James Joyce II - DU tourney report

[Water Damage]

just getting back online after fishing the DU tourney this past weekend. All I gotta say is thank GOD that was our last marlin tourney for this season!!!!! Hope I NEVER have to deal with another circle hook!!!!



Headed a bit down the beach Friday planning to fish inshore abit for sails, but just never found anything we liked so we quickly worked on offshore a bit with the rest of the crowd. We were in the fish as Impulse and Frequent Flyer both hooked 2 or 3 fish around us, as well as a couple of others - we just never got a shot. Later in the day we finally had a hit and Joyce reeled in a decent 22# hoo. That was it for the day, but at least the weather layed out and had a beautiful ride in

Saturday we were greeted with a gorgeous sunrise and calm seas. Made our run to the 100f around the 500 line and put'em out. Found a pair of BIG grass mats about 10 minutes later and started to work around them a bit - sure enuff - BAM! Short bridge pole (horse hoo with circle hook) takes off - FAST!!! I drop waaay more than the 10 seconds everyone talks about, then finally push the drag up and wind tight - she bends the rod a bit, then pops out!! Never got him to come back so reel it in, only to find a very large mouth had been on that bait - sadly it had it from the side instead of from the back so the hook never got in his mouth. Strike 1 on a nice blue marlin. Put it all back out and come back around and worked thru some scattered grass, BAM, same rig takes off again - only to be dropped before I could even begin to push the drag up. Reel it in and it is all mashed up, not sure if it was a sail or white, but either way it was strike 2! Got going again and less than an hour later my shotgun with a lure takes a very small bump, then another, and about the time I get to the rod it takes off. Well I was not worried about this one since it was a small lure with a double hook rig on it. About the time that thought went thru my mind, GONE!!!!! Strike 3!!! And that was it for day 2.

End result - we ended up in 3rd place for our wahoo. Even sadder is the fact that a boat won 1st place mahi with a less than 20# fish - and the same boat took 2nd also on mahi. If not mistaken, there were only 11 fish released friday and 13 saturday - with 48 boats fishing each day! What a pitiful total of catches - THANKS CIRCLE HOOKS!!!!! I have to agree, circle hooks greatly reduce mortality of fish being caught - because when using them there and DAMMMMM few fish being caught!!

I would like to take a chance to congratulate Cameron on the Impulse and Glen on Frequent Flyer - those 2 boats put it on all the rest of us!! Cameron had 3 sails and a blue in 2 days, and Glen had 3 or 4 sails and a white. Pretty darn good considering what that left for the rest of us!


ok, so now we can get back to just plain ole fishin and catching for the rest of the season!!!!! HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[O-SEA-D]

Great report Troy.
Sorry to you did not come tight to your fish.
Pretty work on getting the bites though dude.
Congrats on the 3rd place Wahoo too!!!!!!

[sportfishingusa]

CONGRATS ON THE HOOSKINATOR!!

And damn those cirlce hooks!!

Those scientists dont know squat!! J hook it up! lol


Thanks for the report man!!

Sweet Sweet Sweet!!