You won't know unless you GO

[Marlinmate]

Well I'm finally back from the growing family vacation. I thought it was tough to take 2 kids under 5 to the beach, now i'm taking 3 kids under 5 to the beach. Jack age 4, Reed age 2and Chase age 1.5 months. With nice weather last Sunday - Wednesday, and the billfish bite heating up, I was getting excited for my Thursday trip on the BI-OP-SEA, a 59' Spencer that I've been fishing with now for about 10 years or so. My brother Coores14 and I head to the dock on Tuesday to see the Obsession roll in with flags a flyin. the Big Oh rolls in next with a slam. Check the OI report and a boat had a double grand slam. Anxiety level hits a new high.

Pack the cooler on Wednesday night and settle in for little sleep. Wake up on Thursday to rain and a stiff wind. get to the boat and Capt. Jesse says there is a nice SE swell that showed up over night. GREAT, since the fishing is going off in the South. We load up and poke our snout out of OI to a true SE swell kicked up from a storm offshore. Little to no wind, and the forecast calls for seas to lay down in the afternoon. Steam for about 5 minutes and Capt. asks if everyone is ok? I check and say yup! Other boats have already turned around and are heading in. One's radar broke off it's mounts. Vomit fest 2009 is under way for a majority of boats.

We make a hasty 15 knots on our way to the fishing grounds near the tower getting our a$$es kicked the entire ride. Put our first lines in the water in a torrential down pour. My new foul weather gear did me NO good as it was still sitting in VA.....Doh!.

Fishing all circle hooks and naked dink baits, with one 80 on the RL rigger just in case. R Flat line is a rod built by me on it's first excursion.

5 minutes in, LLong pops out and a gaffer is flopping around. In the box. Still raining now only harder. Next up is a double of saildogs on the R flat (my rod) and one chewing on the L Teaser. Mate Chris drops back L Flat, I drop back my rod, fish piles on shotgun and double header is released 10 minutes later.

10 mintues later, double white boys do the exact same thing. Both released. Still raining only harder now. Everyone w/o foul weather gear is soaked, including me.

A single white nails the L Teaser and Capt feeds him the L short bait and hooked up. Inexperienced angler was too busy staring at the jumping fish than winding, so fish got off.

Waiting for Mr. Blue to show up for the Slam, we all had a scare when the big bait on the 80 ripped off line, then went dead and at that moment the shotgun goes off, and mystery fish is deep after a long long run. 15 minutes later a 40lb+ wahoo goes in the box, fed a circle hook on TLD20 with 60lb leader. Lucky to get him in the box.

Picked at a few single sails here and there. Ended the day with a triple header of sails that took off in opposite directions. One to Bermuda, One to Cuba and one to Ocracoke. Landed all 3. Ride in was beautiful and the weatherman finally got the prediciton correct.

total tally for the day was:

2 White Marlin released with 3 others jumped off
7 Sailfish
1 Wahoo
1 Gaffer
1 tiny Blackfin

My rod counted for 4 of the bills. Personally satisfied

All in all a GREAT day on the water and glad we stuck it out. Top boat for the day back at the marina. You won't know, unless you go.

Saw 2 of these fish eat 6 feet off the transom. A very cool bite.

[Tenacious]

Congrats to all on a great bite!!! Now you know!!!

[Team Temptation]

[clt_capt]

I guess you didn't melt in the rain

Heck of a good day... Congrats

[BikerBabe]

WOW! Awesome report! Thanks for posting the story and the photos. So cool you didn't turn around and go home. What a great adventure!

[HOLWACHAGOT]

The Bi-op-sea certainly gets it done. If there are fish around they seem to always be in em. Great report!
Holwachagot

[mad dog bite]

Thats the way to save a day fellas.

[coores14]

was definitely a good day, despite the weather in the morning. when the mate, who does this every day, says that it might be "the worst conditions he's fished in", you know it ain't pretty. there was maybe a 30 minute period when the rain was coming down so hard, visibility was down to about 100 yards or less. thankfully, i was one of the ones who remembered my foul weather gear!
ended up finishing off the trip back home with blackened wahoo and tuna with a jalapeno raspberry butter sauce. yum yum....
thanks to the crew of the Bi-Op-Sea who, as always, make it a great day. and congrats to Marlinmate for building a stellar rod.

[Doin'It]

Great report. The photos I like best, Flags flyin', and the gaff to the head in that wahoo, no meat wasted there.
Congratulations on your day catchin'