Fall 07 Reports

[Deep C]

Last Sunday the trees were laying over and getting flatter by the minute. Months of getting ready for Bimini Wahoo Challenge were being erased with each gust. Email hits... Tourney cancelled. My new tourney sponsor is not going to enjoy the news.
"Oh... So... Where are we going to fish instead?"
"Charlie... It gets more complicated... About the time you are supposed to land we should have a tropical storm on top of us?"
"So? Lets pick a place..."
"Well, we want to get south and west of the storm... We could go to Islamorada. At least we can find some inshore spot to set up and junk fish..."
"Done..."
Scramble time. Bust out inshore and offshore goodies if the weather allows us to go... I have a couple physical issues cooking but thats another story for another day. Get rigging Deep...
Thursday morn the trees are still layed over. We're under tropical storm warning. Its raining, blowin at 35 and forecast to gust to 50... What does any red blooded American boy do? He grabs his trusty deck hand who has been airlifted down in advance of the boss , get in his car and drive through the storm to Miami. The ayrd crew at the marina looks at me like I'm spouting branches out my ears when I tell them to launch. Bridges are locked down. So we keep the rigers swept and antenna laid down. Lets go.
Streaks of foamy chocolate milk colored water are pushing a couple feet just in the intercoastal. Ten miles south we hit Biscayne Bay. Its ugly. At 20 knots she's pundin. Then Mary's (Lucky Lady) voice rings in my ears. That boat is like the other Contenders, push the stick up Deep. At 25 she gets comfortable. At 32 shes out right wonderful. Funny running that speed and still feeling the wind from behind but I had fuel to think about if I went past the 4700rpm I was running...
The bay is passing by. I find the cut at Featherbed... All is good. The keys are in front and starting to bend to the south west. The wind is now due north. Anglefish Creek is begging me to cross to the Atlantic side. I do. The slop is still there but a touch better. The sticks don't come off the 4700 they are set at. A familiar landmark has me cut right...Its 23 years since I ran this channel but it feels like yesterday...

>>> FLashback>>>FLashback>>>Flashback>>>
Its January 1980. I have moved the skiff C- Gull from Ocean Reef to the busy town of Islamorada... I've been there a couple months. Business is not yet developed. I'm bound and determined to make it work. Mom and Dad are visiting today. I need to hang fish and make it look like I had a charter. Kenny Hulsey stumbles on deck from the boat he was running. He has nothing better to do. We'll run to the hump bag some black fins and some amberjacks and make a show... All goes according to plan until a 70lb AJ becomes a snack for a 799lb tiger shark. Seven hours later we're an hour late pulling into the slip. News has spread. We're famous. Mr. Gray himself offers to mount it for me for free if he can punch out copies. The thirteen and a half feet of beast hung above the bar at Whale Harbor for the next quarter century... I had heard that the new owners had gotten rid of it...>>>>

As I rounded the corner into my old marina... There was my fish. Now hanging outside for tourist photo ops. Charlie stood on teh balcony above with his friend Nick. As I shook their hands I looked to see a memory from so long ago my newest chapter in life side by side...


Weather be damned... I was here. Charlie happy to see his baby silouhuetted agains the emerald waters. Mission accomplished.
Friday, the trees still whipped. at least it was kind of doable. Flip a coin deep. Sit at the end of a channel and chum for snappers and sharks or man up and see if the blue water will let us play. The edge called and we went.
It was like I never left. The same rock to set the hook on and in no time we had two wells full of very frisky bally hoos. For Deep Deckhand it was a new gig. He followed and fit the pieces together quick. For Charlie and Nick this was a whole new adventure. I was glad Deep Deckhand was there because 5 days of gale force wind had torn up eel grass by the acre and it was like a wheat field out there. Never stopped clearing for the whole trip for that matter. We didn't care ... We were fishing at least.
First to find us in the horrid field of weed was a dolphin. Nicks first blue water fish period and he mastered it quickly... Mission even more accomplished...


It was about 2 o'clock when I saw him. Early in the season. Really early in the season but I knew he ws there. Then "Poof" there foam where the hoo once sat. Purple sneaks away...

Theres a long five count... The bail closes and the bitchy sharp mustad circle finds her mark... Twenty minutes later my good friend Charles, we as a crew, and the "Mirage" has her first sail up for a quick snapshot and release...


