Little 2 day offshore trip.

[rustybucket]

Took a few buddies fishing this weekend. Couple of these guys really helped me out along the way with my fiberglass project. They wouldn't accept cash, only wanted to go fishing a few times.

Made bait in Pensacola pass Sat morn then headed 40ish miles out for some bottom fishing action. disclaimer: I am not a bottom fisherman but am trying to learn it. We were on some really nice grouper but the guys were using too light of gear, lost several in the rocks, and several to the sharks. Landed a few scamp and a couple big half gags.

Anybody got an id on this fish?

Sat night we jogged toward the bluewater break (where I feel at home lol). Sunday morning we ran the last 10miles over to the weedline

The water was yellow/brown on one side, and deep blue on the other. The line was stacked with bait and fish. Over the course of a few hours we proceeded put 47 mahi in the boat. (me on the left)

 

[rustybucket]

Doesn't get much better than this!

This guys first Rainbow Runner (really wish the fish's true colors showed up in pics, this thing was glowing neon)

There were big fish on the weedline but we couldn't seem to get through the schoolies and jacks to get to anything else. Around 3ish we pulled the plug with fish still under the boat and headed to the hill. Talk about a wiped out crew! They all def got their fill of reeling in fish lol.

 

[Toronto]

Can it get better ??
BOAT, FRIENDS, FISHING.
Life is good !1

 

[Bob Bradley]

Nice trip. Send that weedline north please.

 

[rustybucket]

Nice trip. Send that weedline north please.

No Kidding! It's still out there, wishing I was fueling up instead of behind the computer all day! Gotta make some more diesel $$$

 

[rustybucket]

Can it get better ??
BOAT, FRIENDS, FISHING.
Life is good !1

Absolutely no doubt about that!!

 

[madhatter1]

No Kidding! It's still out there, wishing I was fueling up instead of behind the computer all day! Gotta make some more diesel $$$

We call them "Fun Tickets". My crews are out working and I end up filling in on some stray jobs. All goes into fun tickets bucket on the boat. Next run south is already fully funded since we haven't been able to go far for a while due to family situations. Nice post on your trip.

 

[bigbill]

great catch and WOW what a great grass line

 

[Briankinley2004]

The eye sort of looks like a queen snapper. Hard to tail without the whole body. Also looks sort of like a creole fish or a ruby snapper. I shot some similar to that at 160' on the oil rigs one time. I can't remember what they finally ID'd them as but they had the same eyes.

 

[Bugsy]

47 Mahi....47...a few guys in a few hours. Seems like one heck of a LOT of fish for a few guys fishing for a few hours. Wouldn't a couple an hour be fun?
Seems as though a lot of filets will be frozen.
When we go out...and catch a " keeper" or two....we don't leave lines in the water to hook the curious....and we eat fresh or donate to others closeby so they can eat fresh and we call it a great day.
But....we don't call ourselves "fishermen" so what do we know?

 

[Bob Bradley]

Oh please.

Lets just leave the scolding and holier than thou judgments over on THT where they seem so welcome.

 

[rsmith]

Nice trip. That’s some good eating right there.

 

[rustybucket]

47 Mahi....47...a few guys in a few hours. Seems like one heck of a LOT of fish for a few guys fishing for a few hours. Wouldn't a couple an hour be fun?
Seems as though a lot of filets will be frozen.
When we go out...and catch a " keeper" or two....we don't leave lines in the water to hook the curious....and we eat fresh or donate to others closeby so they can eat fresh and we call it a great day.
But....we don't call ourselves "fishermen" so what do we know?

Yes, it was a heck of a LOT of fish for a few guys fishing for a few hours. To make it happen we really had to dig down deep and work as a team, 3-4 mahi thrashing around in the cockpit with hooks in their mouth can turn south quick. It was great to really bond with these guys and get a system in place to make quick work of landing fish, unhooking, fishbox, re-rigging and re-deploying baits. Most more inexperienced crews would have landed a fraction of the fish we did. It really was a beautiful thing to watch.

The actual trip was about 40hours long, and we burned right at 800gals of diesel, the catching of the mahi happened over a few hours toward the end of that trip.

I can assure you that only a small portion of this will be frozen. My wife took bags of fillets to work yesterday to give to all the people that have helped us along the way with the boat projects, whether with knowledge, materials, guidance or good old fashioned hard labor. I handed out bags of fish at the dock after the trip, to all the good friends I have made near my slip. These are our friends, these are our family.

