LOL!! no, it was a swing and a miss, and the lure came up- but far from me.. and that's what I was referring to. good times! Next time you see me, I should have some grey hair and a young one ready to experience the finer side of fishing

These guys come back today, don't they? Hope they post up lots of pictures of fish.

Pulled up to the docks at 5:35PM.

Food was great. Margaritas were delicious and the company was super.

How was fishing

Fishing was great ..... catching was poor.

Seas were not as typically flat as you would expect for August. We had a good breeze the whole time. The current was ripping so this took me out of the game since I like using artificials rather than bait.

There weren't many AJs caught but those that were caught were man sized. I'd guess 55 - 75 pounds but could have been more or less.

No tuna. We saw only one shrimper to try and spent way more time there than needed to find out there was nothing there.

One Warsaw .... that I think was somewhere around 40 pounds.

Beeliners for those that stayed up to fish the wee hours of the morning.

The trip went smoothly and other than the disappointment from not everyone getting an AJ I think everyone had fun.

For me personally the trip saver was pulling 8 Mangrove snappers out from under the rigs. That's a hoot.

Thanks for the Report! Offshore is always great... good
company makes it even better....

I bet yall had more fun that I did Sounds like a good time with good friends! Thats sometimes better than the catching! Cant wait to get back out there with you guys one day!

I got the biggest AJ of my life (so far....)
68.6# on my scale back @ the rental. ended up
being the biggest fish of the trip actually boated, & I wasn't
even in the pot!
Grizz had an amazing fight w/ an estimated 3-400 # scalloped hammerhead that went on for 30 minutes before it sawed the leader right at the boat. the sea Magic 400 succumbed, but it
beat that big shark's keester pretty good before it did!
Bill also got a nice almaco & a legal cobia.
I think everyone that fished that night got some vermillions,
including some real "freightliners" that were 3-4#.
of course the the "endangered" red snappers were
thick as flies
and averaged 10-20# each. we couldn't get away from them, but
due to some good attention from our new-ish deckhands and an
amazing tool, most all were fizzed and got back down. This tool is called the Pre-Vent. y'all may have heard of it. the original was made completely out of surgical stainless & was very expensive, but they now have a version made w/ a pvc body that is only 23 bucks @ Charkbait & other spots, I'm sure.
long & short? BUY IT!!!!
that little tool helped me save 13 huge snappers that would have
ended up as floating porpoise-food.
I want to give some props to our crew. these kids are all new to
the game, & young. Jacob, the first mate, worked his AZZ off, &
kept his crew working together & focused. the experience will come. Of course, pork chop & our new capt, Justin were in perfect form & put us right on the fish every time.
The fishing was good, but the AJ's proved pretty tough to keep on the hook. I think we went 5 for 30 hookups to gaffed ratio
I got bent on the first chance, but went 0 for 5 after that.
the AJ would not hit the jigs, and didn't seem too enthusiastic
about dead bait either, but pin a 2-3# bar jack & send him down & it was on! So we alternated between guys catching LARGE livies
on the front, then heading out back & sending them back down.
not a bad system considering the circumstances.
Bill's AJ came on a 6# bermuda chub sent to the bottom on 16 oz.
as far as personal carnage, IGS's lure losing jinx hit me big time. I lost 5 jigs in all, 2 of which got sawed off on 2 subsequent drops! kings were the culprits, mostly but we did
manage to rid the world of a few more cuda's/ sea buzzards.
one funny moment: big Jim dropped & got slashed before he even got all the way down, then Bobby. I'm headed up front to try a
new H4L in pink. Bobby stops me & says "don't do it, Brian...."
I look at his line, minus lure, & 2' of frayed leader & decided
it was best to stick to baits.
on a side note, all of you that kept the cuda's offa me, thanks!!
I have no pics, due to a camera failure, but Chuck W has some good ones I'm sure he'll post up. it sure was cool seeing Chuck &
Brian bringing their boys out for their first offshore trip, brought back a lot of nice memories from when I was that age.
very cool stuff, men. Very cool!
I think both boys managed to nail the biggest fish of their lives
on this trip. again super-cool!
well that's my report. if I missed any significant events, please forgive me, my head hurts & my body is bruised. just the way I like it!

-Capt. Cuda

Nice report Capt Cuda!

A few pics .....TXGrizz and his AJ ..

Mike Izzo fighting a 100# AJ ....




My mess of Mangos...

Think good time had by all. Pretty cool to watch the porpoise snarf up floating snapper and then give us a big fin slap thank you. Not something you experience every day at the office.

Anybody knows a good king fish preparation / recipe, let me know. I took 15 lbs of king fish steaks.

king fish recipe.

Take filet put it on a cedar plank
Beat kingfish with hammer
Blacken the cedar and eat it
Throw kingfish away

Just kidding its not that bad, just dont serve it with other fish because you will want to pick around the kingfish for the prime eating species.

Any method that includes healthy amount of seasoning works for me such as fried or blackened.

serve kingfish to the inlaws

Dubya


I think the lowly Kingfish is often battered (pun intended) over it's taste but with careful preparation it's not really that bad. It's probably too late to ask but were the fish fileted or balled? By balling I mean was the meat balled out in half-dollar size chunks? This method keeps you in the better part of the meat. Also ..... something that is tougher to do but not impossible is you want to bleed a king when he's caught. I used to cut the tails and hold the tail overboard while he bleeds. This will improve the meat. But no matter what you do the meat of the Kingfish will never be white and pretty looking.

I used to ball them out and then soak them in buttermilk for at least an hour or two. then I would season them with Zatarain's creole seasoning and roll them is one of those seasoned fish fry mixes. Then fry it up golden brown.

Try that and i'll bet your family will like it.

BJ

Thanks Bobby!

I have some marinating now that I am going to put on my smoker in a bit. The rest, I very generously trimmed down to avoid bones and red section. I am going to take your fry suggestion and give it a go next weekend.