Had a great opportunity to run the Salty Hooker for the 25th Annual Pirates Cove Billfish Tournament. Had a fun crew consisting of Mike Wheat(boat owner), Dave Conley, Dewayne Paugh, Mike Labounty(swancaller) and Josh.
Day 1-Tuesday Aug 12th. Little Bumpy on the way out. That happens when you are in the middle of 98 other boats all heading to the same location. Fished hard the first day in some bumpy conditions. Had a shot at a white and a sailfish. Missed both....Did pick up one dolphin for some food and two little bluefin tuna which were thrown back to grow larger.
Day 2- Wed Aug 13th. Beautiful in the morning for the ride out. Headed to a little different location than we fished the first day. Found some really good bait marks and bait on the surface in the morning that just didn't produce. Covered a lot of ground today looking for a bill. Finally had a sail come darting across the spread late in the day, but never got a hook in it. Managed a dolphin also.
Thursday was our lay day so we didn't fish.
Day 3- Friday Aug 15th. Absolutely beautiful day on the water. Light winds and flat seas. Headed way down south to look for some bills and a shot at a wahoo. Worked the waters in the morning looking for some bills. Nothing happening so trolled over to one of my wahoo holes and BAM!!! 50W screaming and rod bent over. Nice wahoo on.....Damn hook pulls. Reset baits really quick and back over the mark....BAM!!! Another wahoo on and we get him to the boat and in the box. Finished the day before lines in trolling around Diamond Shoals Light tower where we accidentally managed to hook and land two 30-40lb amberjacks. It was 3 o'clock and time to head in to weigh our wahoo.
Our wahoo ended up putting us 2nd place in the wahoo division of the tournament!!!!
The boat we fished on was an Atlantic 34' with brand new Yanmar Diesels and generator. This was a great boat to fish from. Had a nice ride, was dry even in some of the sloppy conditions we fished in. Very economical on fuel. I was up in the tower most of the time watching the baits. Mike didn't spare any expense when he recently retro'd the boat installing new electronics, LCD TV, XM with weather and sea surface temps.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and fishing with everyone on board. Thank you Mike for giving me the opportunity to fish with you!!!!!
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Pirates Cove Billfish Tourney-2nd Place Wahoo
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