Thanks, cg! we had an awesome trip!
This my report.
Weather was a bit hard, 4-6 footers with an rogue 7 footer or so every once in a while.
We met up at 5:30, finding out a few folks didn't make it. Captain said the boat is going so out we went. Running was a bit slow, chop on the water made the waves a bit tough. Got a chance to meet and talk to a few of the folks on the trip. again the TFF folks are the best! Kneal, Bobaloo1,Txbiker, GonnaMiss'R and his group, the San Angelo boys, including the 3 Bro-in-laws, all great folks and are welcome to fish with me anytime.
After 3 hours of impatiently waiting we get to the first stop. Snapper time! For me my first three drops with my "new" TLD 20, resulted in 3 snappers. Couldn't even get the bait down past 75 feet without a snapper bite. 3 on the stringer, I'm thinking, "it's been about 10 minutes and I'm one fish from my limit. What am I going to do after this last fish?" 3 hour run 10 minutes of fishing and I'm about to be done snapper fishing! Drop the bait down, same thing, hit at about 75-80 feet. Set the hook, Bing!definitely a big fish, got to be a 20+ lb snapper, wait a minute, this thing is slowly taking drag, and bending the rod pretty good, can't be a snapper. Fighting the fish for about 10 minutes I slowly work it up to color, I see gray, a shark about a 4-5'. Looked like a blacktip, "I'm having shark tonight" to quote Bruce. About a minute later, the leader parts and the shark gets it freedom. Oh well, it would have been close to the minumim size. Dang, I got to take short rest, left forearm was just a bit tired.
After about a 3 minute rest I drop the next bait down, again hit not too far down, again nice size snapper about 8-9 lbs. Now I'm done, "what do I do", I got 4 snapper, 2 close to 10 lbs, a 5-6 lber, and a 3+ snapper. Look at the watch it's been 30 miutes, including the shark fight. Hmmm, guess I watch.
Soon the Captain says lets go, we reel up and move, about 1 hour later, we pull up to a series of rigs in 190 feet of water. Hook up to a rig, and hook up the live piggies. AJ time, they say. We drop them down and about a 1/3 of the way down BAM! fish on, fights good on the "new" TLD 20 II, reel seems to be harder to reel in the high speed, Hmmm, lock down into low. Now we're talking, winch that baby up! Baby is right, just under the minumum size. Release and rebait. Drop 'er down about 80-90 feet, BAM!! got some shoulders on this fish, fights well, get it up and see it's good sized, Travis, the mate gaffs it and hauls in my first legal AJ. 14.5 lbs, thank you very much. Drop down again, another hit another just undersized rig mule. All around the boat people are catching AJ's we boated 11 keepers from that first spot, and threw back just as many and lost a number to the rig supports.
Captain says lets move, we go to another rig about 10 minutes away. We tie up and Bobaloo1 and Clay, move to the front of the boat and try their luck, I watched B1 and clay lose 3 or 4 at least to the rig. Might of been more. They also caught a couple of undersized AJ's. I hear hoopin' and hollerin' on the other side of the boat and peek over there. Two 25 lb class AJ's come to the gaff. Me being a potlicker, move over there to try for a hoss. Hear noise from the other side, B1 and Clay nail keeper AJ's finally. That spot was my only skunk, I was the catching magnet. Wherever I was the other side caught the keeper fish, ya'll are welcome folks.
It was wild watching B1 and Clay hook fight, lose or catch AJ after AJ, them mules would not leave those two alone. We ended up calling Clay the fish pointer, the way he reeled them in was very funny.
We limited out on AJ's and head in to another spot to finish our snapper limit. First stop heading in we fish and catch one keeper snapper, move a bit and fish another wreck. I catch a Sharpnose and then the lady in the 2nd picture, Lolita, catches another one same size, just big enought to eat. After that it's time to head in, we get comfortable and head in. Got a chance to talk to Kneal and GMR for a while. Good people there. GMR like you said, we got to get Kneal to do some bay fishing and get him on some Reds. We'll break him of the freshwater minnows he catches.
The pictures are of our catch, then the one of our catch with the lady Lolita. She's from Lake of the Ozarks, Arkansas. She comes down and fishes all winter. One year she fished offshore 39 times in 3 months! They head back in early April and come down for the snapper opener for about a week. A very dedicated fishwewomen. Super nice woman, she and her brother were the ones that had signed up before cg booked the trip. The last picture is of our group with our catch.
Great people and a great trip. Waves were a bit rough but overall we had a great time.
My total weight was just over 50 lbs. I was looking for a 30-40 lb AJ but the action for them was none-stop. Awesome AJ fishing.
Again I enjoyed the trip tremendously and am looking to go again soon. Wonder if the 48 hour trips are still running?