The thing about people like you.... is that you wouldn't have a problem if I went to the fish market and bought a pallet of frozen fish (caught commercially) and handed it out. Restaurants and resorts do it every day, you think none of it is wasted??? But the second a recreational angler has a once in a lifetime day on the water with good friends, making memories that will last a lifetime, and comes back with a load of fish (which was actually 3 fish under our limit) you have a problem with it and make snide remarks.

The 4 other guys that were on this trip are fishermen, all 4 of them eat fish on a very regular basis. In my house we eat fish whenever we have it fresh, rarely will we freeze fish, usually just to keep it from going bad, then it is thawed and eaten shortly afterwards. The only deep freezer we have is full of deer and hog meat, which gets emptied every single year... and yes, refilled.

So, I guess my question to you.... why is it ok for the commercial guys to come back with pallets of frozen fish, and not ok for a recreational guy to stay under his limit and share the love with friends and family? You may waste your resources, but we do not.

btw, my wife and I both received several calls/texts last night thanking us for the fish and how delicious it was for dinner..... So, like I said very little of this fish will be frozen. And that which is frozen will assuredly be eaten.

I for one will be eating fresh mahi all week (fresh ceviche in the fridge right now), then Friday night the wife and I are going to head to the boat and try our hand at some grouper fishing this weekend (weather permitting).

 

[Bugsy]

"The thing about people like you..."? You don't know anything about me and you certainly can't devine my character from the comment that 47 fish is a LOT of fish.
I am reasonably certain that you realize there are many people who extract from the waters what they can without regard to the consequences purely for the pleasure of the catch. Apart from your remark; " People like you...", I appreciate the remainder of your post and your assurance that your catch was shared and enjoyed by many others. As I said in my post, we're a two fish boat. That does NOT mean we are self-righteous or overly judgmental.From my perspective, 47 mahi in a few hours is a LOT of fish. Not an unreasonable or unwarranted observation, is it?t

 

[bigbill]

Mahi grow very fast and live a short life....I see nothing wrong with this catch as long as it doesn't get wasted

 

[rustybucket]

"The thing about people like you..."? You don't know anything about me and you certainly can't devine my character from the comment that 47 fish is a LOT of fish.
I am reasonably certain that you realize there are many people who extract from the waters what they can without regard to the consequences purely for the pleasure of the catch. Apart from your remark; " People like you...", I appreciate the remainder of your post and your assurance that your catch was shared and enjoyed by many others. As I said in my post, we're a two fish boat. That does NOT mean we are self-righteous or overly judgmental.From my perspective, 47 mahi in a few hours is a LOT of fish. Not an unreasonable or unwarranted observation, is it?t

Ya kno Bugsy, people like you really irk me sometimes. Not sure why, but ya do, especially when you make public insinuations that I'm going to be wasting a bunch of fish. Glad you appreciated most all of my post, I didn't really appreciate any of yours. Good day.

 

[Avenger]

"The thing about people like you..."? You don't know anything about me and you certainly can't devine my character from the comment that 47 fish is a LOT of fish.
I am reasonably certain that you realize there are many people who extract from the waters what they can without regard to the consequences purely for the pleasure of the catch. Apart from your remark; " People like you...", I appreciate the remainder of your post and your assurance that your catch was shared and enjoyed by many others. As I said in my post, we're a two fish boat. That does NOT mean we are self-righteous or overly judgmental. From my perspective, 47 mahi in a few hours is a LOT of fish. Not an unreasonable or unwarranted observation, is it?t

Love this passive-aggressive "I was just making an observation" defense. You need to reread your initial post. It was everything you just claimed it wasn't and more. maybe you didn't intend it that way, but in print that's how it reads.

Great trip Rusty, thanks for sharing.

 

[Briankinley2004]

Mahi grow very fast and live a short life....I see nothing wrong with this catch as long as it doesn't get wasted

This is exactly why there is no limit on size or numbers of mahi in Federal waters. Cant tell you how many times I have hit the dock with 45 plus after coming in on a grass line. As stated above all are eaten by the crew or given to others who dont have this luxury. I have pictures of amberjack kills that may seem outrageous but a local children's home asked me to get enough fish to have a fry for all the kids and I did. Here is one of our many trips I am going to post just because I still can