Long riggers, short riggers, flat lines, bally hoo, Phin, Hoo’s, flyers, teasers, Islanders… I have been hearing these terms a lot lately and I finally got to see them in action. I went on my first off shore trip this past Thursday. Wow. Up well before the crack of dawn, grabbed ice and headed for the dock. Got the boat loaded. The “Gotcha Covered”, a 38ft Fountain, blue and white standing there like a gleaming chariot. We started out in the darkness and slowly motored out to the harbor, got the jetties on the radar, found the blinkin lights of the channel markers and we headed out. I thought it was a pretty sporty ride out. Bumpy with a bottom out every once in a while but not too bad. My land lubber legs adjusted quickly, although I don’t think I ever got my sea legs. The sun started to rise and the smell of salt spray and the clear sky was like a glimpse of heaven. We were headed East, I think, and after about 2 hours we slowed down and started lookin for a weed line. We finally found one after a little searching and we got the lines out. Our Starboard long rigger went off about 45 seconds after we stopped letting line out. I grabbed the rod, felt the fish and saw something waaaayyyyy back come out of the water, do a little wave at me and it was off. I am pretty sure it was a dolphin, but really it could have been the Loch Ness Monster, but I am pretty sure it was a dolphin. We got it in and the bait was destroyed so we re-rigged it and back out it went. The same line went off again quickly and my buddy Austin stepped up and started reeling. After an epic battle and a lot of reeling a small dolphin came to the boat. Although it was a legal fish to keep she was a little on the small side so a quick picture and back in to grow up she went. Our Starboard, flat line went off and I grabbed it. Started reeling and a nice dolphin came to the boat. About the same size as Austin’s but almost white with blue spots, man these fish are beautiful, back in the drink too. It took a little while longer
Very Nice!!! I’ve been out in that boat! I had hoped to go too but, work stacked up on me and I had promised to get x amount done by the week end. Good on ya all!
Umm, you gonna eat that?©
Thousands have died to save my freedom. Only one has died to save my soul!
Glad you got a chance to go to the deep water…the “gotchacovered” IS a very nice boat. I too have been out on it and know what it feels like to get “airborne” and then land hard in rough seas…rib jarring to say the least as it would be in any boat I guess and Lee knows how to handle the boat. Pro tip…never ever try to sit on a cooler while running in at full steam and try to pin a bag of chips down under your leg so you can hold on…they will go off like a cannon when your butt goes airborne and then comes down :). We have had several offers in the last few weeks from friends to go too but work seems to always prevail… but hopefully soon…hope you recover and get back out there soon…next time take some ibuprofen before you go!
I did have to snicker where you said we "idled"out…didnt think that boat had "idle "on it! btw…where are the pics??
miss’n fish’n
212 SEAHUNT CC
Sea Squirt 16
Had a great time Thursday…good group of people.Got to see the sun rise…[:0]…I don’t see that often…
Lee thanks again for the trip, learned alot about that trolling thing… Had flipper last night. it was GOOOOD. As nikonjedi said…nice day but ride in…alittle bouncey.but hey what do you expect going 78 mph in 4-5 foot seas.
26’ Twinvee
Twin Suzuki 175’s
www.creeksidemetalworks.com
Wow 78 mph really? A friend of mine has a 31 fountain cc with twin 275s and it’ll do around 65 mph… I thought that was fast!!! Lol it is fast!!! There’s a reason the front of a fountain looks like the nose cone of a fighter jet!!! Lol
"didnt think that boat had "idle “on it!” Well he had to because he was monkeying with the radar 
He does bring a new meaning to “drive it like ya stole it”… although I wasn’t worried, I had complete faith in his knowledge of his boat and how to drive it. I have to down load the pix tonight and I’ll have some up.
“Paddle faster boys… I hear banjo music!”
SC Chapter Coordinator- Heroes on the Water
http://www.HeroesOnTheWater.org
Charleston Director- SCKayakfishing.com
Tarpon 160os
Simpson, he’s just pullin’ yer leg a little there. She won’t do any better than 67 MPH, and that’s with a tad of gas and one man on board, going in the right direction. Under a normal load, she maxes at 64.x MPH, and with a full fishing load and 6 men, 62 MPH is about the best she’ll do for me. She’s no slouch, but she wont’ top 70.
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862
I agree!
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862
A 15kt NE wind coming home in 3-5 quartering head sea is definitely not my favorite ride home, especially when friends on board have to be somewhere. Should have stuck with my gut plan to go North, but hard to ignore that phone call/catch report Wed night.
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862
Glad to hear that boat was back on the water.
Lets cross some Eyes.
Yes, it’s the first time I’ve had her out since I was in the hospital/ICU last Summer. That shut my fishing down for a long time. It took me several months to get back on stride, health-wise, but I’m back into the swing now. Good health and good fishing to all this Summer. Wish we could go back out this week, but the weather is angry.
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862
You’re right, no one is going anywhere this week or weekend… Gonna be a good week to get some chores done around the house.
“An experienced Captain knows that and will usually dial it back a notch or two to keep from beating the boat and everyone in it to death”
I wondered how long it would take capt douchebag to make an apperance… all in all the trip was INCREDIBLE. Lee is a great Captain, knows his boat and would never put us in danger. I had/have 100% faith in him… as for Cpt.D-bag I wouldn’t want to be in the same river as him let alone the same boat…
“Paddle faster boys… I hear banjo music!”
