Decided to skip the deep and run to some numbers in 100’ to live bait for kings, with hopes for a sail. Took my oldest Kellen, Daniel “the foot” Lempesis, Neal from Gusto, and Ron “the rigger” Pauling. Left JIYC at 6:15 to get live bait. No problem off Morris Island by 7AM and headed out for a great run, but never got to 100’. Pulled back on the throttles in 85’ when Neal hollered “WTF is that?, hold on Biggin”. Dropped live baits on a huge weed line in the midst of a great rip forming. Barely got all lines out when the down rigger starts its magic. Threw three mid sized kings in the box before Ron the rigger could untangle every rod he touched. Man that guy can do some handy re-rigging. Guess he gets plenty of practice. Also did quick releases of 2 slinger dolphin, and tossed one in the box for Neal to have with his Sunday grits. Then all heck breaks loose. Just as we thought D Lemp lost his third fish of the day he free spools and lays the steel to something that knocked the bait from the downrigger. Seconds later a nice sailfish leapes out of the water 10 yards behind the boat. After mayhem and a decent fight with several cool jumps Kellen bills the fish (like he had done it before) to bring our first sail aboard Halifax for a quick snapshot, and revived him to fight again. Have not seen D Lemp that happy since he kicked the winning field goal for JI to beat West Ashley last season. After a release of another small king, we decide to bump the bottom with some menhaden in the same area. Slam! We throw three nice grouper, a few snapper and some nice blackies in the box to top off a great day without going deep. Will post pics if I can figure out how.
Congratulations on your first billfish! I’m glad to hear pretty boy didnt lose another fish and finally learned how to land one. It was a good one to start with. Cant wait to see the pics. We are talkin about givin it a shot this weekend.
232cc Sea Hunt
250f Yamaha
Thanks. We were all excited to get the first on our boat. This is the second billfish for me as I was the angler on a white marlin on my boss’ Bertram many years ago. This is better to see the boys do it. Gotta get a flag now. Wouldn’t do it until we caught one.
Neal wants to fish the tourney this weekend out of JIYC, but I have not made up my mind yet and the meeting is tomorrow night. Might have to skip the tourney and just run out with you guys instead. Gonna be a zoo at the YC Saturday. You headed deep?
GWE
Halifax
225 Victory Sea Hunt
225 Yamaha 4 Stroke
I had no idea about the tourney at the jiyc this weekend. As of right now I’m fishing the megadock. I dont know what days yet. I think we were plannin on runnin out to about 200ft and stayin between there and 350ft. to see if we cant catch a sail or whatever. Depenending on the weather we might stay shallow and see if we cant get one up in the 80-100ft range. We’ll be in touch. Congrats again!
232cc Sea Hunt
250f Yamaha
halifax what did you catch the sail on.
Sails Pitch
196 CC Sea Pro
150HP Yamaha
“Get Hooked On The Sails Pitch”
Sail was caught on a downrigger 30-40’ deep slow trolling live menhaden on a live bait rig with double trailing treble hooks with a red/white skirt. Same stuff we use for kings.
GWE
Halifax
225 Victory Sea Hunt
225 Yamaha 4 Stroke
sounds good, that stinger rig probably had him hooked good, the kings we caught this weekend were only hitting pink combos, and really wore out the pink/pearl smoke chokers
Sails Pitch
196 CC Sea Pro
150HP Yamaha
“Get Hooked On The Sails Pitch”