2 days same results

[capthoop]

Had C.Dunkin and his brother Jim from Arkansas along with his brother in law Steve and his son from Texas for 2 days of fishing. Dunkin was with me last year and had a fantastic trip. It was one of my better trips so the bar was set high before we hit the water. The weather was picture perfect both days with 1-2 seas at the most.



We started the day bending some rods and hurting some backs. This ones for Bart. Start working out buddy. The smallest amberjack of the day came first.



After loosing a lot of gear and only 2 jacks we hit the tuna grounds.
Another long slow process but we managed to see some action. The first was a 45 pounder.



After what seemed like an eternity the line screams out and it is fish on. This one is acting like a shark for a while but then he must have felt the hook. The battle lasted about 30 minutes and the kid almost passed the rod but he stayed on it all the way and landed this nice one that hit the scales at 83 pounds.



We finished the day with 2 aj's, 2 yellowfin, and a limit of red snapper.



The second day the plan was to hit the snapper first, Aj's second, and tuna / mahi the rest of the day. The snapper were done as quick as we started. Great start. The amberjack bait was so big it broke all of our sabiki rigs. There was another boat in the area and he was good enough to give us 2 larger sized sabikis 40 main and 20 leader. We were able to get a lot of bait quickly. Looking like a good day so far. The sharks changed that for us from that point on. After a frustrating hour of loosing gear and 2 pounds of lead each time we decided to run for the tuna grounds.

The first spot the water was dirty but we hooked up the day before in almost the same color water so we gave it a shot. Nothing showed up on the screen so we moved outa little more. On the first drift we hook up and I have a good feeling about this spot. We land a fat tuna that I had to look at closly. It was my personal best blackfin. The state record is 37 pounds and on my scale on the boat bouncing around it weighted 37. Back at the dock after being in the box all day it went 33 pounds. Still one hell of a blackfin. 2 more hours of fishing with nothing going on. Getting late. What to do. Finally a hit! This 75 pounder came aboard to help us out.



On the way in we hit the Aj's again. More sharks. I tell Mike my deck hand to go very deep. This was the ticket and we were able to pick 3 out of the rigs before running out of bait.





As you can see by this shot at the dock we got in very late. Note the size of that blackfin hanging up top. That is a P.B. for my boat that will be hard to beat. Capt. Eddie Burger was amazed at the blackfin and said he has yet to get one that big.



Did a snapper trip on the Cougar yesterday and all had a good time. Was able to fill the board with some spill over on the ground. Another day in paradise.



Life is Good!
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Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

Capt Hoop
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