Fall 08 - Page 2

Deep C · 12-11-2008, 03:58 PM

No I'm not at Chub... Last year I jinxed myself by yacking too much about the place we are at so this year it's secret...

Arrived yesterday riding down with a cold front in record time... I thought Deep Deckhand was gonna either croy or vaporlock as I showed him how to catch secret "bait" for a secret purpose... Black light in hand we turned rocks and wood until these two lit up like Christmas trees in the UV bath...

It was supposed to blow all night but instead the front backed up during the dark hours. We left in slick calm and started hunting our stash of live hoos for bait... They were there but the yellowtails were brutally thick keeping them out of range for net or rods.
Dropped one of the secret "baits" in there...

The yellowtail that ate it got lit up itself spooking the school and keeping them down long enough to let the hoos get in range...

I loaded the net but a bird swooped in picking chum... He got the second secret bait!

I can still hear it screaming... and see it holding its head under water trying to rid itself of the burn...

IBefore I could reload the net the front returned with a vengence... Blowin 30+ and it stayed that way for the rest of the day...

Though we swung like a snakes tail on the hook I managed to launch a coupke bullseyes and bagged about 5 dozen hoos... Enough to fis with at least. We slid to the edge and it was solid weed... We ran ten miles south and north and found horrid weed and wind all along the way. We saw hoos showering and fireed a bait into the mix. It turned out to be a big houndfish...
A few minutes later we drilled a cero... Then despite nearly unfishable condition a sail finally came in and committed suicide... Deep Deckhands uncle was with us and did the honors...

So that was it for the day and this installment of Tackling the Secret Place...

Deep C · 12-11-2008, 03:58 PM

A quick recap........ Monday ran to the secret place... Tuesday we caught a sail in tough condition. Wednesday we spent two plus hours on a mystery billfish on six pound test that after some looking at my buddy's one pic zoomed in we figure it to be a really dinky blue...

Thursday we brought a new friend of the boss out for a quick spin , a couple dolphin and his first sail...

Yesterday we added four sails to the collection and a dolphin. Lot of fish around... Ours was a middle of the road tally with one boat drilling fourteen about twenty miles from us and another up our way gathering 13... We did have a better gaffin class dolphin in the mix along with some cudas and wahoo cut offs...

Today we really went pig level with our bait catchin... I was on my game but we only popped four more out of eight... More cudas and wahoo and king cutoffs too... That brings the total to 10 sails, one mystery bill, a hand full of dolphin and a couple dozen fewer hooks in the box for 18 hours fishing time...

So thats it from the secret place for now... And no its not Hawks Nest either smart asses...

Deep C · 12-11-2008, 04:03 PM

Ok I'm done.... You can have it... Those that guessed Hawks Cay were wrong... Keys kinda right... We have been at Whale Harbor for the last six days and just got done with the ICBA tournament...
Last year I puffed my chest going in and we barked at the moon so thats why the secrecy this year...

Had a good time... Did about an hour a day of fishing each of the first three days catching two sails and a mystery billfish that for the sake of peace in the valley will call a sail... The rest of the time we spent running around and scouting bait and potential spots...
Come game time these guys turned up the heat... Its a new game that I got to watch close... You need a friend in the bait business if you want to play their way. Chumming with live goggle eyes by the dozens and pilchards by the net fulls was the ticket... Miami boys cluster and run kite to kite and you cant squeeze in... When one hooks up the others close in and that guy rejoins the pack at one end or the other when they're done catching the fish.
Not complaining. Cool to watch well oiled crews with game act it out and score big...
The good local crews worked showering fish hard and would be pitching from their bows while backing down on hooked fish. Top boat had tourney record 30 fish!

Second and third had mid twenties and a few had in the teens... We finished about mid field with twelve... I won't bitch... One of our fish yesterday took nearly two hours and another took a half hour... Today we finished off with a tripple of 15lb black fin tunas...

Took second place dolphin and second place tuna and a king that fell well short... Got a G Loomis rod and a little bit of feel good for our efforts... Again better than a sharp poke in the eye.... That pales though in comparison to the great time I had with the boys... Guys were sharper than last year by a lot... We're comming along pretty good as a team considering the boss and his side kick have only a hand full of sail days under their belts and our guest had his cherry popped... Popped? Crushed! Dolphin, king, tiuna and sail cherries all gone....

The bow got crowded a lot of times this week...

Second place dolphin was a consolatrion...

As were the second and third place tuna.. (14.8 and 12.9Lbs)
The king didn't place...

