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Off Shore 6/6/11
What a day!
I had been watching the forecast all weekend and Monday looked like the best day to take the boat out. I called up a few buddies (Yan - MilkJug, Jay & Robby-Redfish Rob) and the plan was set to run out 60 NM leaving West Bay around 6AM.
We got a slightly late start but not horrible. We were just making sure we had everything. We got caught by the rail bridge, then were finally on our way out the jetties & straight to 62NM to a few rigs we had seen on a prior trip.
We pulled up, Yan & I secured the lines onto the rig.
We tossed on our tanks & headed down to shoot some snapper.
My first shot jut missed the head of a nice size sow snapper and I knew I had 2 chance left at that depth, Yan took a shot & hit a beautiful sow.
Here she is sitting in the cooler (1st stop)
I had my next 2 shots pull off & became very frustrated. I hit 500 & did my safety stop & called it.
We both hit another few fish (mangroves) after we tossed the tanks in the boat & had some lunch.
While Yan & I did some free diving. Robby bottom fished with Jay. Jay had a nice 20" red snapper probably the larger of the fish that we saw caught on rod & reel. The rigs were covered up with snapper large mangroves & reds. I wish we had brought 2 more tanks but 4 we found was tough to manage last time.
Here's Jay hooked up to a nice red snapper
Robby hooked up
Here's the GPS coords as of today for a VERY large weed patch that we meant to go back by but time ran out. Its the largest one I have seen in awhile.
On our way back in we were about 20 miles from the South Jetty.
That was the mood prior to seeing this:
At probably 12-15NM off the Jetty all HELL broke loose! We hit a strong North wind blowing easily 20-25 maybe gusting more. Waves & conditions went from Sunny to 3' rollers it got very scary real quick. I flipped on the Weather Radar & this is what I saw.
We continued pushing on at 5100 RPMS (averaged that the whole day) doing 25 MPH until the chop & waves built up. We were soon in the middle of nasty storm, wind throwing water all over us, spray just coming right into our faces.
(Last photo taken before storm hit - winds had just hit us)
Please note: We all had on our auto inflatable life jackets. Every time the main motor was on, it's a rule on the boat when off shore. Type I life jacket are above in the t-top.
So there we are now soaked, temps had dropped by 20 degrees and now we are hitting 3' waves. If that was not enough it started to rain. By this point we were at 10 NM and a twin engine boat had caught up to us & was running parallel to us head slowly gaining. Lightening starts flashing all in front of us, loud cracks of thunder ring out & hail fell. Now this is where I started getting very nervous. I checked the radar again & knew we had to keep heading in but saw there was a slight window opening.
About this time, the twin engine boat is about a 1/4 mile of our starboard. A lightening bolt comes down & hits within close proximity to both of us, but closer to them. Almost simultaneously the thunder & loud crack. I gritted my teeth I'm sure that had a pucker factor of 10 for those guys on that boat. I know it was for us!
We pushed past the storm now seeing another single engine boat trailing us we stayed near them & led the way in following the twin engine vessel. It was some pretty hairy conditions there at the end. The seas finally settled once I made the turn to head back to the Pelican Island bridge.
It was an amazing trip but we heard some distress calls today out there. I hope everyone was okay getting back in. The seas went from 1' to some sporting 3's mixed in and it got real ugly real quick. That happens out there & you just have to be prepared for everything. It can be fine one minute & bad the next.
I am not even sure what we ended up with. I kept 2 red snapper on rod & reel for myself, but I also shot 2 nice size mangroves as did Yan. Oh, & he shot a barracuda that tail walked for him.
Here's the shot of the fish on the dock.
Here's Robby with the Cuda & Yan's Sow he shot.
I think the total was 6 mangroves, nice size too. 6 Red Snapper, couple pushing 20", one nice sow & a few around 18" that I took to finish my red snapper limit. We tossed back barely keeper reds. We were after the larger ones. After shooting 6 mangroves we decided that was enough meat for us & with our time table we needed to started heading back. Of course Yan got his Cuda & Robby put a heck of a gut gaff in him lol
Going to be good eats for awhile!!
