Panhandler80
07-18-2011, 09:58 AM
Not the best trip in the world. In fact, I'm not sure if I've ever put that much effort into a trip and done this poorly, but here it goes...
Have not had a boat since this past spring. Engine has been in boa for about a month now, but problem after problem has prevented us from getting her offshore. Finally got the new engine brokend in Monday night, and spent Tues, Wed, Thur evenings tinkering, getting little things back in place, etc, and then Friday we cleaned / iced / loaded boat.
Left the dock super earl and cleared the rocks in the dark. Was heading out a 225 and straight into a very light sea. At about 16 NM it started to build near a storm. Then it would ease off one notch, next storm it would increase a couple notches, then ease off a notch, then increase two notches, etc. At one point, I had to pull the fuel all the way back for a big wave. Boat went down and a solid 4 or 5" of water came over the rail and up the cabin house. Pretty sporty. By the time we got to our first spot at 24nm it was not pleasant out there. Holding up bow to is tough with a single screw and stern-to was not an option in that sea state. So, we anchored up and fished spot number 1 for about 20 minutes. Rockin' and rolling we killed the first 6 snapper that came over the rail. Also kill about a dozen real nice beeliners (not something I typically do, but given the weather, one very sick angler and two women that were less than thrilled, I just wanted to make sure we got SOMETHING in the boat before the inevitable munity took place and we had to turn her around).
While on anchor about a 2 mile cell started bearing down on us with lightling. We pulled the hook and tried to outrun it one way, only to realize that it was growing faster than we could make way. Zoomed radar out to 36 miles and watched our 2 mile cell turn into 24 miles of drizzle with us right in the middle of it.
Ran across a spot, fished it for a little bit, did okay there, 4 more snapper, two throw back legal gags, lost a legal red grouper to a shark and a couple triggers.
Figured the air was pretty stable / saturated at this point. With no more fear of lightning and the seas a little bit calmer, we decided to go ahead and try to make a real trip out of it and look for some red grouper.
Hit the throttle, boat starts to come out of the water and high water alarm goes off.
Not good.
I scampered down below and opened door to engine room. Underneath the engine and between the two stringers is about 18" of water. Holy crap! Snatched the carpet out of the cabin, opened up the engine hatch and saw that underneath the aft end of the egine there was a little bit of water (NOT 18"). Also saw that was very little water aft of the bulkehad that seperates the space below the engine and the area between the fuel tanks for shaft / running gear / hoses to aft bilge pump etc.
We figured out what happened, and turns out we were never in any real danger, but that was enough for me. We turned it around and headed for the house. By the time we hit the rocks it was settling down as all those storms had become one big wet drizzle cloud and everything became stabilized. Where we offshore it just plain sucked. Peak winds were right when we got to first spot and I'd say they were probably at about an honest 22-23mph. It was blowing crests of waves apart and there were big patches of white froth if that tells you anything.
Was the only trip I made offshore this year and it was not the best, but we did figure out a couple things that need to be changed on the boat. I think by this weekend we'll have all post engine re-install kinks worked out.
I just wish that SOME other species had opened up with snapper closed. I'm not going offshore for 2 red grouper / head.
Tally for the total of maybe 30 minutes of fishing:
- 12 (or so) beeliners. 2 were huge. Over 20"
- 10 snapper. Small to average (threw back some legal ones at spot 2 thinking we'd be able to fish more and keep some bigger ones. Still claiming to have "caught our limit." Makes me feel a little better, and technincally we did...)
- 2 triggers
- 2 throw back legal gags.
- 6 very tired, shaken, wet, frustrated anglers.
Only good news was that nobody got hurt and we were back at the dock with LOTS of time to get things cleaned, put up, etc.
Pics aren't so great. Camera, like everything else, was a bit wet! Not a catch worthy of effort and expense, but it was nice to be back at dock where we could at least lick our wounds on stable ground.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v161/Panhandler80/3-1.jpg?t=1310997217
These are a couple of the big beeliners. Pretty sad when your best fish of the day is a beeliner! We couldn't make any real speed running straight into those seas, so we pulled wahoo baits the whole way out (about 12 knots), but no takers.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v161/Panhandler80/7-1.jpg?t=1310997386
Have not had a boat since this past spring. Engine has been in boa for about a month now, but problem after problem has prevented us from getting her offshore. Finally got the new engine brokend in Monday night, and spent Tues, Wed, Thur evenings tinkering, getting little things back in place, etc, and then Friday we cleaned / iced / loaded boat.