Just got home and got the fish in the freezer. I've got some pics of some actual fish catching I'll get developed to disc tomorrow and post a few. Awesome trip..

and thanks to Lolitta for the Piggys, I heard she and her people were there at 2 in the morning catching those piggies for the AJ's.

Nice trip, especially with the AJ's!

_Hey Willie: Glad to see you got to try out the TLD 20II on some Rig Mules..Aint them AJ's fun!! Looks like I missed a Fine Trip with the TFF Gang!!

_See All Yall at DD in November for Tres Tuna!!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Bazztex<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

It was one of my better trips....non-stop AJ action is what I crave...even when they win a few. Constant hook-ups of AJs are a little rare, but we did it...I told several local (Port A)offshore experts that nite about the trip and they were impressed with our AJ action!! I, also, welcome the chance to fish again with EVERYONE that was on this boat...13 folks on the Express was like a private charter (LOL). Thanks Cameron for putting this together.

NOTE: In case anyone is curious, the place where we got all the AJs is known as Baker Rocks area- we fished (and caught)at both North Baker and South Baker.

Wanted to post real quick before heading to work.

Like TOO said, the ride was rough going out, but the fishing more than made up for it!

I'd like to also mention what an awesome job the Captain and Deck hand did, when the ride is that rough, and the fishing is that hot, experienced crew is a must, and these guys know whats going on, I was impressed!

I agree with TOO, I'll fish with anyone in this group anytime, (and I plan on it).
TOO, thanks for the tips and bay information, boballo I enjoyed talking with you, Kneal, I'm looking forward to seeing you crank in a BIG redfish.
We'll all have to get together for a weekend of bay fishing soon.
Cameron, thanks again for arranging this!
I was looking forward to meeting you, there's always next time.
Your friend that made it, represented SA well, his AJ beat mine and nativeaustinites by 3-4 lbs to take the big fish of the day.

Grilled AJ anyone?

Boy I am Jealous!!! I really wanted to go but with the other guys in my party chickening out, I couldn't afford the trip on my own. Got in to the office this morning and talked with Rob. He filled me in on the whole trip including his big catch of the day. I am however, very glad that the seas weren't too rough and that the fishing was hot. I also am very grateful for the fish that everyone pitched in and donated to me. I will be eating them shortly.

I know I wasn't there but I can tell that everyone involved were great, polite and just a pleasure to be around. I know there will be another snapper trip like this next year and that I will plan on going weather it's just me or not!!! Hopefully, I'll be able to make a long range trip later this year to feel the tug of a big AJ or tuna.

Again, thanks to all! I'm glad it worked out for you.

Cameron

Some of the structure we tied up to.





Guess who: Too




GonnaMissR to your right:


One of the Bro in laws also a Pro Golfer, what a AJ does to a full grown man.




Bobaloo1 with a nice AJ he's in yellow and the Captain is right beside him.





Too with Travis to his left, awesome Deckhand:



Bobaloo1 and Clay busy as usual.




Some of the results:




Totally awesome trip, after reviewing the pictures I want to let everyone know it wasn't that calm of a sea. It was extremely rough. Dolphin Docks ship came thru though. Several times under way we could hear the engines lax and we would look out a window and see a massive wave over our heads and the ship would just ride it out. My hats off the Dolphin Docks. Can't wait for the next one.

Kerry

Had a great time! I am the bro-in-law that was wearing the goofy shirt. Was my first deep sea adventure and can't wait to go again. From what everyone was saying, I had a well above par experience for the first time out.

I shipped a roll of film off today and will post some pics when I get 'em in.

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to y'all and let you know how appreciative I was of your friendly attitudes and company.

brian

Great photos Kneal...nice meeting you and let's do it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Other than the seas and that didn't seem to have slowed anyone down, yall had a great trip!

I was wondering if yall may have had some cancellations due to the weather and I would have been able to fill a spot, paid whomever for theirs if I would have known.

Please keep me informed for next year if you will have an opening.

TOO - you have me really interested in that TLD 20
II, gee I need a two-speed reel to get big AJ's up and not to mention big grouper and snapper up off the bottom! I saw the price in Cabela's, does Bass Pro have it for less?

Chris

Sounds like a great trip! Thanks for posting the report.
TOO- that looks like a mighty mean rig! Glad you got some fishys to play with!

Thanks RM. It handled that 40+lb shark well. Hope to see how it handles the YFT's this summer and fall.
Y'all notice the pictures, I'm on the port side and the fish catching was on the starboard side, w/ B1 and Clay. Last AJ stop was "Where's TOO?. Ah! let's fish the other side!"LOL....I was definitely potlickin on the thumbs up picture, trying for a hoss. Dang good trip for a 12 hour. Had an absolute blast.
BB check your TLD 20II post.