moore_rb
Stay Thirsty My Friends
Man o man.... another great week of fishing on board the Tiburon.
I hauled the whole clan down to stay in Las Conchas for a week. Monday the wind was stiff in the morning, but we did get out about 10 miles in the afternoon to let the kids catch us up a nice mess of rock bass so we'd have a good supply of live bait in preparation for an early start on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, we ran southeast and fished the line of rocks on the 158 heading (Caballo, 30 mile, and a couple other rocks I've found in that areas that I'm not sure are commonly named). The day started with a rough ride out, and some pretty choppy drifts until about noon, but the fishing was fantastic- By noon I had 2 small Baya, and one decent 35-40 pounder, and Trent had a REALLY nice 80 pounder in the boat; and we both had numerous break offs that either rocked us up, or were simply too big for our wimpy 100 pound braid, 200lb flouro leaders and stand up tuna rods to handle.
We fished until dusk on Tues, and I'm glad we did, because at about 6:20, I stuck a jig-fish that I thought was going to be another medium sized grouper until I saw color on the fish, and the color was silver/white instead of dark olive. My immediate reaction was "Oh crap- I've got a Totoaba- I'm going to have to release this fish", but as he came up to the boat I saw the definite purple dorsal cast, dark vertical streaks, and forked tail of a huge White Seabass, so my thoughts turned from "Oh, crap" to "SCORE!"... Like I said- we had a great day on Tuesday.
Since Tuesday was so fantastic, we chose to fish the same general area again on Wednesday, beginning with a spot south of Bird Island. When we arrived on the first mark, there were already several other boats in the vicinity, so I eased the boat into position, tossed a diamond jig for my very first drop of the morning, and immediately hooked and landed a big grouper - about a 70 pounder. A very awesome way to start the day- catching a huge fish on your first drop with an audience watching. About an hour later I nailed my second fish- a carbon copy of the first.
Dave Roberts fished with us Wed and had the hot stick. He nailed a Grouper trifecta (Baya, Sardinero, and Pinto) as well as the largest fish of the day (80 pound Baya), and managed to adhere to the "Dave tradition" of tangling his fishing line up somewhere on the boat- this time he got it wrapped around my transducer. I was able to get the line untangled from the transducer bracket without going into the 65 degree water; and Dave actually managed to boat the fish that he was fighting when that pesky transducer reached out and grabbed his line. It was just another awesome day. We even had a bird hang out on top of the T-top for several hours while we fished. I promised Dave I wouldn't say anything about the "episode" regarding the bird and Dave's shoulder and neck, so I won't mention it.
Thursday we decided to take the kids out again, so we fished the rock line about a mile off Playa Encanto. Lots of small Sierra and Bass, but nothing of notable size. Still it was very awesome to see the young ones having such a good time. Now, if I could only figure out how to get them to start taking their own fish off the hooks... Just call me "Daddy Deckhand"
Lastly- I'm very pleased that my quest for the correct props is OVER - the boat ran perfectly, and the new props gave me about 5 extra MPH at each RPM range compared to my old props, while still being able to hit the redline out of the hole. We cruised everywhere at 35-37mph, and ran the entire week on a single tank of gas. Awesome.
The pics are locked up in the camera with a dead battery- will post a couple tomorrow.
I hauled the whole clan down to stay in Las Conchas for a week. Monday the wind was stiff in the morning, but we did get out about 10 miles in the afternoon to let the kids catch us up a nice mess of rock bass so we'd have a good supply of live bait in preparation for an early start on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, we ran southeast and fished the line of rocks on the 158 heading (Caballo, 30 mile, and a couple other rocks I've found in that areas that I'm not sure are commonly named). The day started with a rough ride out, and some pretty choppy drifts until about noon, but the fishing was fantastic- By noon I had 2 small Baya, and one decent 35-40 pounder, and Trent had a REALLY nice 80 pounder in the boat; and we both had numerous break offs that either rocked us up, or were simply too big for our wimpy 100 pound braid, 200lb flouro leaders and stand up tuna rods to handle.
We fished until dusk on Tues, and I'm glad we did, because at about 6:20, I stuck a jig-fish that I thought was going to be another medium sized grouper until I saw color on the fish, and the color was silver/white instead of dark olive. My immediate reaction was "Oh crap- I've got a Totoaba- I'm going to have to release this fish", but as he came up to the boat I saw the definite purple dorsal cast, dark vertical streaks, and forked tail of a huge White Seabass, so my thoughts turned from "Oh, crap" to "SCORE!"... Like I said- we had a great day on Tuesday. Since Tuesday was so fantastic, we chose to fish the same general area again on Wednesday, beginning with a spot south of Bird Island. When we arrived on the first mark, there were already several other boats in the vicinity, so I eased the boat into position, tossed a diamond jig for my very first drop of the morning, and immediately hooked and landed a big grouper - about a 70 pounder. A very awesome way to start the day- catching a huge fish on your first drop with an audience watching. About an hour later I nailed my second fish- a carbon copy of the first.
Dave Roberts fished with us Wed and had the hot stick. He nailed a Grouper trifecta (Baya, Sardinero, and Pinto) as well as the largest fish of the day (80 pound Baya), and managed to adhere to the "Dave tradition" of tangling his fishing line up somewhere on the boat- this time he got it wrapped around my transducer. I was able to get the line untangled from the transducer bracket without going into the 65 degree water; and Dave actually managed to boat the fish that he was fighting when that pesky transducer reached out and grabbed his line. It was just another awesome day. We even had a bird hang out on top of the T-top for several hours while we fished. I promised Dave I wouldn't say anything about the "episode" regarding the bird and Dave's shoulder and neck, so I won't mention it.
Thursday we decided to take the kids out again, so we fished the rock line about a mile off Playa Encanto. Lots of small Sierra and Bass, but nothing of notable size. Still it was very awesome to see the young ones having such a good time. Now, if I could only figure out how to get them to start taking their own fish off the hooks... Just call me "Daddy Deckhand"
Lastly- I'm very pleased that my quest for the correct props is OVER - the boat ran perfectly, and the new props gave me about 5 extra MPH at each RPM range compared to my old props, while still being able to hit the redline out of the hole. We cruised everywhere at 35-37mph, and ran the entire week on a single tank of gas. Awesome.
The pics are locked up in the camera with a dead battery- will post a couple tomorrow.