This was the only little sail we got all week the rest were pretty good size including a pig yesterday...

Four each of the last three days was plenty enough to keep us happy.

Deep C · 12-11-2008, 04:04 PM

During our trip south we had a great time and a solid catch but not without first loading up on bait... When I say load I mean just that. We didn't "try" to but a byproduct of the trip was an entire seasons worth of hoos that I just packed away in the freezer... Even after tossing live chum, losing baits to birds or cudas, triggerfish raids, wearing them out we still managed to pack away 60 dozen of them or enough to fill a 5 cu.ft. freezer...
Imagine three wells looking like this every day for a week...

Deep C · 12-11-2008, 04:13 PM

Well the boss showed up at 1PM... By 2 we were loaded with bait then out came the six pound gear to start our quest... I guess it was right about three oclock when I saw a purple shape with a bill race in and hammer the hoo... I have been at this game a long time and frankly I'm stumped.

This fish was not big but ate different than most sails. Race in and hammer usually isn't how they act... Then a blistering 300 yard run one way only to douuble back another three the other way. I was where it should be a sail... but something just seemed different. Not a big fish... Maybe fifty pounds.

Now I know on six you don't have much handle as such but damn this fish was wired... We covered 4 plus miles in the first hour just keeping up. It worked up sea, down sea, turning on a dime, charging, jumping but never threw up a dorsal. Almost all sails will get a chocolate color after a while of fighting... This was bright blue on back and silver sides showing stripes at times. Kind of shortish bill. Even on the leader I still couldn't positive ID...

We had leader four times over the two hour fight... No clue whether a sail or rat blue though... Should have been a sail. I never caught a blue in that close where we are but some things didn't add up. I have had stubborn sails but never a hot fish for two hours... Who knows??? Boss was tickled...

The bosses buddy has a pretty clean shot on his camera but no usb to down load it and get a bettter zoomed in look... I'll try to find a cable otherwise it will have to wait til monday to post...

Deep C · 12-30-2008, 07:29 PM

Crushed two more cherries today... Short trip today. Member Gitchasome and his dad made the trip down and each scored... Pretty slow bite today so I pulled em out of gear and let the boys "dead boat" deal with em on spin gear to the bitter end...

Looking at whats yankin on it...

Goin away mad...

I give Ryan a good look at his first pointy one...

At the other end of the boat Bob gets with his first...

12-11-2008, 03:58 PM	#11
Deep C Master of all things wet Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: The Plywood State Posts: 14,596 Boat: Several Home Port: Palm Beach Best Catch: Mrs Deep Occupation: Killin Stuff	No I'm not at Chub... Last year I jinxed myself by yacking too much about the place we are at so this year it's secret... Arrived yesterday riding down with a cold front in record time... I thought Deep Deckhand was gonna either croy or vaporlock as I showed him how to catch secret "bait" for a secret purpose... Black light in hand we turned rocks and wood until these two lit up like Christmas trees in the UV bath... It was supposed to blow all night but instead the front backed up during the dark hours. We left in slick calm and started hunting our stash of live hoos for bait... They were there but the yellowtails were brutally thick keeping them out of range for net or rods. Dropped one of the secret "baits" in there...The yellowtail that ate it got lit up itself spooking the school and keeping them down long enough to let the hoos get in range... I loaded the net but a bird swooped in picking chum... He got the second secret bait! I can still hear it screaming... and see it holding its head under water trying to rid itself of the burn... IBefore I could reload the net the front returned with a vengence... Blowin 30+ and it stayed that way for the rest of the day... Though we swung like a snakes tail on the hook I managed to launch a coupke bullseyes and bagged about 5 dozen hoos... Enough to fis with at least. We slid to the edge and it was solid weed... We ran ten miles south and north and found horrid weed and wind all along the way. We saw hoos showering and fireed a bait into the mix. It turned out to be a big houndfish... A few minutes later we drilled a cero... Then despite nearly unfishable condition a sail finally came in and committed suicide... Deep Deckhands uncle was with us and did the honors... So that was it for the day and this installment of Tackling the Secret Place...

