Wanted to first say Thanks to all the guys who post here with tips and tactics, especially to GMAN, whose threads made me look like an expert this weekend (even though I had never officially jigged or popped before then).
Fished a private charter set up by one of my father's oilfield vendors on the Big E out of Freeport, Tx. This was a 24 hr trip destined for some of the production platforms in deep water (3000' to 5000' water depth). While, my father and I grew up offshore fishing, most on board were inexperienced to deep water, some had never fished saltwater. So, as I showed up with all my gear and tackle (accumulated from reading alot in this forum), people gravitated toward us looking for advice on our ride out. However, my memory kicked in and was able to describe in detail the techniques I would be using over our trip. We made bait at a shallower platform, then hit some rocks in 300' for grouper and AJ. Once the captain saw we were catching mostly red snapper, (season here does not open up til June 1 so all were throwbacks, including some 15+lbers) we picked up the baits and headed to deep water.
Long story short, we made it to Nansen (3600' water depth), only to find very little bait in the area. A few small blackfin were caught jigging, but no yellowfin showed up. We left and ran to Diana Hoover (4600' water depth). Same thing, not much bait. However, with the floodlights on board illuminating all the water around the boat, we started attracting a few flyers once we drifted away from the platform. I caught a couple jigging a diamond jig, but the most fun I had was casting artificial flying fish to the edge of the light and watching the tuna blow up on the baits. In all the boat put around 40 blackfin tuna in the box. Of those, I had 7 to 30 lbs (actually caught 9, but an up and coming rookie deck hand (I know we all have to start somewhere, and in all fairness he got better as the night went on), with a swinging gaff style managed to knock off 2) and Dad had 4.
The next day, on our way in we stopped to fish some rocks in 200'. Free lined for kings and caught 3 to 35 lbs. Some cobia were caught as well as too many throwback snapper (Flipper ate good). Also had a good wahoo show up that ignored my whole cigar minnow in favor of small piece of cut bait as I scrambled for a live blue runner. She was landed and weight 60 lbs.
In all it was great to get back on the water, and will definitely fish the Big E again soon. I did not get the chance for pics during the action but will post a couple dock shots.
Once again thanks to all who post here.
Best Regards,
Tom
Last edited by Pipeliner2; 06-01-2009 at 12:25 PM.
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