Tuna, Dolphin , Triple Tail and Coast Guard Tow-in

[TITLEWAVE]

WOW , what a weekend of fun , sun , good weather and decent fishing that all ended with a bang Sat night on the way to swordfish for the first time in a year.

Left the dock late sat because we had issues with our coolant levels after having the boat repaired last week. The heat exchanger was removed and worked on and the boat was put back together and ready to fish for the weekend. When we got in the coolant level was low , so we waited till the AM to get the guy who repaired her over to look. We topped her off with less than a quart of fluid and all seemed fine.

We pull out the pass at 11 am and by 1 pm or so we find a whale shark with tuna all over it. We stay there and fish for a hour or so landing 4 -30 pound class blackfin and headed on when the fish sounded for good with their buddy MR whale shark. We then decided to head south to the rip Roffs showed south of the squiggles.

Along the way we saw tons of bait and flyers but nothing really worth stopping and or trolling for. Around 5 or so we put the lines in blue water and trolled around the area roffs showed on the map as better water. We finally get one 20 pound dolphin in open water and nothing else as darkness fell. Lines went in at 8:30 or so and on ward to the spur while the ribs cooked on the grill.

At 9:30 I heard the engine making some power loss noises and ran to the helm to see we are over heating and pulled her back . Once I pulled her back she died and never restarted again. The coolant had leaked bone dry and the motor over heated and we where dead on the water 68 Miles from Port.

The next step after trying to get her back running was to hail coast guard on 16 but because of our distance and weak radio signal we couldn’t talk, so I was able to relay position and issue to the CG through the other boat (Thanks COOL BREEZE) till we got the telephone number to call them on the sat phone. All arrangements where made through the sat phone and they dispatched a 87 foot cutter names "COBIA" to come get us.

Well since it was going to be 5 hours till they get to us we decided to get the under water lights on and fish for swords and what ever we could catch. During this time we landed 9 nice dolphin fish and one triple tail that i netted up. Then around 2:30 am the coast guard showed up and boarded us to see if they could start us back up and after seeing that we were dead hooked us up and towed us in at 10 knots toward Panama City Beach Florida.

At day break we put two lines in for the heck of it and began to fish and had decent luck hooking up but bad luck reeling them in at 10 knots so we only landed a few extra fish for the box , but heck we were fishing !

We get to 20 miles and see seatow waiting for us who then towed us back the last 20 miles straight to our dock where our misery ended finally. We managed to catch a nice box of fish and still make it home around the time we were expected and all were safe thanks to the US CG & SEATOW

[Capt Josh]

Never a dull moment with you guys! Sorry to hear about the engine trouble but sounds like you guys still had a decent trip. Fishing while under tow, i like it!

[TITLEWAVE]

Never a dull moment with you guys! Sorry to hear about the engine trouble but sounds like you guys still had a decent trip. Fishing while under tow, i like it!

Yea i hear you Josh , wish i could have avoided this whole episode.....

BUT


with 12:30 minutes to spare in tow , what was a guy to do

If only we could have got the cutter to slow down when we hooked up , we would have slayed it ........

[Bogart]

Fucki*********************************ng Boats
just glad your safe Michael
cant wait to c u in PV in early November.