Went From N 29 48' 14"/ W 85 18' 7" to:
Mississippi Canyon block 920.
Don't look it up, it's a long freakin way, trust me.
All this extra stuff had to be loaded into the boat for the trip,2 of the biggest yeti coolers I have ever seen (600qts each) plus two 200qt yeti's, an extra 250 gal fuel tank, fighting chair, various trolling rigs from 30W to 80W and an extra 150 gal. of freash water.
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Most of the crew ready to go:
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We all started off with the highest of hopes for the trip ahead of us. NOAA forcasted 5-10 with 1-2' seas for most of the week. The NOAA budget must have been cut pretty severly by Obama because they seem to be using a ouija board. We rode out 6-8' seas the whole way to the Independence Hub 150 miles South of the Mouth of the Mighty Miss.
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Reports and sat. imagery had this rig in blue water two days prior to the trip. That was not the case once we got there about lunchtime the next day. Damn, Obama screwed us again!
We turned to the S.E. looking for blue water and weedlines that the ever present wind had not blown apart.
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Jacob ( the Mate) and Dwight rigged Ballyhoo on the way out to get us ready for the day
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The whole first day was a bust. We just never could find clean water. We lucked out the second day and although we didn't get into any Tuna the Wahoo and Mahi bite was on pretty good.
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We caught a bunch of 5-10lb peanut Mahi. The guys looked at me like I had a third arm growing out of my head when I got the long rod out but after about the 4th Mahi on the fly the long rod got some respect.
We called it a day with 5 Mahi from 15-25 lbs and I don't know how many peanuts along with two 'hoos.
With no good water to be found and very little to no grass lines to fish we worked our way back to the South East and spent the night within reach of some deep snapper grounds to finish out the trip on the 3rd day. We had a good dinner
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Turned in early so we could hit the snapper grounds early to make up for the lack of tuna. Bright and early on the last day we bottom fished in about 200-250' and we had our limit by about Noon. I'll have to say these were some of the finest snapper I have ever caught. They averaged around 8 lbs and the biggest was around 15-16 lbs. I think the Capt felt sorry for our lack of Tuna on the trip so we hit some quality spots. We mangaged 5 or 6 nice reef donkeys as well. We fried fish and hushpuppies on the way in for lunch and hit the docks about 5PM tired as hell. Althought the "Tuna" portion of the trip was a bust we did have just a hair under 700lbs of fish in the coolers and large portion of that was snapper. All in all it was an awesome trip and would do it agin in a heartbeat. Thanks to Capt. Danny anf the crew of the Lady J II for the good time and all of the hard work. I'm still sore!
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I'd say the trip was a good one
