I can't believe it's over. Another Yuri trip behind us and a long wait until next year. I have to apologize in advance for the lack of pics. Guess I just got busy. The usual suspects were on board along with a few fresh faces. Rich, my fellow artist buddy who was with me on the Yankee trip and my big buddy Jerry who has done the Yuri boat with me in the past were this years new guys to the mix. Capt. Zac, Rob, John and myself filled out our 6 man crew.
I took a gamble with catching bait (since some of my regular stops were proving unproductive) and good thing to. We loaded up at the #5 channel (AKA the "dump hole".....again living up to it's name). After a full day of laying in a store of grunts we proceeded to the Hogfish Grill where I ate to much and had a rather miserable night to show for my excess. Fortunately Jerry was off his game and no wall shaking rumblings emanated from his slumbering being that night.
We were at the "Lauren Jean", Yuri's dream boat, bright and early to load up. Unfortunately every dream has an end and ours ended abruptly when we found out the generator was down and hence no air conditioning in the cabin or sleeping bunks. AHHHH!! Yuri went and got some fans which he ran off the ships inverter and off we went. All and all the lack of air was not nearly as bad as I had first imagined it would be as the sea conditions were not to hot and we had a nice breeze throughout the trip.
Fridays start was late with all the running around but we finally got out there and had high hopes of reproducing last years run of 22 dolphin caught trolling but such was not the case. Only three wee little phins came in the boat. A rather inauspicious start. I started the trip with a bit of a headache and rumblings in my tummy. Having never been prone to seasickness before I hate to confess it but I may have to start to address the possibility. This is the 3rd trip in a row where I haven't felt that great. Dr. Rob did a little work on my shoulders and neck and that helped. (Rob below....the grouper killer)
We stayed fairly shallow friday night and while the moon was up we did OK....not great. Saturday was one of the best day bites I can remember. It seemed like every stop had action. Rob did very nicely on the grouper catching 10 I think including a dandy black. We also got on some beautiful yellowtails with many big ones caught including my personal best.
We continued to fish shallow throughout the trip fishing around 100 ft or less. Jerry and I both figure Yuri didn't want to run out to the deep as the waves would of been bigger. No matter, we stayed busy and filled both fish boxes with snapper and grouper AND the big overflow cooler I bring on board just for that situation. While Rob was Mr. Grouper I did OK on the muttons putting 9 good ones in the box including a 17lb pink beauty
Saturday afternoon was kind to the big man. We pulled up on a spot where Jerry pulled 3 nice Red grouper in a row off the same rock. Don't tell me your not into catching big fish Jerry, it sure looked like you were having fun to me!
Rich, this being only his 4th overnight boat bottom fishing excursion had to put his dues in (see below)
Saturday night found the seas still unsettled and probably knocked us out of the big mutton bite in the deep water. Nevertheless we still hung in there. Our overnight spot had several snags, probably coral, which proved rather demoralizing. When you can barely stand up it's tough to continually re-rig. Slowly the stern was depleted of anglers except for one crusty die hard who was feeling a bit better and was catching a second wind at the right time. Having had enough of getting hung I went light tackle with 30lb line and 8ft of 30 floro and a light 3/4 once weight. A ballyhoo minus it's tail was my choice of enticement. With the moon still up I was able to drift the bait slowly down to the snapper and it proved very effective. So much so I gave serious consideration to waking some folk up but with only another hour or two of the moon I decided against it. Every drift down was a bite. Most pleasing to me was several of the fish were dandy mangos. Yellowtails and my largest red grouper of the trip came via this method. The grouper was especially challenging as we went back and forth with me feeling him in the coral but managing to get the upper hand. It was a close run thing. Handling the gaff alone was also rather fun. When the moon went down the fish shut off just as I had thought they would. I went to my bunk after cleaning the deck, not wanting to leave a mess, but only slept an hour or so before my fan quit and I knew I had to get up or lay in a swelter.
Sunday found the seas still kickin and we continued to fish shallow. Our good day bite of the previous day failed to materialize. I think partly because we were fishing even shallower plus the water was very clear.....never a good combination. Later that morning we had several big cudas around and Jerry put his mind to catching one which he did. (Below; Jerry and his cuda)
I didn't fish the last stop but rather started putting things away and emptying the last of our bait over the side. I slept the whole way back. My hands, despite my gloves, were in bad shape with many cuts and infections going on. I showed them to Yuri who knew exactly what to do. First the bleach cut with water and then a generous swabbing of neosporin got me to the point I could close them without so much pain.
Many thanks to Capt. Yuri (see below)
All things considered I thought we turned things around. If we had caught dolphin like we did last year I'm not sure where we would of put them plus our catch. Besides we were down to about 15% of our ice as it was. It took me 4 hours to clean my catch. 22 quarts went into the freezer, a good trip. I enjoyed fishing with all of you and look forward to doing it again.
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