Slow offshore

[Christopherkeene9]

Had friends aboard from Tampa (Mitch and Jordan) who have never cought anything in SaltW-A-T-E-R. So we hoped to hook 'em up.

Started the morning off looking for bait. Found the Pogies in the Middle Basin but they were too deep for our net (35 ft.). So we run out to the end of the channel and start marking bait there but no takers on the sabiki rig, same thing at R4. So now were off.

We ran to the wx buoy through the 2-3 foot chop at about 25kts. Trolled around there with nothing to show for about 30 minutes. But while trolling we see the fleet of Shrimpers to the North of us. So Dad begins the run there and while trying to get there we notice the one were going to is still moving. By the time we catch up he stopped and is throwing his anchor. We make about 10 passes behind his stern and get 3 'cuda.

Father and Son


Jordan's first saltW-A-T-E-R fish


We leave there in fear of using all of our bait on 'cudas. So we run down to 8A and start trolling around there. Nobody caught anything except for one charter pulling 1 king in. We then hear someone on the radio say "they were catching them in 120 on an Artificial Reef east of 8A".

So we look on the map and find the Brevard County Artificial Reef 20 fathom about 5 miles away. So we pull up and we were off to beat the fleet.

We got there with about 8 boats trolling around/bottoming. We make one pass and pick up a king but pull the hook at about 40ft. from the boat > Probably fool hooked by the way he came in. We make the next pass and a smoker hits. She is going. The Drag kept on going and going. So Jordan is on it. We put the drag up and she's still going. We finaly were able to start gaining line with about 1/3 of a spool left. We trade the rod off to Mitch when Jordan gets tired then to me when Mitch is tired. When I finally get it it had about a 1/2 spool left. So I start getting so more line slowly. But I don't want to make the fight longer then needed so Dad backs the boat down and finishes this in about 3 minutes. We get her in the boat and she's a FAT 15lb. Momma King. This didn't come till about 12:30

Team Effort


Ryan gets the next king at about 1:20.


And Dad's at about 1:25.
We troll around with no more takers and so we point the bow East at about 2:00.
We cruised in at about 27kts. But about 10-11 miles out we hit a sea turtle. Never saw the thing. But saw it when we stopped behind us. We think he made it and there was no damage to the hull or props. The last 1/2 mile in we put the throttles to the dash and got the top end around 37.5kts. Not bad for a 11,000lb. beast.
P.S does anybody know how to resize photobucket.com pics???

Fin Loco

P.S I also got our Logo for you JB