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Procastinator Memorial Week Adventures
All I can say is what a week. From being the subject of a Coast Guard Rescue, to buying a house, and repeatedly running out of room for any more fish in a 320 qt. ssi cooler. It all started Friday a week ago when good friends Rick Jones and Gillis and I headed out in the beautiful Miss Beulah towards the 90 ft. drop off of Big rock. We decide to get the spread out, slow her down and I start down the steps and Rick informs me that a bilge light has come on. I hurry to the salon and look forward to see a good foot of water in the salon as the floor hatches float off as water is rushing in. Run up and call a mayday, as I am certain we are going down. Ricky gets out the life preservers and raft and I head forward to asses the suituation and the water is now over my waist in the stateroom. Rick deploys a pair of flares and two boats quickly are shadowing us as we struggle to keep a heading with the boat sitting in the water up to the toe rail. Gillis is standing in waist deep water, green in the gills on top of the floor hatches to help stem the flow as I go to work with 5 gallon buckets. When I come up with a bucket with a softball size chunk of weed, I knew we had a big hole. The engine room bulkhead holds and allows Rick to push that big ole Carolina Flair into the seas and the water seems to stabilize at the three foot level. Coast Guard and Tow boat arrive with crash pumps about an hour and a half later and we soon have two large gas pumps spitting out about 500 gallon a minute, and the water level goes down another foot. Ricky holds a steady course for home at about 8 knots, and some 4.5 hours later, Miss Beulah is being lifted out of the water by a travel lift, boat and crew battered but safe. The hole was large enough to stick your head up into the hull and have a look around. Making it safely in is a testament to water tight bulkheads, never giving up on your boat, Coast Guard assistance, and most certainly miracles.
Whenever a horse bucks you off, the faster you get back on, the better. Good friend Dave Ridgway offers up the use of Fin Finder to carry out Ricky's family the next day for some dolphin bashing. We load up and head out the day following the near sinking and head right back to the same spot and have a nice gaffer hooked up before half the spread is complete. We end up having a great day and pile about 20 good size gaffer in the fish box before we head in early to clean the fish box.
Not to be one to sit back after a decent days fishing Ricky, Justice, and I head out again the next day and push a bit farther off and again have a gaffer in the box within minutes and we continued to clean up on them until the box was full and we were just under the limit. At one point we have 4 big bulls hooked up, as Ricky and Justice are busy in the cockpit, the gaffer hooked up on the bridge pole decides to become lunch for a big blue. We didn't get to trade up on the Marlin, but we did manage to get back all 4 fish, or should I say 3.5 fish because the marlin did some damage. . Click the image to open in full size. Headed back with a stuffed box and lots of action.
Midweek I was able to capture my biggest catch.....a new house. We have her under contract and should be closed up next month. yipee
Fin Finders owner Dave came down this weekend and we had big plans of more mahi and if the current and wind allowed some bottom bouncing on the edge. Well, after trolling a couple hours and finding no mahi I decide to ready the jigging rods to fill the fish box using plan "B". The drift was right the current only 1.5 knots, and it was fish on in minutes. It was drop and reel action on everything from smoker kings, to grouper, triggers, amberjacks, and even a small yellowfin. Dave punched out first after a couple hard fought battles that resulted in a couple fish making it back to their holes. Ricky and I continued the abuse and thanks in part to Ricky bringing up a warsaw grouper pushing 70 lbs. we were out of room in the box within 2 hours. Ricky could no longer lift his left arm, I was aching myself, and catch and release in 250 ft. is plain irresponsible, so, we left them biting and I pointed her for the hill.
What a week it was, good friends, great fishing, and stories of adventure that will make it to the ears of the grandchildren some day.
Pictures coming soon. ( Wife is the designated picture downloader).
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