Any reports from the 12/14 trip?

Yes! reports please!!

They should be coming back in from the 60 hour today. I'm not sure what time they're due in though.

We got the first 60hr down under our belt this morning....

All in all it was a. Tough trip....


We left Port Aransas at 530pm Sunday afternoon with 13 hungry anglers!....

We made terrible speed on the way out and made Boomvang at 345am... once we got there, there were no surface signs of life and we weren' marking much. The 2nd drift though the few marks produced our bigeye on a halco, and we lost a nice yellow(?) On a halco right after... 3 more drifts and no more bites other than a half bft and a couple cudas.... moved to Nancen, and lost a nice yellow first drift.... no more Bites (other than big cudas) for 2 more drifts... at 620, it started DUMPING rain, and there were 40 or so cudas following boat, so i decided to forego the morning troll and head to the gardens ...

About 15 nm north of Nancen, we found the "rogue" bouy that has been reported.... we stopped about 3/4 nm awaw and deployed the full starter Wahoo spread (3 ballyhoo, 2 divers , 2 marauders)... as we passed the bouy we were marking tons of bait and 4 rods went down.... for 4 more baracuda....[damn they are on everything].... I gave it 8 more passes (every manor compass point), and had no more bites.... but the current was cranking, as it was a 10th nm E every time we came by!

We arrived at the W gardens around 950am.... deployed the wahoo spread and began trolling the ridge that produced so well last Feb. While we marked some real good baot, all we got captured for our troubles was 7 cuda 2 bft and a king, in 90 minutes...we then ran to the E gardens, and proceeed to get into the BFT pretty good... looking for the weather bouy [gone!!!] We got one small hoo on a rip....

After 90 more min of trolling for some more bft and a. King.... we went to anchor on a 220 ft hump for bliners,, grouper, and almaco.... not much was happening, but we got 15 or so respectable almaco with 3 scamp and a few bliners....

At 5 pm, after the bottom fishing proofed fairly uneventful, I decided to head on to Gunnison.... when we arrived at 7ish pm, I did not mark a speck on the bottom machine on any side of. The rig.... there was no wind and it took Me 3 drifts to figure out the tide....

On the 4th drift, as I placed us on the [slightly] upcurrent side of the rig because of a troll stop... all he'l started to break loose.... we hand Fed 2 yft chunks, while 2 clients hooked up on halcos....we wound up boating 2 of those.... I reset the drift, as the wind was picking up, and 4 clients hooked up on frenzies, while another 2 hooked up on halcos, and we. Hooks 3 on chunks.... as the boat was stuck in the up current eddie, I spent most of that drift in the wheelhouse...but I think we hosted 5 of those, before drifting out of the school....

The next drift, I set up on the same line....but the fish were gone, and we were moving through alot faster, with 25kt SE winds... that. Was around 9pm...

We tried all sides of the rig and the 2 supply vessels standing by, to find all the bft and a few yft were hanging on one of the supply vessels.... whole the bft there could have been wfo... we were all looking for yft bites, and would get a shot every 3rd or 4th drift by that one supply vessel or the uptide side of the rig...

From 3am to daylight, we probably went 4 for 12 on yft bites with some real heartbreaks mixed in....

At daylight we had 4 troll stops, all for multiple hookups, but luck still wasn't with us, and we only hosted 4 more before the bite died....

We left gunnison and arrived at Getter bank around noon.... trolling produced nothing, and 5 different spots only produced 2 scamps, 5 durgens, and alot of night sharks....

Leaving there at 4pm, we caught a different current and made it home at 730am....


All in all it was a very tough fishing trip with some big heart breaks.... makes you happy for the good times!

Capt James

so what is NEW about the pelican???

I got on this trip. Originally scheduled to leave on Sunday afternoon, the leave time may be pushed forward a day or two from what I've heard.
Good times with good friends. Capt James and John and the rest of the crew are a bonus.

David, in case you haven't checked your email it's looking like Monday 6 PM

Good luck!

I've done this trip with the guys down the street from you, few years back. 16hrs out before we ever dropped a line, took another 17hrs to get back to the dock, we did catch fish . The ride out and back in was tough..