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Wahoo, Grouper & Tile
I arrived down to SSM with a good buddy who drove in from Fort Worth around 5 PM on Friday. We had been planning a trip all week and three other crew members were scheduled to meet us later that evening. We took our time organizing the boat and getting all of our gear situated. We filled the bladder up with 150 GA and waited for the rest of the crew to arrive.
We pushed off the dock around 11:15 PM and cleared the Freeport jetty around 11:35 PM slow boating out through the anchored ships. Once clear, we ran all evening 25-28 MPH and arrived to our destination around 4:30 AM Saturday morning. I put a couple of the guys who slept the entire way out on watch as I got a quick 2 hour nap.
At day break I was awakened to an eager crew ready to set lines, we put out the trolling gear and within 5 minutes had our first strike. Line was peeling off and the reel was screaming. I knew instantly this was our target species and a good sign to start the morning.
After clearing one line I grabbed the rod and started fighting the fish. It came straight to us and a quick gaff by one of the guys, we boated our first fish!
Wahoo!
We reset the lines and continued trolling the area ready for the next bite! 10 minutes turned into 30.... 30 into an hour. I started scratching my head and upon hearing some chatter on the radio it may be a late morning bite. With no other boats around we continued to troll and changed out lure combinations, depths & patterns. We kept the same color we got the first fish on the whole day but never got another knock down
Around 11 AM we decided to move and only managed a bonita and barracuda on an islander balyhoo combination for our troubles. Apparently we were in the wrong area. The earlier report on the radio was constant doubles. I guess they were on the right spot. Around lunch we opted to move towards our deep drop area and through in the towel on trolling.
I helped the guys setup our first drift and took another nap. I was awakened 15 minutes later by the yelling of "GROUPER" rather than tile. The guys had hooked into a decent yellow edge. Boated it and I fell back asleep.
They boxed around 12 tile and the grouper and then woke me up again to move to another spot. Really fellas, y'all can drive LOL. I moved us to my favorite area around 1 mile away. We dropped and had a instantly had a good bite.
The rod doubled over and we hit the button on the LP to start the reel. The fish pulled drag but we kept the steady pressure on. Around 100' I felt the line go slack and weight came off the rod. I knew the fish had just come unbuttoned. We grabbed the leader and pulled the weight inside as I maneuvered the boat to the rising fish. The grouper breached the water and we grabbed the gaff and brought it aboard. I believe it's a snowy although the fish cleaner said warsaw. I didn't count the spines, anyone want to chime in? Caught around 1000'
We had stowaway that joined us for about 30 minutes. It took on some water, lonestar beer and ate some squid on the cutting board before continuing its flight North.
Just before 6PM we decided to call it quits. We turned the boat back to Freeport and ran 32 the whole way in. We arrived back at dock around 10:30 PM. Worn out & exhausted we cleaned up the reels, loaded the trucks and had the fish cleaned and was on the road by 11:30.
It was a great 24 hours and a fun trip. We were definitely hoping for some more wahoo but the deep drop can always save a trip when things don't go as planned.
A big thanks to Matagorda Tackle, we've switched over to their rigs for snapper and they have been working out great for our deep drop trips.
We pushed off the dock around 11:15 PM and cleared the Freeport jetty around 11:35 PM slow boating out through the anchored ships. Once clear, we ran all evening 25-28 MPH and arrived to our destination around 4:30 AM Saturday morning. I put a couple of the guys who slept the entire way out on watch as I got a quick 2 hour nap.
At day break I was awakened to an eager crew ready to set lines, we put out the trolling gear and within 5 minutes had our first strike. Line was peeling off and the reel was screaming. I knew instantly this was our target species and a good sign to start the morning.
After clearing one line I grabbed the rod and started fighting the fish. It came straight to us and a quick gaff by one of the guys, we boated our first fish!
Wahoo!
We reset the lines and continued trolling the area ready for the next bite! 10 minutes turned into 30.... 30 into an hour. I started scratching my head and upon hearing some chatter on the radio it may be a late morning bite. With no other boats around we continued to troll and changed out lure combinations, depths & patterns. We kept the same color we got the first fish on the whole day but never got another knock down
Around 11 AM we decided to move and only managed a bonita and barracuda on an islander balyhoo combination for our troubles. Apparently we were in the wrong area. The earlier report on the radio was constant doubles. I guess they were on the right spot. Around lunch we opted to move towards our deep drop area and through in the towel on trolling.
I helped the guys setup our first drift and took another nap. I was awakened 15 minutes later by the yelling of "GROUPER" rather than tile. The guys had hooked into a decent yellow edge. Boated it and I fell back asleep.
They boxed around 12 tile and the grouper and then woke me up again to move to another spot. Really fellas, y'all can drive LOL. I moved us to my favorite area around 1 mile away. We dropped and had a instantly had a good bite.
The rod doubled over and we hit the button on the LP to start the reel. The fish pulled drag but we kept the steady pressure on. Around 100' I felt the line go slack and weight came off the rod. I knew the fish had just come unbuttoned. We grabbed the leader and pulled the weight inside as I maneuvered the boat to the rising fish. The grouper breached the water and we grabbed the gaff and brought it aboard. I believe it's a snowy although the fish cleaner said warsaw. I didn't count the spines, anyone want to chime in? Caught around 1000'
We had stowaway that joined us for about 30 minutes. It took on some water, lonestar beer and ate some squid on the cutting board before continuing its flight North.
Just before 6PM we decided to call it quits. We turned the boat back to Freeport and ran 32 the whole way in. We arrived back at dock around 10:30 PM. Worn out & exhausted we cleaned up the reels, loaded the trucks and had the fish cleaned and was on the road by 11:30.
It was a great 24 hours and a fun trip. We were definitely hoping for some more wahoo but the deep drop can always save a trip when things don't go as planned.
A big thanks to Matagorda Tackle, we've switched over to their rigs for snapper and they have been working out great for our deep drop trips.
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