I had been watching the forecast all weekend and Monday looked like the best day to take the boat out. I called up a few buddies (Yan - MilkJug, Jay & Robby-Redfish Rob) and the plan was set to run out 60 NM leaving West Bay around 6AM.
We got a slightly late start but not horrible. We were just making sure we had everything. We got caught by the rail bridge, then were finally on our way out the jetties & straight to 62NM to a few rigs we had seen on a prior trip.
We pulled up, Yan & I secured the lines onto the rig.
We tossed on our tanks & headed down to shoot some snapper.
My first shot jut missed the head of a nice size sow snapper and I knew I had 2 chance left at that depth, Yan took a shot & hit a beautiful sow. Here she is sitting in the cooler (1st stop)
I had my next 2 shots pull off & became very frustrated. I hit 500 & did my safety stop & called it.
We both hit another few fish (mangroves) after we tossed the tanks in the boat & had some lunch.
While Yan & I did some free diving. Robby bottom fished with Jay. Jay had a nice 20" red snapper probably the larger of the fish that we saw caught on rod & reel. The rigs were covered up with snapper large mangroves & reds. I wish we had brought 2 more tanks but 4 we found was tough to manage last time.
Here's Jay hooked up to a nice red snapper
Robby hooked up
Here's the GPS coords as of today for a VERY large weed patch that we meant to go back by but time ran out. Its the largest one I have seen in awhile.
On our way back in we were about 20 miles from the South Jetty.
That was the mood prior to seeing this:
At probably 12-15NM off the Jetty all HELL broke loose! We hit a strong North wind blowing easily 20-25 maybe gusting more. Waves & conditions went from Sunny to 3' rollers it got very scary real quick. I flipped on the Weather Radar & this is what I saw.
We continued pushing on at 5100 RPMS (averaged that the whole day) doing 25 MPH until the chop & waves built up. We were soon in the middle of nasty storm, wind throwing water all over us, spray just coming right into our faces.
(Last photo taken before storm hit - winds had just hit us)
Please note: We all had on our auto inflatable life jackets. Every time the main motor was on, it's a rule on the boat when off shore. Type I life jacket are above in the t-top.
So there we are now soaked, temps had dropped by 20 degrees and now we are hitting 3' waves. If that was not enough it started to rain. By this point we were at 10 NM and a twin engine boat had caught up to us & was running parallel to us head slowly gaining. Lightening starts flashing all in front of us, loud cracks of thunder ring out & hail fell. Now this is where I started getting very nervous. I checked the radar again & knew we had to keep heading in but saw there was a slight window opening.
About this time, the twin engine boat is about a 1/4 mile of our starboard. A lightening bolt comes down & hits within close proximity to both of us, but closer to them. Almost simultaneously the thunder & loud crack. I gritted my teeth I'm sure that had a pucker factor of 10 for those guys on that boat. I know it was for us!
We pushed past the storm now seeing another single engine boat trailing us we stayed near them & led the way in following the twin engine vessel. It was some pretty hairy conditions there at the end. The seas finally settled once I made the turn to head back to the Pelican Island bridge.
It was an amazing trip but we heard some distress calls today out there. I hope everyone was okay getting back in. The seas went from 1' to some sporting 3's mixed in and it got real ugly real quick. That happens out there & you just have to be prepared for everything. It can be fine one minute & bad the next.
I am not even sure what we ended up with. I kept 2 red snapper on rod & reel for myself, but I also shot 2 nice size mangroves as did Yan. Oh, & he shot a barracuda that tail walked for him.
Here's the shot of the fish on the dock.
Here's Robby with the Cuda & Yan's Sow he shot.
I think the total was 6 mangroves, nice size too. 6 Red Snapper, couple pushing 20", one nice sow & a few around 18" that I took to finish my red snapper limit. We tossed back barely keeper reds. We were after the larger ones. After shooting 6 mangroves we decided that was enough meat for us & with our time table we needed to started heading back. Of course Yan got his Cuda & Robby put a heck of a gut gaff in him lol
Going to be good eats for awhile!!
LIVIN THE SALT LIFE 
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