Ponce 3/26, mixed bag

Fool's Gold

Headed out on first trip in new sled and new electronics(Pursuit 3070 CC), went out to the steeples area to deep drop, did find a rip out there upon arrival (76 degrees) but no weeds and thought we might troll it if the bottom was dead. Picked off a few fish, 2 yellow eyed or silk snapper which we have never caught, a AJ around 30lbs, several red porgies and beeliners. Current was around 4 mph so staying on bottom, even with 3 lbs was tough and the south wind did not help. We moving south and in to the 28 fathom when we came across a pallet. It had several keeper triple tail which we caught 4 of. While trying to catch the triple tail a couple random dolphin swam by at 2 different times and we caught them. The sharks were also all over the pallet which made it tough to get the fish off of but it worked out. Moved on to the spot we were moving to and the current was only around 1 mph and shallower so holding bottom was much easier. Caught several endangered ARS and saw on the bottom machine that fish was suspended over the wreck so switched to jigs and finished our limit of AJ's off. Few kinks to work out on boat but overall good first trip with some good friends.

popandscream

Nice way to break in the new sled. Great work! Thanks for the post.

tohotim

Great trip - thanks for the report! Are only using electric reels on the deep drops or conventional also? Can you show a picture of your bottom rig? Where do you find 3# weights??

Fool's Gold

We use electrics in mostly 200+, we use a regular chicken type rig made of 80 or 100lb flourocarbon. We make all of our own weights from 6 ounces to 3 lbs. With the electrics we use mostly 2 to 3 lb cannonball weights. You can buy them but they are too expensive for us to buy, we loose several per trip.

tohotim

Hey thanks - The deepest I have dropped is about 175' with conventional with an 16oz. There was a pretty good current, so didn't feel like it was holding the bottom too well. That was a lot of crankin'

LivinTheDreamPC

nice report. great day. what a cool cool variety of species. not a typical offshore day to most.... that is for sure.

nice work.

MrPat

Nice boat. I have a 2005.

Fool's Gold

How do you like yours...any advice on items to add or not add....love this one so far. Wish it got a little better mileage, but for the size and weight it isn't to bad. Drove to Pensacola in October of last year and test drove the same model, gave the guy a deposit and headed home, guy sold it on Ebay that night. After that it was the only model I was looking for, had the perfect layout for what I wanted. Found this one in NC and picked it up in December, just had all the electronics replaced and working out the kinks on it to be ready for the rest of the year.

BottomPicker

That's a nice boat. Can't beat a Pursuit. Well made.

Fool's Gold

Thanks, love it so far....layout is perfect. Just trying to get all my junk in all the right places.

MrPat

Fool's Gold wrote: »

How do you like yours...any advice on items to add or not add....love this one so far. Wish it got a little better mileage, but for the size and weight it isn't to bad. Drove to Pensacola in October of last year and test drove the same model, gave the guy a deposit and headed home, guy sold it on Ebay that night. After that it was the only model I was looking for, had the perfect layout for what I wanted. Found this one in NC and picked it up in December, just had all the electronics replaced and working out the kinks on it to be ready for the rest of the year.

I've had it since 2007 and I love the boat. Its a great bottom fishing platform because of its wide beam. Its not a speedster, but it gets me out there at 30k most of the time. Loaded for fishing I get 1.3 mpg. I normally burn 90 gallons on a full day of fishing. You mentioned your mileage. What Yamahas do you have. Mine are the F250s.

dtm

Good pile of fish there captain well done:thumbsup
Have you tried the precision reels they are a lot quieter.

Fool's Gold

Mine has the F225's, we averaged around 1.2 to 1.4 out and a little better on the way in with a following sea. Very stable bottom fishing, have yet to troll with it but I am sure it should be solid. The only issue I see and it just takes a little getting use to is it has more roll while under way than previous boats, but just a little tab either way and it straightens up.

Fool's Gold

DTM: Some friends of ours have used precision auto reels on my boat and they are impressive, like them much better than the electramates(loud and heavy) and fish winches(quieter and slower)....we have recently moved to Diawa Tanacom 1000's on bent butts, very light and probably as fast as most of the electramates but not as fast as a precision. There were a couple factory refurbished precision listed on the hull truth last night, I think they were 750 for both which is a good deal on 2 of those....