Don't get no better than that...
Or does it... Saturday theres a fleet gathered. The radio echos from PIckles to Tenessee reef of the same story. Not a friggin bite and weeds from hell. Its painful. Its frustrating. I'm on a new mission. Nick hasn't popped his fsail cherry yet.
2:22 shows on the clock. I have a promising lobster float with a tiny bit of bait just aft of me. The ocean turns purple baits dance in vain bills slash sails flip one by one our spread is sucked down. The counts commence. One misses.Three in the air! Lets rock! The never let go circle on one lets go. Two still stuck. The local fleet is redfaced as we pick em off. The only two of the day. One is Nicks ticket to swim.


2:34 I reset... 2:36 theres a pair in the air. One stays glued the other doesn't. I can hear the fleet groan. Charlie cleans this ones clock. No theatrics and bring it in the boat, this one like the second is gut hooked bad. Gets a clean snip. Boss has had the day he dreamed of we race to the dock with three flappin... The only three in town...


Ok its Sunday, the clocks have changed. The edge is crowded. The hoos find their way to the well and we set down. Charlie makes his own onboard tourny. A grand is riding on who's bait position gets drilled. Deep Deckhand wins the bet as Nicks breakfast spindle beak comes in full sail and sniffs em all before unloading on that one.
A big frisky one. Deep shows of his"money fish" before yet another release...


This morn it was say goodbye time for all of us. We'll be back there in three weeks for the tourney. As we headed north into the 20 knots on the head the Mirage delivered another great ride up at 32 knots...

[Deep C]

Been after her to get on and tell her own story. She says she can not find the time but asked me to at least toss up the shots...
A biref recap: She went to Mazatlan on an office fun trip with some coworkers. It figures that fifteen minutes into their trip she swats a blue one... her first blue one... and I wasn't there... Over there they croak the critters for food so thats why theres a 209lb blue hanging along with some mahi she popped... Wheter being there or not, she did a great job and I'm proud of her...

[Deep C]

Ever since Mrs Deep had her marlin cherry popped in Mexico, I've been in a mood. Bound and determined to bust as many bings in as many ways as I can.
Last week was a boat cherry, followed by a couple first sails and one of them a first billfish on a spin rod. Today I was on a mission. A nicely appointed Maralago 35, a pair of 4stroke grays pakin 250 ponies each. For company I had none other than our own Poon mans nephews Tom and Greg.
While the live bait man counted out a dozen delicious gogs I focused on Jupiter inlet and beyond. Despite 20 kts of north workin it the inlet was passable and seas not bad. Wish I could say the same for water. I glared at the chocolate milk water with disdain. Way tough to find billfish in that sludge.
The grimy swill stayed with us way south and way past the depths I like to work. We found a slight break and more weed than a Willie Nelson concert . Part of me wanted to cry then the bound and determined part took over. "I don't give a crap if I gotta fish 400' instead of 120'. I'm GOING TO MAKE THIS WORK!!!"
I was pleased to see that the Maralago was responsive in waht amountyed to a down sea drift. Baits looked pretty and it would be a matter of waiting one out in the sparse deep void.
That wait fortunately didn't take long. There was no alarm bells going off. Just a purple shape racing in , a pop, and line falling off the open bail. Tom was first up and went to work.

The fish danced and did its thing before finding the gearbox and hitting the afterburners. A longer than usual knockem down drag out fight. Tom stuck to the task. Though some of the waves were pressin 6' he was able to keep solid footing while forward on his pretty machine.
A while later I had the leader in hand. The fish did as it was told.

As she came to the boat I gave here a bare handed bill shake, let the boys revel in the moment and sniped the leader close to her mouth for the clean release. Cherry popped for the boat and for Tom.


Heaving sea and weeds knocked off a couple baits then a blind bite snuck in. Greg came tight on a stubborn fish. No jump. No blistering run just stubborn. Can't be sure exactly what happened but the leader came back chafed and chafed through at the hook end.
The radio at our end of town had been and continued to be dead as a door nail. The far end (way south) had a bite early then it too died off. I guess it was over an hour later when Greg was playing with a flat line that I saw a zilla class sail pile on the rigger bait. It was off to the races with the big fish definately having the edge on speed. Sadly, the hook pulled prior to me getting the leader. Still a great timewas being had by all.
Shortly past noon, I was doing something. Only half paying attention when I saw a big bust... Too deep for a king... I saw stripes and two more busts. I saw leaders and no hooks. We had just been handed our collective ass by wahoos and along with that we were out of live bait.
We gave a short dead bait drag but the increasing wind and dead radio made that short lived...
Ok one official release but a lot of great action for a great bunch of guys. Thanks gang and hopefully next week it'll be swords...

