The weather looked great for Monday for a bump free offshore trip. Norman, Charlie and me to take the opportunity that was presented to us. At 6am the boat was ready but three thunderstorms coming from the gulf delayed departure to 7:30 am. We decided to either go to the Baker area or the big southern area. My neighbor Ed and his buddy were also getting ready for the long trip offshore. We left within minutes of each other.
We had a great time. The weather as predicted was great and the sea was as smooth as can be.
We ended up in the South Baker area. Ed and his buddy ended up trolling south of us, where they caught 3 Wahoo and one King. The big Wahoo gave them a show that will never be forgotten. After taking the lure, the hooked Wahoo jumped over the boat with hook in jaw and on the way down cut one of the outrigger lines. I wish I could have seen that.

Norman, Charlie and I fished for our limit of red snapper first and it took less than 40 minutes to have our limit of 6 nice 17 to 22 inch red snapper. We started trolling and hooked our first of two black fin tuna.

We then found a weed line and started trolling it. We saw some Mahi-mahi around one of the bigger weed paddies. After retrieving and storing our trolling gear we went back to the Mahi-mahi paddy and found the most cooperative fish I have ever seen, every cast with our small lures a fish. My lure soon lost all its hair but with a piece of squid on the hook it worked just as good. I had to bend the hook several time as the cheap imported thing straitened out when I heaved the fish on board. The fishing was so fast and furious that I did not want to take the time to get a better jig.

The boat was a mess by this time and that is when I said that is IT boys, let�s leave some for tomorrow. AT that point there was more Mahi-mahi around the boat when we first began fishing. We continued trolling the weed line and every now and then saw a Mahi-mahi skipping over the water and nailing a lure. When we got the fish to the boat it had a whole school of brothers and sisters with it waiting to be caught. But we told them just hang around this weed line until next time. After this we ran to a shrimp boat hoping to get some ling or tuna. This is where we caught the bigger of the two black fin on a snapper slapper sweetened with a squid. The friendly shrimpers wanted to do some trading and since we just happened to have what they were looking for our final catch was a bucket of shrimp.
Our final tally was 2 black fins, 6 red snapper, 34 Mahi-mahi and a bucket of shrimp. Now don�t you agree that is what fishing is all about?

And my co-workers dont understand why I'm gonna drive 7 hours to Port A after work Thurday---Congrats and I hope to have 1/2 the good forture you had!

Water temperature and weather and even more important location of the fish. We are fortunate living on the coast that we can use the right opportunity to go out. Then it is a gamble what kind of cooperative fish you are going to find.