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St. Marks Offshore 9/7/03

Posted: September 8th, 2003, 2:24 pm
by Wil
We finally got the new gas tank installed in the boat Friday night, and by Saturday afternoon we had her put back together and ready to run. On Sunday morning I met Tom Keels and John Vickers down at the old spanish fort right around daylight and we headed on down the river. After catching some bait we headed out for our first stop in about 35' of water.

The bite was slow, so we decided to troll to our next spot, which wasn't too far away. While trolling we spotted a small ledge on the bottom machine, so we dropped a marker and anchored up. We started getting hit almost immediately, but for some reason we couldn't seem to hook up. After a few misses we started pulling in some shorts, and John even got broken off by a big one.

Since the grouper action wasn't that hot (we were expecting better for the afternoon), I decided to start jigging for grunts (I'd normally rather eat grunt than grouper). On about my third drop I got slammed, and it wasn't a grunt. My drag was screaming and the rod was doubled over, and suddenly the rod *exploded*. It was fun while it lasted.

We ended up moving around a bit, and came back to the ledge after the tide turned around. That's when the bite really turned on. Unfortunately, they were mostly short. John hooked up with something, and it was definately not short. Hellooooo nurse...shark:
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It was every bit of 7', maybe even bigger.
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The (edible) highlight of the afternoon was a big king that tried to snatch the rod out of Tom's hand:
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The wind started picking up, and it was starting to get late, so we decided to head in. It was the first good test for the trim tabs (which we put on while the boat was taken apart). The tabs made all the difference in the world. We ran in at 25-30mph through 2-3's with the occasional 4, and it was a mostly smooth run and we even stayed dry.

Total for the day:
2 grouper
1 king
1 spanish
whole buncha grunts

Posted: September 8th, 2003, 4:02 pm
by wevans
Sounds like a fun trip and good test of the boat :thumbup: and ta top it off, ya got some good eatin for later :D

Posted: September 8th, 2003, 4:22 pm
by Chalk
How about some pics of the boat :-?

Posted: September 9th, 2003, 12:56 am
by chugbug
Sounds like great trip! Glad to hear you got the boat fixed and running good. Let's see some pics of the boat...I'm getting homesick...I have pics if you want them. None of those shiney new tabs though.

Posted: September 10th, 2003, 9:29 am
by Wil
I need to take some pics of it in the water, hopefully I can do that this weekend.

Wil

Posted: September 21st, 2003, 8:55 am
by Wil
Sorry about the delay. Here's an on-the-water picture:

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Posted: September 21st, 2003, 9:30 am
by chugbug
Thats a nice lookin' rig. Wanna sell it? I sure do miss that thing.

Posted: September 21st, 2003, 9:37 am
by Wil
Thanks, but I think I'll hang onto it. You're welcome to a reunion trip or two when you get back, though. :D

Posted: September 21st, 2003, 9:39 am
by chugbug
Sounds good to me.

Posted: September 21st, 2003, 12:13 pm
by Chalk
:thumbup: Thanks, Nice ride