Great Day at the Bank!!

[southport05]

What a heck of a day today! Highs and lows back and forth all day. Got up at 2:45AM to head down to the boat and had a text from the guy that was supposed to be going with me from 12:15AM that he was drunk and wasn't going to make it!! WTF!?!?! (And he was supposed to bring lunch!! Double WTF!?) Oh well, I'll go solo. (And there are potato chips onboard for lunch).

Shove off at 3:30AM, headed towards the SWC. Just past Minot's lose about a knot off my speed. Hmmm... not sure if it's currents. Up the RPM's and notice a VERY slight vibration and odd sound. Hmmm... stop, go into reverse, stop, power back up. Still there, but only at higher RPM's. Oil pressure fine, temps fine, bilge dry, everything seems okay. Push on to the bank.

Arrive SWC about 5AM. Not a parking lot, which surprised me. Start to set out trolling spread. Decided where it was only me to go with four rod spread, all in the swivel holders. That way if I do hook up I can fight him out of the rod holder instead of throwing on a harness. Get the left side out, go to set the right, and the left short goes off.. striper. PITA!!! Get him in, throw him back. Re-set and get the right side out. Get up in the tower, and start to notice seaweed... not a happy camper.

Long story short, worked SWC for the tide change and then around to SEC. Marked fish at SWC and just east of it, didn't mark much around the SEC. Worked back across the bank, taking care to avoid the now almost parking lot of boats flying kites and floating balloons. Was not very happy so far with the morning. Decided to go to a spot I had been at a week and a half ago where we had marked lots of fish and had seen big schools up breaking. There were only 3 or 4 boats out in that vicinity.

Got there and started marking lots of fish, and saw a few up busting. Decided to start working this area. (As a side note, probably did at least 6 or 8 weed checks on the full spread by this time. Not fun single handed.) School would pop up, I'd start to troll towards them, as I got closer they'd go down. Pass by where they had been, get about 200 yards past, look back, and they popped back up in the same spot. Love these fish!! Noticed a couple familiar boats in the area, Akula and Capt Dom (I have pics of both of you, but they are too big to upload here. PM me if you want me to email them to you) running and gunning. (Capt Dom, I only passed by that close to get a couple of pics because I saw that your anglers weren't casting or hooked up, and there were no fish visible close. Otherwise I would have passed much further away.)

It was now about slack, and I noticed another school up breaking just north of me. Weed checked the left side as I was working towards the school. Was going to weed check the right side, and noticed Akula running towards the school as well. The way we were headed, the school would be right between us, with Akula sliding up the left side and me on the right side. So decided to stay at the helm to make sure I didn't cause any issues. And then right as i was passing by the school and Akula was pulling up..... POP!!!!!.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THOSE SOUNDS!!!!! Hooked up! Cleared the other three lines and got the rods out of the way. Fought him out of the holder. Thankfully a well behaved fish. Stayed pretty much right behind the boat most of the time, then near the end off to the side. Deep color, slowly came up, and once he was close, knew he was over the low end, and not over the high end. Oh well. Got the leader, and the last 3 or 4 feet he was very stubborn. But once I got his head up, no problem. Hook was right in the corner of his jaw. Held the leader and swam him for a bit, then cut the line right above the hook, and off he swam. 65", and very nice shape to him. What a great time!!!!!

Headed for home, and on the way in still noticing the vibration and sound at higher RPM's. Back at the dock, turns out I had picked up what appeared to be the mesh entrance to a lobster trap, wrapped up in one of my wheels. Came off real easy, and no other line or issues. Very happy about that too.

So even with all the bad today (no show crew, unknown vibration, lots of weeds), it was all worth it for a beautiful day on the water and catching and releasing a nice fish!

[Reel Pursuit]

Nice job bro!!
We got skunked in kona today. Bite just aint happening without any concentration of bait.

[tunaddiction]

good job sounds like you were busy but it was definetly worth it

[bigcat1]

We had about five quality shots into small pods, they just weren't interested.

[fish4stripers]

Nice job!

[simonsez1]

Great job Andy! Great story too! I was out there today too! One hook up and we lost it! Oh Well!
Kevin

[seaworm1]

You stole my fish!!!!!! Doing that single handedly is definitely some tricky bussiness, last year when I was in my Carolina my first fish of the year was done solo, and I promised myself to never do it again.... well now that I have controls in the transom I take that back. Nice work ...I'll PM you my email for those pics. THANKS!

[Parapapam]

Pretty work Andy!!!

Mike

[Crabby Cakes]

Well done! What was hit in your spread?

[southport05]

Black bar.