It took a while to get organized and pack the boat on thursday but by mid afternoon we were off from Alligator Point. Just after we get on plane the port motor takes a nap on us. After a quick trip to Mike's we are back up and running but out of time. Luckly I had some pigfish, pinfish, and pilchards in my pen so they would have to do. We made it to C 1/4s just as they were closing up and topped off the fuel tank and ice boxes. Went back up the river and hung out at Pirate's and waited for our 3rd crew member. Once he got there the weather stirred up a bit so we hung out some more and watched the radar til about midnight we finally eased out of the river. About the time we cleared the river i found myself at the helm and my 2 comrades passed out... looks like a long night to me. At about 6am Jimmy took over the reins and a little after 7 we we had the spread out....
We went 3 for 5 on wahoo over the next 3 hours with one bottoming out my 50# scale before they shut down. So we went over to a wreck that was full of big AJs... big, close-lipped, AJs. Dan managed to snag one on a jig that looked like a minnow compared to the 40/50 pounders that followed him up and it went 35" to the fork. After a while of trying to coax a bite without much luck we noticed that our ice situation was not looking too good. The decision was made to go ahead and make our way in to catch some runners, wirgh the wahoos, and switch gears for kingfishing Saturday.
About 30minutes into our trek we lost the port motor, again... 40 miles from Apalach... this is where it helps to know damn good people...
After doing 7mph for 40miles, Chris Sapp (Seatrout99), brought over the truck and trailer from Alligator Point at 11pm. :worthy: :worthy:
We slept in Saturday am with no baits and a broken boat in the driveway. Our thoughts of getting back to the spot we found the big ones at last sunday was toasted. Jimmy got up at 10am and managed to get the boat running again so around noon we splashed it and headed for fuel and ice. By this point im thinking we will be lucky to gat a bite as it was scaling hot and we were very limited.
Picked up some runners right quick and headed to my tried and true king # that had already produced some tournament winners this year and was close enough to soak some baits before weigh-in. Put lines in at about 2pm & it was game on. We stayed doubled up with decent fish, going 6 for 9 over the next 2 or so hours before we stuck a respectable fish and decided that it was finally time to head to the scales while the boat was good.
At time we wieghed in we had the 1st and 3rd place hoos and 2nd place king but when the dust settled we ended up 3rd in wahoo and 5th in king. We didn't wiegh the jack as he was probably only low 20s.
A satifiying finish considering we were only able to fish for about 5 hours. :toast:
Nice report and pics. See ya on the water or passing in the canal at AP. Capt. Jay