[Deep C]

For a brief time our horizon to the east had a large shape moving at blistering speed yesterday. It rounded the corner and filled up a local dock space. When the dust settled the letters FOOLISH PLEASURE came clear. The Deep phone rang and it was our very own Tim (gradywhite 273). He was tired from the voyage and extended an invite to Mrs Deep and myself to join him for dinner.
We settled on Panama Hatties because they have all you can eat stone crabs and Tim in the past has showed a liking for Florida Bays finest...
I can't be sure but I believe they are now close to extinction and thought I heard the restaurant manager looking for a second mortgage...

Dinner was a blast and a date to go play was set for today and the crack of noon... I called about 10 AM to check on him... I'm sure the rental car is gonna need some new shocks after toting the tackle collection he aquired just at that point.

Promptly at noon he joined me on the Deep C. Fishing was to be rolled into our outing as well as him getting some quality helm time practice working a twin. The water was blue a half mile off and a spread of dinks slid out behind us. The radio sounded dead but we at least gave it a good go. MAybe an hour into the pull or so we had our lone shot. A sail piled on the shotgun bait twice pulled a couple feet of drag and went away... That was it.
The wind came up and it was time to ramp up his training. Using a coke can as our "dock" he practiced precise maneuvers backing to it at different angles over and over. Driving a boat for some is difficult. For Tim it flowed as natural as could be. He nailed the process down very quick which was the desired outcome...
The wind cjhilled to 72 and the sun began to set. Thank you Tim for a couple very nice visits...[/

[Deep C]

Well, after months of getting ready it finally came time to play. Roarring down the edge from Miami to Islamorada at 33 knots we could see a very fishy condition the whole way. Frigates hangin low and bait showers were dotting the entire path. It was a flawless practice run. We showed up at our special little hide away and soon the boss and his VP joined us.
Islamorada being the fishing town it is hosts a number of tournies. This weeks being the Kick off, the Islamorada Sailfish (main event) and the Rip Off... Kick Off and Rip Off being winner take all events and the main event being kind of like the big ones back up north with oodles of divisions.
Rather than just practice for Thursday we decided to jump in the Kick off. Bait was easy as pie. Though not set up for fishing " showers" there was one going off right in front of us at lines in time. The 500 yamaponies had us there in a blink. The cast was behind the fish but soon it turned. The boss was on the stick and timing was a touch off. A momentary bow up and that was all for that shot.
I slid where I wanted to work but saw a lot of frigate activity to the north. As we shot up the street a shower had me peel off. This cast was perfect. Bow up couldn't have been better and soon we had one under the belt. It was there we started working a spread. We sent up a kite but I could see that gogs were not gonna be the hot ticket. The condition called for hoos and hoos we had. As soon as I went to all hoo spread. A double raised. A little pandemonium ensuded and unfortunately both fish were pointed at us as my guys came toght. The circles didn't stick.
It wasn't long before the next single came in. A perfect bow up and this one got a tag. Two down. Then another single. Another yet. Four and counting! Then a double of the cutest little dinky sails I have seen in a long time came to play. Six was the score.

One shot in swiping the special teaser I had but never looked at a bait. We had issues with triggerfish and while dealing with them yet another fish came in. This one punded the bait with attitude. The fight was much the same. It took an hour and about three miles east to get the clean release for number seven. Time ran out and that was our final score, enough to take the braggin rights and "other perks" for the Kick Off. Second was the Gotcha had a commendable 5 fish. Third had three, I didn't catch their name.


