Took a trip with some friends of mine on Sat. Seas were kinda nasty after that storm rolled through Friday night and Sat morning, but we were able to leave the dock around 930. We had one girl get sick about an hour into the trip, and she didn't stop puking until we started heading back in. She was a trooper about it though, didn't complain just hung in there and fished with us. I was impressed. Snapper isn't open yet, but we got into the kings pretty good, and damn they were fun to haul in! For some reason we ended up with 1 tiny chicken dolphin. I thought the deckhand wanted to keep him as bait, but apparently he wanted to hang on to the little guy. He looks "sorta" small next to all those 25lb kings, lol.
Lets go out and catch some Jacks and start playing Ichthyological Hold 'Em !! Hey, not a bad idea for a fun tournament...assign playing cards to different species and may the best hand win...like a poker run !! Creel weight can be used to break ties.
Our group did boat 2 Jacks; released obviously, but they were fun. My buddy fought one for a solid 40 mins, and he was shaking by the time he boated it. We gave him cr@p the whole time too, which was great. As soon as we could ID it I told him "congrats on catching the biggest trash fish of your life", still straining to reel in the Jack he eeked out a nice "F_ _ _ YOU!". LOL
That would be me. Just looking at the water in those pics made my skin feel dry and crusty and my stomach queezy. Nice fish. I've just never liked saltwater fishing and don't really care much for the taste either. In HS I went with a friend and his family. We went out 80 miles and slept overnight. I got up and fished some at night when it got quiet but was miserable most of the day. When we got in their van to head back I seriously felt like I was still swaying.
Salt water fishing (deep) is a lot of work. It's not very enjoyable the first time you go ( unless u take a charter and they do all the work for you). Once u go a few times and get the hang of it, you learn to love it. There's no better feeling than catching fish that weigh as much as you. If you do it right, you'll hate it while you are doing it...but getting shithammered on the way in with a boatload of donkeys is worth it.
Offshore fishing is a blast. I got my first taste of it last summer on 4th of July. I would love to own an offshore boat one day, but man you really have to drop a ton of money into them. Here are some shots from last year's trip. The Mahi action was non stop, and we left them biting because we had to get back in. You can see how calm and clear the water was that day in the first picture, it almost looks fake. This was my share of the haul that day: We ended up with about 2 times the amount of dolphin in this picture and 4 reds, among 3 people. Dolphin is probably my favorite fish to catch, and makes great table fare as well.
Yup, that water is what they like to call "slicker than owl shit". Interesting that non of the mahi in your picture are male (bulls). You can tell by the slope of the forehead. Bulls have a flat head where the females are more curved.