SC Chapter Coordinator- Heroes on the Water
http://www.HeroesOnTheWater.org
Charleston Director- SCKayakfishing.com
Tarpon 160os
quote:
Originally posted by CaptFritzSounds like fun.
The only reason the boat was airborne was to much speed. An experienced Captain knows that and will usually dial it back a notch or two to keep from beating the boat and everyone in it to death.
Sorry Fritz…
Though I disagree with Lee in the Off Topic section on lots of things, I will give him the credit of being the BEST high speed, offshore boat driver, I have ever been with. He does not keep it slammed to the firewall, quite the contrary, he can walk it down the backs of swells better than anyone I have ever ridden with. He could teach a lot of the Contender crowd a thing or two about high speed driving.I would have no problem of ever running in rough conditions with him at the helm. But what do I know
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NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
physically painful…sore for three days…
y’all can have that ReggieRedFountainHi-Speed $hiit.
the only thing I am sore from,is laughing at Fritz.
BTW,if Fritz is such a D-Bag,then why is 23Sailer begging to go with us?
maybe 23Sailer likes to put up with his BS… most of the pain associated with the day was not really due to the rough ride but trying to stand on a rolling deck, trying to maintain my balance, reeling rods in that I have never used before and using muscles I haven;t before. I am an inshore kayak fisherman andthis was the first time I went off shore, hence the “rookie” report. ANYONE who has never done this kind of fishing before who isn;t sore after it is in a lot better shape. After a humvee rollover in Iraq my back and neck just ain’t what they used to be so excuse me and my broken up self. Bottom line the trip was awesome, Lee can flt out drive a boat and most important of all I can spend a day with him and never hear a negative word out of his mouth about anyone. As much BS as ya’ll throw at him he never says a mean thing about them. He will pause and shake his head and whatever he is thinking never passes his lips so as well as learning how ti drive a boat at high speeds safely ya’ll might want to learn how to treat people online and off and keep your moths shut if ya ain’t got nothin nice to say… I ain’t as good as Lee is about it, so yes I guess I don’t have any room to really talk but then again I ain’t afraid to tell ya the baby is ugly either… The very fisrt post I made on this site was jumped on quickly by fritz and his usual mean spirited un-helpful BS. Good Lord the man has never met me and because I am not part of ya’lls little butt buddy click I am immediately talked down to and treated like crap on here by him and a few of you. Well thank God for people like Lee on here who are all about helping people and offering advice to actually help people…
“Paddle faster boys… I hear banjo music!”
SC Chapter Coordinator- Heroes on the Water
http://www.HeroesOnTheWater.org
Charleston Director- SCKayakfishing.com
Tarpon 160os
Fast boats are not for everyone, but also keep in mind, like Nikon said, that the folks talking about the roughness here haven’t been out to the Gulfstream much (some never before), and there is always some exaggeration going on in a friendly sort of way. I like to take new guys offshore and helping them learn the ropes.
I’ve actually had this same boat in solid 6-9’s, with the whole crew saying the ride was phenomenally good. It just depends on a few things, one of which is the frame of reference. The more someone gets used to the ocean, after years of offshore fishing, the wider his spectrum of values is for constituting what is a “rough” ride. Sellsfish rode with me before in a 4-6 head sea at high speed in my 34, and he knows what I’m talking about. He knows the difference between “rough”, “Rough”, “ROUGH”, and “Put the life jacket on and pray!”, and I do too, because both of us have many years on the big water a lot in a lot of different boats. Thanks for the kind words, BTW, Paul, regardless of any Off-Topic differences we’ve had. To some, a 3-4’ day is a pounder. Others among us used to go out without too much concern in 5-7’s.
The Fountain handles Thrusday’s PM conditions better than most boats its size and class, actually, but no 38-footer is going to be a total cake walk in a 3-5’ quartering head sea with 15kt wind (and the wind is the kicker–not the wave height), and definitely not at the speed and fuel efficiency we were running. Dad had a 38 Ocean when I was in college, and we ran charters on it during the summers and fished it a lot. It was actually as rough or rougher at 28 kts than the Fountain is at 40 in the same seas. The Fountain can go much faster in conditions that would tear the same-sized sportie apart at the same speed (cabinets and appliances would be literally coming loose and falling in the floor), but the sportie cannot attain those speeds anyway and is not designed for that kind of running, while a boat like a Fountain is. The thing about a Fountain, though, is t
Ftitz, so what if he got it airborn once…or even twice, for that matter. I don’t see eye-to-eye with Gotcha on many an occasion, but I don’t go trying to pick a fight. That’s what the off-topic or political forums are for–keep it where it belongs.
All it takes is one hater to ruin a perfectly good thread.
“Never argue with an idiot…he will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.”
Good job Lee and crew!! Way to get some “rookies” out there!! 
As “rough” as it may have been, it could not have been as “rough” or wet as it was on my tiny float Wednesday…
“Miss Amanda”
-KeyWest
-Bluewater 2020CC
-Yammy F-150
www.joinrfa.orgGod is GOOD!! ALL the time!!
The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor.
The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything.
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