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12-11-2008, 04:03 PM	#13
Deep C Master of all things wet Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: The Plywood State Posts: 14,596 Boat: Several Home Port: Palm Beach Best Catch: Mrs Deep Occupation: Killin Stuff	Ok I'm done.... You can have it... Those that guessed Hawks Cay were wrong... Keys kinda right... We have been at Whale Harbor for the last six days and just got done with the ICBA tournament... Last year I puffed my chest going in and we barked at the moon so thats why the secrecy this year... Had a good time... Did about an hour a day of fishing each of the first three days catching two sails and a mystery billfish that for the sake of peace in the valley will call a sail... The rest of the time we spent running around and scouting bait and potential spots... Come game time these guys turned up the heat... Its a new game that I got to watch close... You need a friend in the bait business if you want to play their way. Chumming with live goggle eyes by the dozens and pilchards by the net fulls was the ticket... Miami boys cluster and run kite to kite and you cant squeeze in... When one hooks up the others close in and that guy rejoins the pack at one end or the other when they're done catching the fish. Not complaining. Cool to watch well oiled crews with game act it out and score big... The good local crews worked showering fish hard and would be pitching from their bows while backing down on hooked fish. Top boat had tourney record 30 fish! Second and third had mid twenties and a few had in the teens... We finished about mid field with twelve... I won't bitch... One of our fish yesterday took nearly two hours and another took a half hour... Today we finished off with a tripple of 15lb black fin tunas... Took second place dolphin and second place tuna and a king that fell well short... Got a G Loomis rod and a little bit of feel good for our efforts... Again better than a sharp poke in the eye.... That pales though in comparison to the great time I had with the boys... Guys were sharper than last year by a lot... We're comming along pretty good as a team considering the boss and his side kick have only a hand full of sail days under their belts and our guest had his cherry popped... Popped? Crushed! Dolphin, king, tiuna and sail cherries all gone.... The bow got crowded a lot of times this week... Second place dolphin was a consolatrion... As were the second and third place tuna.. (14.8 and 12.9Lbs) The king didn't place... This was the only little sail we got all week the rest were pretty good size including a pig yesterday... Four each of the last three days was plenty enough to keep us happy.

12-11-2008, 04:04 PM	#14
Deep C Master of all things wet Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: The Plywood State Posts: 14,596 Boat: Several Home Port: Palm Beach Best Catch: Mrs Deep Occupation: Killin Stuff	During our trip south we had a great time and a solid catch but not without first loading up on bait... When I say load I mean just that. We didn't "try" to but a byproduct of the trip was an entire seasons worth of hoos that I just packed away in the freezer... Even after tossing live chum, losing baits to birds or cudas, triggerfish raids, wearing them out we still managed to pack away 60 dozen of them or enough to fill a 5 cu.ft. freezer... Imagine three wells looking like this every day for a week...

12-11-2008, 04:13 PM	#15
Deep C Master of all things wet Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: The Plywood State Posts: 14,596 Boat: Several Home Port: Palm Beach Best Catch: Mrs Deep Occupation: Killin Stuff	Well the boss showed up at 1PM... By 2 we were loaded with bait then out came the six pound gear to start our quest... I guess it was right about three oclock when I saw a purple shape with a bill race in and hammer the hoo... I have been at this game a long time and frankly I'm stumped. This fish was not big but ate different than most sails. Race in and hammer usually isn't how they act... Then a blistering 300 yard run one way only to douuble back another three the other way. I was where it should be a sail... but something just seemed different. Not a big fish... Maybe fifty pounds. Now I know on six you don't have much handle as such but damn this fish was wired... We covered 4 plus miles in the first hour just keeping up. It worked up sea, down sea, turning on a dime, charging, jumping but never threw up a dorsal. Almost all sails will get a chocolate color after a while of fighting... This was bright blue on back and silver sides showing stripes at times. Kind of shortish bill. Even on the leader I still couldn't positive ID... We had leader four times over the two hour fight... No clue whether a sail or rat blue though... Should have been a sail. I never caught a blue in that close where we are but some things didn't add up. I have had stubborn sails but never a hot fish for two hours... Who knows??? Boss was tickled... The bosses buddy has a pretty clean shot on his camera but no usb to down load it and get a bettter zoomed in look... I'll try to find a cable otherwise it will have to wait til monday to post...

12-30-2008, 07:29 PM	#16
Deep C Master of all things wet Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: The Plywood State Posts: 14,596 Boat: Several Home Port: Palm Beach Best Catch: Mrs Deep Occupation: Killin Stuff	Crushed two more cherries today... Short trip today. Member Gitchasome and his dad made the trip down and each scored... Pretty slow bite today so I pulled em out of gear and let the boys "dead boat" deal with em on spin gear to the bitter end... Looking at whats yankin on it... Goin away mad... I give Ryan a good look at his first pointy one... At the other end of the boat Bob gets with his first...