Left Wed night headed south.. Stopped at moms in Wimberley, spent the night and dropped our daughter off for the weekend.. We had been watching the radar and spoke with some friends in Port A that said that they had received 6 inches of rain wed and it was raining again on thursday.. Anyway made it into Aransas pass by 11am and the rain was just letting up.. picked up some bait but no ballyhoo so headed in to port a to get ballyhoo before they were all sold out.. Most of the streets were flooded, so driving around was a little sketchy.... Got the boat out of the barn and began the get ready process. Oh yeah forgot to mention that I got a call from one of my crewmembers that he couldnt make it on account of walking pneumonia.. Great! So I get my other crew,Scott to post up a crew wanted.. Well, Jerry(Snagged) called and said he would join us for the tournament.. Cool! we have a full crew.. So Scott(Headshot), Snagged, Betsi and I met up at the registration to discuss our gameplan.
Day one, Snagged was waiting for us at the ramp. We put in and are out of the Jetties by 5:30 with rain looming all around. Just as the sun begins to rise it is covered by rainclouds(as was nearly the entire sky). At about 20 miles it really begins to rain.. and rain and rain.. Did I mention it was raining??
We would head for a clear spot in the sky, only to have it cloud up and keep raining on us when we got there.. We troll around in the heavy rain to no avail.. we finally got to our first stop and didnt have much luck.. we drifted around and it started to really rain.. all the while Snagged was Jigging with his trevala/kaikon setup.. he loses a couple of butterfly jigs and decides to go to the cheaper diamond jigs.. he hooks up with a good fish.. about 8-10 minutes we have color.. nice wahoo.. I gaff it, get it in the boat and high fives all the way around!! the skunk was off. Now we have been hearing report after report of billfish hook ups and releases.. Lots of them, I dont have the total tally but maybe Captain Mike might be able to help us with that.
The rain dissapates and the seas calm down so we troll over to another spot and had one bite on the marauder.. a weehoo about 15-18llbs. bring in the trolling gear and we rig up for bottom fishing again.. we catch a few small kings, got bit off by a few more, then Snagged(once again) hooks another fish.. get color and a decent kingfish.. we decide to gaff it and put it in the box.. Betsi get an undersized aj and a nice mangrove snapper.. I think there was an undersized ling in there somewhere.. details got a little sketchy after 2 days on the water. Lines in at 4pm and we were headed to the weigh station. ( This is a 1st for me so we were all excited) We get to the weigh in and wait in line with Andy and crew from the Captains playmate. We tie up and put the fish on the dock and find out a few minutes later that the wahoo went 44lbs and was in 1st place, the king was 22lbs and was in 2nd. Wow! First time to be on the leader board..
We were quite certain that they wouldnt hold but it was still exciting. We clean fish, boat, go eat, have a few celebration drinks and found that a guy I grew up with knocked us off of the board with a 59lb hoo and one other brought in a 54.
Day 2 Betsi had some stomach trouble from the texmex food so she opted to stay at the hotel... Jerry, Scott and I head out and were met with much better seas and better skies as well. We went back to our spot and start fishing.. and begin hearing of multiple marlin and sail releases. we cant stand it so we head to the parking lot out there and put out our spread.. With no rain and little wind it was smoking hot out there... As soon as we got there the hot bite was off. we trolled for about 4 hrs with only one wahoo bite that ran off with one of my Ilanders.. So we put out another and keep trolling to another spot.. Nada
Decide to head back in to southern and try our luck there. we start jigging and snagged picks up a nice hardtail. so out with the tiagra and the aj rig. we hit all four corner of the rig and nada.. so we move over to some rocks and drop him down .. I got robbed.. Back to jigging we catch a few more kings, small snaps and I get an undersized Aj... 4pm lines in. headed in with calm seas..
We all had a great time. It was a very well put on tournament.. It was nice to see the boat name on the leaderboard... if only for a little while.. We will do it again next year..
Snagged, thanks for joining us and putting on a jigging clinic. We all learned alot. You are welcome on the Hard Licker anytime.. Scott and Betsi thanks for putting up with me.. Sorry for the long report.. My AC went out in my truck, so it was a long hot ride home from Port A to DFW.. I might be a little delirious..
Bret