With the win under the belt we felt good. The same great competitors from the kick off joined several new faces. The main event had 109 anglers vying for the top spot.
Opening morning the wind was a touch stiffer and a touch further south than it had been. I had no idea going in though that it would so radically change the fishing. We dug in with a nice dolphin and then for us it shut right down. Birds gathered and you could see shadows but the fish were lock jawed at our end of the world. The locals working the shallow sand from their tall towers well to our south, started picking. The Miami style guys were not scoring and their rude habit of seeing activity in a cockpit , racing over, throwing monster and setting down on other boats was plenty present. Rude MF's!
Maybe that style in the past worked for them but this round it bit em in the butt. To think it was them I had worried about sweeping the whole thing. By noon I was already sick of them. I found a spot of my own to work and was ok until a pod of bottle nose dolphin moved in. Now, I have fished for a very very long time and never did I have what happened next happen ever before. The pod stopped, ate every bait we had out and three of em hooked up! Now 600lbs of air breather bowing up is soomething special I promise. Three of them had water flying I would think you could see all the way from the Carolinas!
Two spooled the 12lb gear. The smallest one though almost seemed to "ask" for help and swam to the boat. The circle had her firmly stuck though. There was no getting that one back. The 40lb leader popped and she started a series of backflips and front flips that went on for minutes. When the dust settled I had every Miami boat in town all on top of me. The Contender got pummled by wakes. Guys cut each other off. I watched some running more than the legal four and I again moved to a quiet place. Wehad a turtle eat a flat lne and was promtly released. That was soone followed by the one sail of the day raising. As it pushed the bait a gannet drilled it! Deep Deck hand soon released our third air breathing critter of the day...

Alas no fish. Our dolphin had first in that division for that day though.

Day two we went in fresh. Bait was easier than the first day and we found a fishy looking piece of water. I had made friends with Gotcha from the first day and we agreed to keep each other posted as to what was cooking where. Then our first fish raised. As the hoo hopped, this time it was a frigate bird that came from the stratosphere to drill it before the sail could.
A double was next to raise in on the super sneaky teasers. One was too quick to get the teaser out of the way and ate it. The other though was pitched to with perfection. Finally on the board. A while later we repeated the same story and after adding a couple small dolphin that was how our day ended. Two was better than none.
Yesterday conditions were deteriorating. Wind was swinging to the south and dropping out. I sat down a mile short of what little bite there was. By the time I shot up there it was done. I could see a hard shut down was in place. Time to attack a different category. Dolphin had been moved into a hard to beat, mackerel and tuna too. That left "outstanding catch division". I had a little insight to the standings in this often overlooked category. Damnit I am a competitor! I took aim and we drilled of all things, a big triggerfish. Nothing to write home about but enough to sneak by the sleepy crowd who expected a big grouper or wahoo to take it.
At the awards party it was a magnificent spread. And some truly beautiful trophies to be awarded.

Though not the set of five bronze sails and the check a decimal point smaller than we would have liked it was still a absolutly fantastic end to the owners first two tournies.


Deep Deckhand and I had a ball with our practice day. The boss and his VP had taken 9 sailfish. All was good. Before we left the party it was our number that came up for the raffle of a Grey Goose Votka set for a third momento of this memorable weekend.


I'd be remiss if I didn't express great thanks to my boss, crew, the tourny staff and the sponsors....

[Deep C]

Missed these ones from around Thanksgiving...
Yesterday it was bumpy in the morn and the youngins were not having a good go even on the bait patch. The didn't even want to try the creeks so it was a drop and head back off to the bait patch. We soon had enough hoos and slid to the edge.
Triggers were on us from 90' all the way to near 200". Macks found us a few times and at least kept the action lively. We wound up with a blackfin and sail as our only claims to fame...

Today was warm and flat. The wind and current were an issue and bait was a touch tough but soon we had a choice well of em.
Conditions were almost too calm and the bite for us was slow. Above and below me I heard of multiple bites and closer in I saw a couple fish taken. I changed out the baits and the old ones I had let go suddenly drew a small pile of sails to them ignoring the ones with hooks. A few minutes later we had three fish rais to the flats but only wanted the right side one. They fought over it and finally the circle found the mark. As we fought it from the bow another trio raised fighting over a rigger bait again ignoring the others. Some how the bait got ate and we never even got tight. The first fish ran us east with a stubborn digging type run before we got the release.
Somebody must have hit the live well switch during the chaos because we had some poor looking worms in there and a lot sunning their guts.
A rogue bird picked baits, killing them and dropping them over the other lines. Triggers again found us. A boat close to us got a tripple. Then it died.
I have fished with this group for years and they had enough early.
Back at the dock we saw a neighbor cleaning a grouper. Missus deep was up my scupper about me not getting a grouper for us. I wasn't fishing for em...
So two days two sails plenty of life to keep us amused. The shark rod off the dock last night only had a moray bite that rocked us up under the sea wall. It'll be back out there tonight as my people want to do one more morning half tomorrow.
.................
The early trip scheduled was slow in developing. Ocean Reef has a big breakfast buffet that seemed to call louder then the briny blue this morn. Finally stuffed with pancakes, eggs florentine, omlets, sausage, bacon, grits, and smoked salmon, we just did a jog to a grassy area near where i usually bait fish. We chummed the crap out of ut wit shrimp in hopes of drawing hogfish. Well, I'd love to say we crushed em but our tally was three puny ones and a zillion underesized yellowtails. Now back in Palm Beach its time to devour some leftovers...

