Pulley Ridge on the Yankee Capt May 13-15
Snaphappy
Posts: 1,427 Officer
Thought I'd share a quick report from last weekends Yankee Capt Pulley Ridge trip. Left the dock at 800pm listening to the World Series Champion Kansas City Royals on my iPhone (sorry it still just sounds so good saying it). Lost a signal around the 8th inning so I went to sleep and slept like rock in the frigid ac. I had my alarm set for just before sunrise so I could set a trolling rod for wahoo. Four of us pulled lures but we had no strikes.
Around 8 Capt Greg gave some instructions on what we were doing then it was time to drop our first baits to the bottom. I'm pretty sure everyone was using electrics instead of hand cranking this trip. Probably a good thing I was thinking because conditions seemed perfect so I had a feeling we would be fishing pretty deep. First drift had some grey tiles, yellow eyes and a few snowys and yellow edge grouper coming over the rails. It was about 20 minutes into it when I heard a bunch of hooting and hollering coming from the bow. I ask one of the new mates Jimmy what all the fuss was about and he said someone got a pretty good grouper. Yeah pretty good..my jaw dropped when they dragged a 90 lb Warsaw over to the fish box!
Next drift was a straight up blitz of Queen snappers. I'm not talking little ones either. All up and down the rail there were queens coming up longer than your leg. Fish after fish over 20 lbs. Some way over. Meanwhile four drops in a row during the queen blitz, I bring in an 18" grey tile :banghead. This drift stayed productive for so long I even broke off on my fifth drop and still managed to re-tie on a new top shot and rig and get back into the action to bag 3 nice queens.
Conditions stayed perfect most the day. The breeze and current completely died out toward late afternoon slowing the bite some. Greg took us up on the bank for the night bite. Honestly this is my favorite part of these pulley ridge trips. We drift with bait or jig for muttons, blackfin snappers, black, red and scamp grouper and blackfin tuna. When conditions are right it can be pretty spectacular sp I was stoked.
My first bait down I get a 15lb red grouper. Second bait a fat blackfin snapper. Im thinking it's going to be one of those nights. Only one problem, no drift. I mean like fishing the bottom straight up and down with a 4oz sinker in 200' of water no drift. We weren't covering any ground at all. Greg said we may have covered 100 yds ALL NIGHT! Cool thing was the boat lights brought hundreds of flying fish and other baits that did bring some life to the boat. We even had a sailfish come crashing through them once, right through the lights all lit up himself.
I stayed at it pretty hard all night only sleeping for one hour. I ended up with 2 big red grouper, a mutton, 3 blackfin snappers, and four tuna to show for it.
Next morning we were back at the deep drop. First few drifts we killed the snowys. I had several chunkers and a decent yellow edge too. We got back into some queen snapper again too. By noon or so the drift had really slowed down but the back boxes were stuffed. We were just sitting in one place so Greg moved looking for a bit better conditions. We moved out to 900'. A few guys including myself caught golden tile but not too many. I had one around 10 pounds. It wasn't long after time was up and we were headed east. We even made it back to the dock before sunrise!
Back at the dock the fish sort took a while. Man what a pile of fish! I had 6 queens the biggest weighing 26lbs on the scale. Biggest snowy was 20. Pool fish winner was the 90 lb Warsaw caught on the first drift. Everyone even the googans who seemed to spend half the trip tangled up had coolers overflowing with fish. (Btw listen to the Capt when he gives suggestions, it makes everyone's trip better. And yes the way you hook your bait does indeed make a difference when it comes to tangles in 700'):banghead
Big thanks to Greg, Scott, new mates Shane and Jimmy for another great trip. Also thanks to Camela for her outstanding work in the galley. Seriously it makes the trips so stress free to not have to worry about bringing food for meals. She is taking the galley to the next level, consider me impressed.
Sorry for the crappy photos...better than nothing?
Around 8 Capt Greg gave some instructions on what we were doing then it was time to drop our first baits to the bottom. I'm pretty sure everyone was using electrics instead of hand cranking this trip. Probably a good thing I was thinking because conditions seemed perfect so I had a feeling we would be fishing pretty deep. First drift had some grey tiles, yellow eyes and a few snowys and yellow edge grouper coming over the rails. It was about 20 minutes into it when I heard a bunch of hooting and hollering coming from the bow. I ask one of the new mates Jimmy what all the fuss was about and he said someone got a pretty good grouper. Yeah pretty good..my jaw dropped when they dragged a 90 lb Warsaw over to the fish box!
Next drift was a straight up blitz of Queen snappers. I'm not talking little ones either. All up and down the rail there were queens coming up longer than your leg. Fish after fish over 20 lbs. Some way over. Meanwhile four drops in a row during the queen blitz, I bring in an 18" grey tile :banghead. This drift stayed productive for so long I even broke off on my fifth drop and still managed to re-tie on a new top shot and rig and get back into the action to bag 3 nice queens.
Conditions stayed perfect most the day. The breeze and current completely died out toward late afternoon slowing the bite some. Greg took us up on the bank for the night bite. Honestly this is my favorite part of these pulley ridge trips. We drift with bait or jig for muttons, blackfin snappers, black, red and scamp grouper and blackfin tuna. When conditions are right it can be pretty spectacular sp I was stoked.
