Left at 5:38 to a reasonably calm ride. 25-30 mph on the way out. Lines in by 7:30 at 212 ft roughly 68 degrees. High speed trolled out to 700 ft and 73 degrees. Not much for signs of life. We had two wahoo break off ( first time with this crew and a new boat) landed 1 Bonita and a cuda. The seas built up to about 5’ which made for a sloppy wet ride home. We made it back safe and got some practice in so, all in all a successful day.
blaming the crew and boat…shame LOL.
Tuff e Nuff
24 Albemarle Express
Been there, done that. My first time offshore using a downrigger, we had a wahoo hit, so I thought ok, reel up the downrigger weight to get it out of the way. Well, I ended up not only reeling up the cable, but it also wound up the line the wahoo was on as well. The fish came up fairly close to the boat (but not close enough to gaff) and it broke the line in a sudden surge. We decided to disconnect the rigger weight and fish not using the downrigger. Twenty minutes later we had another wahoo on larger than the first. When we got it close to the boat, we were moving the line around from one side of the boat to the other, when the line slipped perfectly into the open swivel on the unused downrigger. Needless to say the line came tight and quickly parted the line. Two lessons learned that day! We had to stop one guy from unhooking the downrigger and throwing it overboard!
17’ Islander,
60hp Evinrude
Not blaming anyone as I was part of the crew. Still better than work!
I don’t understand something here.If you are using a downrigger with a planer are you supposed to reel up the planer with every strike? I thought the whole idea of running a planer and sliding consecutive shower curtain rings with rubber bands attached to the line was so that you don’t have to raise and lower the planer/weight each time. New to all this so bear with me please.
Tridogs, you are correct. It was a rookie mistake reeling the downrigger up. I have learned a lot since those days!
17’ Islander,
60hp Evinrude