Figured Y'all Would Be Interested...

[z71offshore]

i dont know if they have had too much time to reply on any of the other boards about their catch, but these are the people that I normally fish with, and although I was able to make it on their overnighter sat-sun, they had a good night bottom fishing out of Charleston. I'm not sure of the depth, they were using live bait as they usually do , but i know at 11:00pm they caught a 50something lb and then at 3;00am they caught this big one that you saw. The name of the boat is Gutwrench its a 26 Key West CC and he was using an Avet. Most all of his stuff is Avet now. Well, I'll tell him to check this board so he can tell you his own version of what happened.


oh, one more thing i figured ya'll would find interesting out of chas today, a charter 'The Aggressor 'boat caught 60 dolphin releasing while releasing the slingers. i believe one was shot with a bow/arrow also off of the teaser on the eigth try

[Gut Wrench]

I don't really know. I don't bottom fish much, so I am not sure. I don't really have many details, but I think they were deep dropping.

hey guys,i am the angler,third picture down(bob williams).

we planned an overnighter so we could get the great evening and morning trolling bite,we normally have a 3 hr run to this spot so we figured this would be good way to beat the rest of charleston out there...after trolling sat night we were going to head to an area south and anchor up,well we had a bigger buddy boat out with us(sleigh ride),we radioed over and asked if he had any #'s close..

he gave us a ledge number in 180 ft he said run up and down it to figure it out and then anchor you will catch something...

well around 10 pm we got the first 51 lb Cubera..we were not really sure how much it weighed(figured 30-4- lbs) we call sleigh ride he said the record is open you got it,we said cool.well the night dragged on and we started getting worked over by something big,thats when i said enough i want to know what it is(hell i had lost over 10lbs of lead)..so i grabbed 1 of my planer rods with the avet 50 SDS 130 JB and rigged up an owner 14/0 circle and some 400lb mono leader..well things were slow except for some small snappers,then around 3:20 me and BK are the only ones still awake,i tell i got a customer sniffing around my bait when all of the sudden the reel startsd peelin line like a bill fish,i said "oh shit" i got jaws..this fish pulled 50-57lbs of drag like it was nothing so i started to ease back on the drag not wanting to break anything,the hardest part was getting the rod out of the holder with him pullin like a freight train...

this is the first bottom fish that i ever had charge the boat 2-3 times i thought i lost him,then he circled then he ran,the whole time we are trying to figure what are we going to do with this big shark,after about 20 mins we get him up,hard to see at first i thought big jew fish then we realize another Cubera bigger than the first,we bent 1 gaff trying to get him over the gunnel but finally around 3:50 me and him were laying on the floor of the boat both exhausted..


he is 53 inches long 118 lbs...the worse part is we killed the 51lber,i am all about keeping what you want to eat unfortunately during the cleaning we learned that anything over 40lbs should not be eaten and the meat did not look all that good according to the crew(i was not around for cleaning)..

hopefully SCDNR will want the big one for research...

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Awesome report Gutwrench! A fish of a lifetime! Thanks so much for sharing the story.
HOLWACHAGOT

[brandon558]

Wow gut Wrench...what a story! Congrats on the fine catch and thanks for sharing your story. Sucks about killing the smaller fish but hell you had no idea you were gona catch one double that weight!

Pretty work on your trip..so how did you guys do trolling?

Brandon

[SeaBiscuit]

Hello Gut Wrench. Thanks for the story. Absolutely fantastic catch. I hear that cuberas are truly tough customers and your report certainly confirms that. I hope to tangle with one some day.

Captain Lee,
I have caught or seen caught many tropicals. Coneys, yellowedge, speckle hinds, warsaws, lane & yellowtail snappers & others. Have fished a little in our deeper waters (140 feet +) and that's where most of these have come from. I have been "schooled" by big fish in at least one of my offshore spots where some 30+ gags live. I always thought they were full grown blackbellies. I will retool some of my techniques and tackle and go after some of the bigger offshore bottom critters soon.

SeaBiscuit

[Reel Happy]

My arms hurt just looking at that pig. Nice Catch! Welcome to the site.

[Bert Rodgers]

Extremely cool. I cought nice ones off of Ocean Reef years ago, but never like that.

And yes the do eat as good as other snappers.

Bert

[hotrodmarlin]

Gutwrench - thanks for the report and welcome to the site!!!

[Gut Wrench]

Pretty work on your trip..so how did you guys do trolling?

Brandon

i slinger dolphin,2-3 missed opportunitys,basically it was a bust...

[Post Quartermaster]

A couple more pix for you guys, I was the angler on the 51 lb'er. Heard from DNR today that both were females and had already spawned. Havent gotton the ages from the otoliths yet, though, should know by tomorrow. There were quite a few lobsters (one tail was 2lbs) in the big girls stomach...