Post by jski59 on Oct 19, 2020 13:17:47 GMT -5
Ran out of Panama City Beach last Wed for our first ever overnight trip, seas and weather forecast was perfect and amazingly...they were correct! We hit the Destin FADs first and hooked 4 mahi right before sunset. Once the bite died off, we drifted for swordfish throughout the night without luck (not that we really knew what we were doing). Picked up an escolar but read enough to throw that one back
There was bluewater over The Elbow so we decided to putt over there for the sunrise...that was a bust, not a single bite in 3 hours of trolling. Disappointed and kind of surprised we didn't get a single knockdown. Ran back by the FADS on the way home. Trolled a couple passes but noticed other boats picking up mahi pitching to them, so we threw everything we had left...squid, northern mackerel chunks, dead LYs from the live well, multiple lures...they would nose the baits but would not bite. A couple boats pulled up and immediately hooked fish so I guess we just didn't have the right live bait. Grrrr.
Half heartedly tried a few deep drops when crossing back over the pipeline, but really didn't see much structure and was too tired to care at that point, ha. Kinda wished we would have deep dropped overnight vs floating around The Spur.
Finally made it back to PCB at 25.4 hours from key on to key off, covering about 275 miles, burned 165 gallons. Phew, slept like a rock Thursday night lol.
2860 ran like a champ. Glad I had the underwater lights that I wasn't going to install but my wife insisted lol. I've got full safety gear including an epirb and raft, but also picked up a Garmin in reach last season after losing a motor 60 miles out...I have to say it was nice having full communication that far out.
Overall, it was a great trip and learned a lot...glad we went for it!
There was bluewater over The Elbow so we decided to putt over there for the sunrise...that was a bust, not a single bite in 3 hours of trolling. Disappointed and kind of surprised we didn't get a single knockdown. Ran back by the FADS on the way home. Trolled a couple passes but noticed other boats picking up mahi pitching to them, so we threw everything we had left...squid, northern mackerel chunks, dead LYs from the live well, multiple lures...they would nose the baits but would not bite. A couple boats pulled up and immediately hooked fish so I guess we just didn't have the right live bait. Grrrr.
Half heartedly tried a few deep drops when crossing back over the pipeline, but really didn't see much structure and was too tired to care at that point, ha. Kinda wished we would have deep dropped overnight vs floating around The Spur.
Finally made it back to PCB at 25.4 hours from key on to key off, covering about 275 miles, burned 165 gallons. Phew, slept like a rock Thursday night lol.
2860 ran like a champ. Glad I had the underwater lights that I wasn't going to install but my wife insisted lol. I've got full safety gear including an epirb and raft, but also picked up a Garmin in reach last season after losing a motor 60 miles out...I have to say it was nice having full communication that far out.
Overall, it was a great trip and learned a lot...glad we went for it!