Left Remley’s at 5am with 40inchreds and my buddy Capps (who just had shoulder surgery 13 days prior) in search of some good trolling action. Fished north of Edisto Banks, trolled same area from 7:30-11:30 with constant action from 8-11:15. A good many bonito, a reef donkey, 2 wahoo (24 & 25lb) and a Blackfin. Plenty of short strikes but not cut offs. Really love the Yozuri bonito lure. I just used the smaller 6oz one today. Bottom fished a few marks we found while trolling and were able to pick up another Blackfin on a free line frozen 6" mullet and our only dolphin on a chicken rig with squid being retrieved to reset drift. Crazy finish to the day when 40inchreds brought up an 8+ ft shark. Not sure what kind of shark it was but it was on medium spinning tackle. Took quite a while to get him up. It was a wet, miserable ride in followed by one of N Chucktowns finest pulling a fast & furious move trying to make an exit nearly killing him after I read ended his rear corner of his car. Home safe, freezer full of fish and now trying to figure out why I ever fish when I have to work the next morning!
Forgot to mention that none of us had ever went trolling where we had to do anything other than reel in a fish. So setting a spread, rigging ballyhoo, finding proper speed, knowing what to do when spool is getting dumped etc was all new to us.
Good stuff and congrats on the fish. Bummer about the truck. Crazy we all worry so much about safety on the water but it could be the ride home that gets you.
One other thing…in the pic with the dude fighting the fish from the rod holder, the lever is all the way forward. You should never (well, hardly ever) push the drag further than strike (which is usually set 25-33% of line test). Sometimes, I will nudge it forward if I think the person reeling knows what he/she is doing and are trying to get the fish in a bit faster.
The pic in the rod holder was the bit off fish, a huge shark grabbed it and was spooling the reel even at max drag we had to chase it thinking it was a huge wahoo the way it was dumping line. After about 20 minutes the pressure let up and we saw a small fish head followed by a huge fin and some disappointment for us. The bloody pick was right after the gaff was pulled and we washed the boat as soon as lines where back in every time except for when we where getting hits before we could get the full spread up. It was the first time I’ve ever been trolling where it was hot action and it was a lot of fun. It was the most fun day of fishing I ever had and I have sore and tight muscles from head to toe. We all rotated on what we did so we all got the full experience of driving, reeling, and gaffing and we all performed excellent. We had several double ups and twice I picked up the yozuri rod and started reeling it and it got struck, once was about 20ft from the boat trying to get it out of the way when clearing lines and the amber jack hit and the other was the same thing but it was in the middle of the spread just behind the close baits and in front of the way back and a wahoo jumped on. One wahoo hit a blue and white captain Eds and the other hit the Yozuri and we missed a Wahhoo strike on the yozuri, our first hit of the day that caused the damage to it that is pictured, and we had about have a dozen short strikes that didn’t hook up. I will say captain Eds rigs work well and so did the Yozuri both where money well spent and yesterday was a day well spent and thanks again Mike for letting me be part of the crew.
The drag setting where the handle is that controls free spool isn’t way tight so the drag all the way forward still didn’t have that much drag. Originally all the way forward before I played with it a little a dang bonito spooled over 400 yards off the reel. The raw water wash down was in full effect all day. We never let the blood dry. Also, the boat gets a scrub down with a brush that the hose hooks too on the ride back to the dock each trip so when I get home it just needs a good fresh water soaking.
Good job on first trip. What was water temp.? I know some rookies that THINK they went to EB yesterday and said all they saw was 71• water and not another boat all day. They got blanked.
