As promised, here is a short trip report (no pics yet, maybe later?). Thanks for the advice guys & gals!
My buddy and I went out on the 24 hour "safari" trip from Dolphin Docks aboard the La Pesca. It was a full trip, with 29 folks aboard. We left Port A at 4:00 p.m., ready for action (we brought our own tackle, a couple of 309s w/ 40lb line and a 209 w/ 25 lb line, which was lighter than what the boat used) after seeing the 9 hour trip come back with 17 kings, up to 15 lbs.
The trip out was LONG. The seas were fairly calm (looked like maybe 2 ft), but there were some swells that caught your stomach. I had never been out of Port A before (Galveston & Freeport in the past), so I was pleasantly surprised that we got out of the port very quickly (Freeport is TERRIBLE) and the water wasn't brown!!!
It well past 9:00 before we reached our first spot, and got nothing. I don't even recall any vermillions caught. We reposition and a couple of small vermillions are caught, that's it. We then pull up for a "45 minute" trip to another spot. It seems like it took well over an hour, but I can't swear to that. The next spot started fast for vermillions, but I didn't care about catching any bee-liners. This was a long trip, bring on the kings, jacks, etc.!
An hour into fishing, the deckhands finally caved and brought out the ribbonfish (for some reason they were holding it back). That's when the action started. A few minutes after tying on a ribbonfish, someone landed the first big king of the night - 20+ pounds. Several more good kings were caught before my buddy tied into a monster. He was drifting a ribbonfish, using his lighter tackle, a Penn 209 and 25 lb line. The fish ran off about 100 yards of line before tiring. We got the fish in the boat - 44 lbs. I got my first king later, in the 16-18 lb range.
We had about a couple of hours of rotating people through, trying to drift for kings (only 5 people were allowed to drift at a time, supposed to sub out after a catch - that wasn't really enforced most of the night and a couple of guys practically lived at the back) before that bite slowed. By 4 in the morning, there were 17 kings in the boat, including the 44 pounder, a 39 pounder, and about 4 that were 20+. There was also one ling caught (I'm not good with guessing weight, but probably 10-15 lbs) and a shark (again, not too big).
At sunrise, we moved the boat again (I think we stayed 4-6 hours at the spot w/ the kings - the snapper fishermen were doing pretty good and a couple of small grouper were thrown in) to try to get jacks. Someone caught a rainbow runner, a few kings were landed, and some other smaller fish caught.
We later went to "The Rock" for king drifting. Here, the action was fast and furious. I think we added about 40 king to the boat. Of course, having 29 lines out in the water for king made for a ton of lost fish and even more hang-ups (some people just would not get their lines out of the way when their neighbor was fighting a big king).
My trip score:
2 kings (one in the 16-18 lb range, another around 10) landed; another that got away before it could be correctly gaffed; and 1 red snapper (an accidental catch).
My buddy got 3 kings; 44, 8-10, 16-18.
Boat caught around 60 kings, 1 ling, 1 shark, a few good stringers of bee-liners, a strawberry grouper, and a few other, smaller fish.
Overall, I thought the trip was okay. 24 hours (really, 26 hours) is probably too long for me to stay on a boat. The La Pesca isn't really built for comfort or speed, I suppose. Luckily the weather held up nicely for the most part. We did get into a squall while king catching, so I got drenched. There were a couple of good deckhands, I think only 4 were working and probably never more than 2 at a time (although the Captain came out and did some deckhand work at times), which was a little disappointing b/c I think with a little more help results might have been even better. Also, the return trip was WAY too long. Apparently there were hydraulic problems with the steering, and it seemed like they steered using the engines on the way back and were never able to go full speed (we got back at 6 instead of 4).
I think it was a good trip, and not too pricey comparatively ($160 + $60 fuel surcharge + food + tip), and I did get my first king. However, in the future I may get a few friends together and cough up a few extra bucks to do a private trip on a faster boat.
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