[Deep C]

I wrote how good the boat has been behaving the last few days. That didn't change but the sea sure did. Even today ut went from bad to way bad to unfishable...
Hit the suds early 3-5 with some sets of 6' bumpy but doable. I reached 135' and we had a small bonitio at least give a decent fight. At 140' "there he is ,,, sail right rigger" I had rigged up a few experimental circle rigs and this one had done the job raising a fish on the first pass. The fish though bit the bait hard without swallowing. Never even pulled it out of the clip but wrecked the hoo.
Seas built wind blew. I worked 80-400 at first. Weed out deep thickened and was pushing in so each pass was getting shallower.
The squeeze and seas got worse all day. The Albie habit of going through waves instead of over was now mixing as some the stuff got just plain big. The window shrunk and shrunk. I tucked way to the inside where green water from the inlet slammed against the now heavy sea. Bad place. I worked south to get out of that washing machine. Small flyers were all over today but only us pushing them. No fish in sight.
I was into about 50 feet when I looked back to see a five foot billfish comming at left rigger which had now been switched to the same experimental rig that the sail had raised on. Son of a gun, that bait is now a part of my tourney spread. I got a look at the fish. It was one of those real rare flat needlefish like I caught last year. Man! They are cool looking. Still trying to bow one up even on a good day is next to impossible. Still it was great practice dropping and doing the circle come tight thing. Over and over it gave me shots. Finally it must have felt steel and took off.
Weeds and seas continued to whip us with no mercy finally we call it a day. For me it wasn't a total loss. That new rig is gonna be the shizzle. We didn't catch. Not the rigs fault. Just freaky luck. After I dial it in a bit more I'll describe it in full. Right now its a bit of a hybrid between guac, traditional circle rigging and a couple dial ins I do with one of my J rigs...
I'm sore as hell so I think I'll go hunting for a while now.

[Deep C]

I don't know why but the wind took a short nap this morn. Todays guests were my regular, Curt accompanied by our own PURPLE CEDAR PLUG and his lovely wife. At five am it was cookin at 20. As we slid into the spot it was glassy. Fifteen minutes later we were looking at 20 again.
Oh well. Spread was splashed and first pass was going smooth. At 160' a little deeper than normal I saw purple on the inside right rigger. I moved to the stick and saw another comming for the left rigger with my newly designed circle rig. The inside fish was indecisive but the rigger fish wasn't. I switched, dropped, and the new rig went straight home.
I was busy passing it to Mrs Plug when the inside fish crashed and yet another on the right rigger crashed. Purple missed. Nobody to handle the inside fish cost us that bow up too.
The circled up one though was part of the furniture. Slow run at first then it hit the afterburners. The 15lb outfit screamed and the trannies whined as I brought the Deep to hard backwards mode... It was getting rough quick water flew. And this fish was a hot one. At about twenty five minutes we had the leader for the release. We wanted a closer look but despite ten more minutes of some hot boatside maneuvering it just didn't get closer. Still a release is a release and I was gonna get the chance to throw Mrs Plug into the ocean...
It brisked right up by now. 4 foot and growin. Six foot by the time I had trolled back to where we hooked up. We had a pick of neeters and dolphin through the day to keep us busy. About 2 o'clock the ocean laid down some and the air began to fill with birds and flying fish. Neeters, blackfin, dolphin, sails all taking turns at running acres of the little flyers. Tought to get bites with that much natural food. Still exciting to watch. We did pick some neeters in the midst of it. Raised a window shopper sail that turned back into the flyers after a few seconds...
Great day was had by all...

[jrlsail]

I moved to the stick and saw another comming for the left rigger with my newly designed circle rig.

Great reports. You made a couple of references to your circle rig. What type of rig are now using? While we pretty much kite fish a little north of you, are you primarily trolling?

[Deep C]

I do it all... Some live, some dead and a touch of kite. Been practicing with the circles and came up with a design that is tickling me big time... As I dial it it I'll post up the how to.