My first bait down I get a 15lb red grouper. Second bait a fat blackfin snapper. Im thinking it's going to be one of those nights. Only one problem, no drift. I mean like fishing the bottom straight up and down with a 4oz sinker in 200' of water no drift. We weren't covering any ground at all. Greg said we may have covered 100 yds ALL NIGHT! Cool thing was the boat lights brought hundreds of flying fish and other baits that did bring some life to the boat. We even had a sailfish come crashing through them once, right through the lights all lit up himself.
I stayed at it pretty hard all night only sleeping for one hour. I ended up with 2 big red grouper, a mutton, 3 blackfin snappers, and four tuna to show for it.
Next morning we were back at the deep drop. First few drifts we killed the snowys. I had several chunkers and a decent yellow edge too. We got back into some queen snapper again too. By noon or so the drift had really slowed down but the back boxes were stuffed. We were just sitting in one place so Greg moved looking for a bit better conditions. We moved out to 900'. A few guys including myself caught golden tile but not too many. I had one around 10 pounds. It wasn't long after time was up and we were headed east. We even made it back to the dock before sunrise!
Back at the dock the fish sort took a while. Man what a pile of fish! I had 6 queens the biggest weighing 26lbs on the scale. Biggest snowy was 20. Pool fish winner was the 90 lb Warsaw caught on the first drift. Everyone even the googans who seemed to spend half the trip tangled up had coolers overflowing with fish. (Btw listen to the Capt when he gives suggestions, it makes everyone's trip better. And yes the way you hook your bait does indeed make a difference when it comes to tangles in 700'):banghead
Big thanks to Greg, Scott, new mates Shane and Jimmy for another great trip. Also thanks to Camela for her outstanding work in the galley. Seriously it makes the trips so stress free to not have to worry about bringing food for meals. She is taking the galley to the next level, consider me impressed.
Sorry for the crappy photos...better than nothing?
Replies
Greg
Way ta go and thanks for the great post.
Fred
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http://www.cudamanadventures.com
Yellow edge grouper are hands-down without a doubt my favorite fish in the ocean to eat. The queen snapper taste like snapper. I just prefer a grouper over snapper. They are nice though they can be dry if not prepared correctly.
DITTO!!
What he said about Yellow Edge, and off course Scamp, Black too.
Mutton and ARS taste better than Queen, just my taste.
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I'm stoked, going on the Pulley trip on the 27th. Hope the conditions and bite are as good as your trip. Great catching.
Your descriptions of how Cappy Greg runs the trip is a good heads-up on what to expect.
:thumbsup
Pura Vida!
2008 37 Ocean Billfish
2005 30 Grady-White Marlin
1993 27 Ultress Catamaran
1985 Grady-White Trophy
Awesome, have fun! If you haven't done so I really think it's a good idea to read the tackle requirements section for a Pulley Ridge trip on the Yankee Capt website. Every trip I've done there has been someone with gear just not suited for this. No bent butts needed, only 50-65 lb braid (I use 50), rigs do not need to be the huge heavy store bought kind. Your best bet is to tie knots, use 80lb leader, and avoid using crimps. It helps so much picking out/ cutting tangles. Also bring lead lol. Guy last trip thought boat provided it. Bring enough braid to re-spool or a back up reel. Good luck and feel free to ask any questions.
Greg
Excellent!! Making bait tommorrow,,,see you Friday!
Fred
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Ok, I got a good night's sleep and feel a little more awake. The reports by Roc n Rol and gtpvette that follow pretty much sum up the trip.
I caught 1 bonito, 1 tile fish, 1 scamp and 1 AJ. I broke off a big fish that hit a buck tail jig on the way down. Since there were a couple large sharks circling the boat, I assume that's what what it was. I also had a mystery fish that hit a flat fall jig 5 times in a row. I would cast out from the boat, get hit as the jig neared the bottom, I could work the fish back to the boat until the line was nearly straight up and down where it felt like a dead weight. As I put pressure on the fish it would eventually let go. The jig would come up with both hooks still intact. One time the mate and I both saw a small fish float away from the hook down deep. Although I never saw them, the mate said there were dolphin (not mahi-mahi) around the boat and that possibly I was hooking up with smaller fish and they were grabbing them down deep. I honestly did not miss many bites. Most of the time the bait would come up untouched.
The drift was really weird and/or there was someone who had no clue how much line they were letting out because there were constant tangles.I have never seen so many tangles and bottom hangs on all the deep drop trips I have done. I probably spent as much time waiting to get untangled as I did fishing on the bottom. By the afternoon of the first day I sold what weights I thought I could spare to a couple guys who were all ready out of weights.
The weather was good and the crew was great. the fish just did not want to bit, at least not my bait.
To sum it up, it sucked. Weather and seas were great should have been a great trip. We never fished deeper than give or take 550', and shallow as the low 200s. There were 18 fisherman and only 11 tubs of fish. No Golden tiles or Queens. Mostly Blueline tile, snowys and yellowedge, 1 Misty, few blackfin tuna, a few blackfin snapper. Lots of tangles, current taking lines to the front, then under the boat.
http://forums.floridasportsman.com/showthread.php?303-8-21-10-FPI-Crazzzy-Day-Offshore-Fishing-Trip