Within 10 minutes of putting out the spread we had a hit on our long line, the way back. My friend pulls up a nice Wahoo. I should mention that along with the cedar plug chain, we had some tuna rigs with skirts made from mono. I thought for sure this was a tuna at first because it hit this line with a mono tuna rig. Turns out this Wahoo just had great aim! THE GAME IS ON!
After that, the day wasn't constant I would say but consistent. We never sat too long before something happened.
The highlight of the day came when we had two poles go off pretty close to one another. First we had one knock down which was a dolphin who was putting on a great show of jumps for us. We get that one near the boat, then another rod goes off and it seemed like a Hoo. As we get the dolphin near the boat first, another rod goes off. This is the one we are pulling a cedar plug chain on! Guess what that one had on it? LOL!! So we gaff the dolphin, get her in the box, go over to the pole, give it to my friend, and then proceed to gaff the Hoo. We then get our BF Tuna next to the boat and gaff it. A TRIPLE SLAM on the hook ups!! It was a blast.
My buddies Hoo was the largest of the day. She hit, tore off a bunch of line, then nothing, so we dropped the lure back, and sure as shootin' she came back to the bait and re-hooked up! The fight was on. She was a fat pig of a Hoo, too.
We lost an even bigger one as we decided to leave the SW Bank's area. This one peeled 2/3's of my line the TLD 25's before slowing down. We ended up with the drag full up and still this thing took line. We know it was a Hoo because we saw the gaping mouth about 100 yds. behind us at one point, about 10 minutes into the fight. Then . . . . POP . . . . the line went slack!! UGH!!!
Oh well, not bad for a newbie and a couple of Jersey boys!! This was the first Wahoo and Tuna to see this boat so we were very pleased. I know that these numbers don't compare with some reports as of late, but I have to say that this was my best trip I've ever been on yet. It was a great day for us.
We had more hits on our short line, with a dolphin colored skirt than any other line. 3 Wahoo came from that line today!! I ran it just past the really bubbly part of the wake. Maybe 30 feet or so behind the boat. I was really surprised by this.
We ran back in with record time and the seas even flatter than on the way out. Simply amazing. Ended the day with one dolphin, one tuna, and four Hoo's. We missed two more Hoo's, and had multiple knock downs and short strikes. We never left the one area of the SW Banks. We just kept doing circles in one area. Never went deeper than 200 or shallower than 150. Water temp was a consistent 72 on the gauges.
