 430 AM and I had a hard time with all the beeping from data entry going on at the helm!! He was a data entering fool! Lots of fun to have on board with us!


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## alexa041 (Jun 27, 2008)

Any results from the tourney?


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## superchicken (Jan 9, 2010)

alexa041 said:


> Any results from the tourney?


 We had 1st 2nd and 3rd in wahoo with the total of the 3 being around 35#'s, no marlin, I think dolphin winner was 26 and tuna winner was 94. 15 boats, had a great time Robert and crew, Woody you can keep the flip flops but you owe me another T shirt. Good luck this weekend Rob with the jr. angler, let us know...great post also.


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## Reel Rowdy (Oct 4, 2007)

Robert do y'all carry any extra fuel at all?


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## Island24 (May 12, 2008)

Thanks for the good story. A win is a win and if the check clears even better and be glad you weighed the fish. I had a partner once decide not to weigh the fish because we thought it was too small - it would have won. Nothing embarrassing there - it takes some sack to go the scale with a small fish so congrats on sweeping the hoo division


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

ReelRowdy: One of the great things about the 36 YF is the amount of fuel it holds, 540 gallons! That gives us more than enough fuel to go anywhere at any speed. Other than the 540 we do not carry any other fuel, just ice, fresh water and tackle etc...


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## straycat (Jul 26, 2008)

You went west and we had to go back North. I was wondering how much fuel the yellowfin held. We were out there with you at ensco 8500, looked pretty out there, we caught a 2.9 lb dolphin:thumbup: while out there. The straycat holds 300 gallons (We averaged going out 0.9 to 1.0 at 28 mph and 1.2 at 40 mph back in), so we were all in, when we went out there. Lucky for us we worked our way back north and stopped at the marlin and picked up 3 blackfin's & 1 big eye, average weight 10 lbs. But you never know, we paid for the fuel and a little bit more by taking in $2,000.00 of the calcutta's:thumbsup: Congrates to you guys on the wahoo winnings:notworthy:

Straycat


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

straycat: Yeah, it was you, us and Shockwave 2 (42 Invincible) at Ensco at dawn. That was the best water we saw all day. We would have stayed there all day, but we were run off by a building squall. Dang cloud cover made for a long long mostly wasted run!

Congrats on your winnings as well!

Robert


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## Bluewater Cowboy (Oct 1, 2007)

I'm not trying to be nosey but I have a question about the tournament. I know it was a small tournament compared to the big billfish tournaments, but they stated that all winners would be polygraphed. I've seen that in alot of tournaments these days but always wondered if they actually did it. So my question is to you guys who won some money did they polygraph test yall afterwards?


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

every tournament I have been in all say "subject to polygraph test", I have never known anyone to actually be polygraphed


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## Reel EmergenSea (Jan 31, 2008)

Thanks for the report Robert. Puttiing our 34 YF in the International this weekend. I'll be sure and keep all those "smaller fish".


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## alexa041 (Jun 27, 2008)

I think the polygraph test would most likely be used for tag and release.


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