Left the dock super earl and cleared the rocks in the dark. Was heading out a 225 and straight into a very light sea. At about 16 NM it started to build near a storm. Then it would ease off one notch, next storm it would increase a couple notches, then ease off a notch, then increase two notches, etc. At one point, I had to pull the fuel all the way back for a big wave. Boat went down and a solid 4 or 5" of water came over the rail and up the cabin house. Pretty sporty. By the time we got to our first spot at 24nm it was not pleasant out there. Holding up bow to is tough with a single screw and stern-to was not an option in that sea state. So, we anchored up and fished spot number 1 for about 20 minutes. Rockin' and rolling we killed the first 6 snapper that came over the rail. Also kill about a dozen real nice beeliners (not something I typically do, but given the weather, one very sick angler and two women that were less than thrilled, I just wanted to make sure we got SOMETHING in the boat before the inevitable munity took place and we had to turn her around).
While on anchor about a 2 mile cell started bearing down on us with lightling. We pulled the hook and tried to outrun it one way, only to realize that it was growing faster than we could make way. Zoomed radar out to 36 miles and watched our 2 mile cell turn into 24 miles of drizzle with us right in the middle of it.
Ran across a spot, fished it for a little bit, did okay there, 4 more snapper, two throw back legal gags, lost a legal red grouper to a shark and a couple triggers.
Figured the air was pretty stable / saturated at this point. With no more fear of lightning and the seas a little bit calmer, we decided to go ahead and try to make a real trip out of it and look for some red grouper.
Hit the throttle, boat starts to come out of the water and high water alarm goes off.
Not good.
I scampered down below and opened door to engine room. Underneath the engine and between the two stringers is about 18" of water. Holy crap! Snatched the carpet out of the cabin, opened up the engine hatch and saw that underneath the aft end of the egine there was a little bit of water (NOT 18"). Also saw that was very little water aft of the bulkehad that seperates the space below the engine and the area between the fuel tanks for shaft / running gear / hoses to aft bilge pump etc.
We figured out what happened, and turns out we were never in any real danger, but that was enough for me. We turned it around and headed for the house. By the time we hit the rocks it was settling down as all those storms had become one big wet drizzle cloud and everything became stabilized. Where we offshore it just plain sucked. Peak winds were right when we got to first spot and I'd say they were probably at about an honest 22-23mph. It was blowing crests of waves apart and there were big patches of white froth if that tells you anything.
Was the only trip I made offshore this year and it was not the best, but we did figure out a couple things that need to be changed on the boat. I think by this weekend we'll have all post engine re-install kinks worked out.
I just wish that SOME other species had opened up with snapper closed. I'm not going offshore for 2 red grouper / head.
Tally for the total of maybe 30 minutes of fishing:
- 12 (or so) beeliners. 2 were huge. Over 20"
- 10 snapper. Small to average (threw back some legal ones at spot 2 thinking we'd be able to fish more and keep some bigger ones. Still claiming to have "caught our limit." Makes me feel a little better, and technincally we did...)
- 2 triggers
- 2 throw back legal gags.
- 6 very tired, shaken, wet, frustrated anglers.
Only good news was that nobody got hurt and we were back at the dock with LOTS of time to get things cleaned, put up, etc.
Pics aren't so great. Camera, like everything else, was a bit wet! Not a catch worthy of effort and expense, but it was nice to be back at dock where we could at least lick our wounds on stable ground.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v161/Panhandler80/3-1.jpg?t=1310997217
These are a couple of the big beeliners. Pretty sad when your best fish of the day is a beeliner! We couldn't make any real speed running straight into those seas, so we pulled wahoo baits the whole way out (about 12 knots), but no takers.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v161/Panhandler80/7-1.jpg?t=1310997386