- Jan 10, 2010
- 853
- 2,224
- Name
- Rod Lathrop
- Boat Name
- 24' North River Seahawk Hardtop "Sun Dog"
Short report lots of BFT. 300 - 400 Gram Jigs. Sinker Rigs. Daytime and nighttime slayed big BFT. Time to go fishing!
Really fun trip on Intrepid. Captain Sam and co-captain Travis did a great job of keeping us on a really nice grade of fish the whole trip. Chef Perry and sous chef Tito were amazing! Deck hands Min, Ed, Billy and Madison were helpful and super friendly. There were a few schools of catch-all-you-want 20 - 30# fish, but mostly we chased larger models (140 - 180#) and had a steady pick bite the whole trip. One guy got an estimated 250# fish to almost gaff range before the 100# mono top shot gave way.
The first evening we started on one of those schools 20 - 30# size fish. Just about everyone tagged something. We moved on and found pockets of bigger fish. My buddy Trevor picked up a 166# fish at 2:00 am on a 400 gram Pink/Blue Rip Roller. Buttoned down the drag and had that fish on board fast. I hooked up at 2:15 am but one of the hooks was outside the mouth and I had trouble turning the head of that fish. With my UC Viper/Mak 20 and 40# of drag it was not a quick fight, pretty much turned my arms to jello by the time 2 gaffs went in and I had my 163# fish. I was using a 400 gram Shout Lance jig in Lumo Polkadot. These would eventually become the #2 and #3 Jackpot fish.
The Saturday daytime bite was steady action on larger model fish. Trevor transitioned to a Zeus-3 jig stick and 60# leader, hooked a stupid big fish on a 220 gram Shimano Shimmerfall jig. Lost 500 yards of line using 22# of drag, finally turned the fish. Never really got much line back in, suffered a chew-through. Exciting while it lasted. After that during the daytime we fished short 200# fluoro bite leaders when jig fishing, but didn't hook up any more big daytime jig fish.
My first Saturday daytime fish hit a sinker rig 200' down. UC Centaur with a Mak 16 fishing 80# fluoro to a 3/0 Charlie Brown circle hook. 160# fish came to gaff in short order fun!
Sunday the wind came up. I hooked a nice jig fish at grey light. There were a few more sinker rig fish killed. The kite became the weapon of choice, I think 7 fish > 150# came in on the kite Sunday afternoon. Trevor and I didn't get our number called but it was a hoot just to see all these beautiful fish blowing up on the flyer. I hooked up one more jig fish Sunday night right before we called it and headed for the barn, but it was a short biter and gone in 5-cranks.
It was a really fun trip. Kinda exhausting, steady pick bite all day/all night. I never really stopped fishing until we headed north, just cat-napped in the galley when the boat was between schools. I'm embarrassed to say I never changed clothes or even took my boots off the entire trip until we headed north. The bigger jigs (500 grams) didn't seem to work as well as the 300 - 400 gram models. Sinker rig was slow steady big fish if you put in enough rail time. Captains were asking everyone to use 80 - 100# because of the larger models we were marking, several people hooked up under-gunned and it ended not well (predictably). Trevor and I kept 3 fish that produced 225# of vac sealed meat. We hook and handed 5, sent a couple home with crew, and gave 7 whole fish to Danny (a local friend) who helps out people who can use the extra protein.
Food was amazing as it always is on The Intrepid. My apologies to the foodies here on BD, I took hardly any pics. Pretty much just fished. Here is 1 food pic and a few Big Fish pics to get the juices flowing:
Rod's 163# jig fish:
Trevor with his first big jig fish:
Rod with a sinker rig fish:
Really fun trip on Intrepid. Captain Sam and co-captain Travis did a great job of keeping us on a really nice grade of fish the whole trip. Chef Perry and sous chef Tito were amazing! Deck hands Min, Ed, Billy and Madison were helpful and super friendly. There were a few schools of catch-all-you-want 20 - 30# fish, but mostly we chased larger models (140 - 180#) and had a steady pick bite the whole trip. One guy got an estimated 250# fish to almost gaff range before the 100# mono top shot gave way.
The first evening we started on one of those schools 20 - 30# size fish. Just about everyone tagged something. We moved on and found pockets of bigger fish. My buddy Trevor picked up a 166# fish at 2:00 am on a 400 gram Pink/Blue Rip Roller. Buttoned down the drag and had that fish on board fast. I hooked up at 2:15 am but one of the hooks was outside the mouth and I had trouble turning the head of that fish. With my UC Viper/Mak 20 and 40# of drag it was not a quick fight, pretty much turned my arms to jello by the time 2 gaffs went in and I had my 163# fish. I was using a 400 gram Shout Lance jig in Lumo Polkadot. These would eventually become the #2 and #3 Jackpot fish.
The Saturday daytime bite was steady action on larger model fish. Trevor transitioned to a Zeus-3 jig stick and 60# leader, hooked a stupid big fish on a 220 gram Shimano Shimmerfall jig. Lost 500 yards of line using 22# of drag, finally turned the fish. Never really got much line back in, suffered a chew-through. Exciting while it lasted. After that during the daytime we fished short 200# fluoro bite leaders when jig fishing, but didn't hook up any more big daytime jig fish.
My first Saturday daytime fish hit a sinker rig 200' down. UC Centaur with a Mak 16 fishing 80# fluoro to a 3/0 Charlie Brown circle hook. 160# fish came to gaff in short order fun!
Sunday the wind came up. I hooked a nice jig fish at grey light. There were a few more sinker rig fish killed. The kite became the weapon of choice, I think 7 fish > 150# came in on the kite Sunday afternoon. Trevor and I didn't get our number called but it was a hoot just to see all these beautiful fish blowing up on the flyer. I hooked up one more jig fish Sunday night right before we called it and headed for the barn, but it was a short biter and gone in 5-cranks.
It was a really fun trip. Kinda exhausting, steady pick bite all day/all night. I never really stopped fishing until we headed north, just cat-napped in the galley when the boat was between schools. I'm embarrassed to say I never changed clothes or even took my boots off the entire trip until we headed north. The bigger jigs (500 grams) didn't seem to work as well as the 300 - 400 gram models. Sinker rig was slow steady big fish if you put in enough rail time. Captains were asking everyone to use 80 - 100# because of the larger models we were marking, several people hooked up under-gunned and it ended not well (predictably). Trevor and I kept 3 fish that produced 225# of vac sealed meat. We hook and handed 5, sent a couple home with crew, and gave 7 whole fish to Danny (a local friend) who helps out people who can use the extra protein.
Food was amazing as it always is on The Intrepid. My apologies to the foodies here on BD, I took hardly any pics. Pretty much just fished. Here is 1 food pic and a few Big Fish pics to get the juices flowing:
Rod's 163# jig fish:
Trevor with his first big jig fish:
Rod with a sinker rig fish:
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