Non Kayak related bluewater report

[landman650]

Got invited to go out to some rigs 85 miles out of Freeport kind of last minute on Thurs from another landman at my office. He told me amberjack season was starting back up and we HAD to go....I really couldn't say no even though my wife had big plans for me to finish the house this weekend. I promised I would do it Sunday haha. Got on the water about 4:45 am Saturday. Went through a lot of cold rain to get there in the morning but by noon the sun had come out and I don't think we could have asked for a better day. High in the 80s. We stopped at a weedline around 8am and trolled and first pass got a double hook up of mahi mahi. Caught two more there and threw one back. Went on to the rigs in about 300' of water. Dropped some live bait we caught out there and dropped it to the bottom....half hour passes by and a whole lot of nothing. On to trolling....we make a few passes and caught back to back wahoo....nothing huge but at least they're biting! On my side of the boat I get two hits but as I reel them in they're just bait fish (not sure the species but they're larger than what we already had so in the live well they go). We start seeing action on the middle bait and mahi "tailing" by it but no luck first. We finally pick up two more nice mahi trolling and decide to drop some deep water live baits. We pull up next to another rig, I harness in and drop one of the larger bait fish we just caught....20 minutes and my friend says 10 more minutes and we're leaving. 5 minutes later we have a huge bite and this being my first time offshore I almost didn't hook up to the reel first. Get harnessed in and ready for a fight....about 10 minutes into the fight the 130 lb line breaks....FML! We think it caught up on a part of the rig or something else...not sure. The rod was bending over backwards, I thought damn I missed a great fish! One more big bait left, so we set it up and drop the bait. Hits the ocean floor and reel it about 1/3 up like before...waiting....waiting.... looked at my buddy and I said,"10 more minutes"? He agrees. Again, within 10 minutes there goes the line...I hook to the reel in this time and am on for the best fight I've ever had with a fish. It only took about 20 minutes to reel it in and I was exhausted....my friend got the gaft ready and I could tell by the look on his face it was a decent fish. 99 lb amber jack. My personal record now! After loading that into the built in fish cooler on the boat, I make a drink and needed a break. We head to Stetson next where I catch another keeper AJ but had to throw it back and he catches a big AJ for himself. Loved being able to limit out on AJ!

My first time offshore and I'm hooked... now I just have to buy the boat to keep going! (and keeping my kayak for those times I don't want to wait hours to fish).

We wind up coming home with 2 AJ, 2 wahoo, and 5 mahi mahi. not a bad day!

[landman650]

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