January 1 2004

We left the pass around 11:00am headed out to Horn Mountain in hopes of some tuna action and some swordfish action at night. Arrived there at 3:30 and saw some smaller blackfins jumping so we put out some cedar plugs to grab a few. Within seconds we had boated a small one that we threw back. On the next pass around the rig we discovered a dozen dolphins hanging around the SE side and we ended up hooking and loosing one. On the next pass we boated a 15# dolphin and a nicer blackfin. We trolled around a few more times and caught 4 more blackfins and I hoped the bigger yellowfins would show up but they never did before sunset. We pulled 200 yards off the rig and set the sea anchor and started chunking but the current was taking the chunks and lines right under the boat. I ran a sword line out on the rigger and got a hit at 400’ on the way down. The fish was on for 2 minutes and I reeled like crazy to keep tension and ended up pulling the hook. I got another short hit on the way down so I re-baited and dropped down once again. Didn’t have any other hits but the dolphins came into the spreaders so I had some fun with my bait rig with them. Ended up loosing them due to small line test. Two of my crew were getting greener by the second and with the current and seas working against us, I heading in and made it to 175’ of water and had to call it a night because I was too tired to continue on. We woke up and fished some coral bottoms along the edge and moved around to some other spots before heading in around 1:30pm. We caught a few AJ’s, Mingos, Groupers and had to let some nice snappers go. Was a nice trip and had lots of fish to clean but it wasn’t what I’d call a good trip.

October 21st

We headed out to the Nipple around 6:30am and started trolling in open water.  Water onditions were not what we wished for but the weather was beautiful and we headed SE for a little while working the SE side of the Nipple.  Turned and worked west for a while, then NW for a while.  Not even a knockdown.  Headed S SW for a while and started to see some baitfish and zzzzzzzzz the drag started screaming and Halley (xanadu from the Fishing Pensacola Forum) yealled "Fish On".  Gary (HeBeGB from the Fishing Pensacola Forum) was up so after clearing the lines, he grabbed the rod and brought a nice 55 pound hoo to the back of the boat.  Steve aka Weaver (Dreamweaver21 from the forum) grabbed the gaff and stuck the fat fish and heaved him into the boat.  Congradulations to Gary on his first Wahoo.  This is also the first Wahoo on the Southbound.

July 5th

We tagged our first billfish!!!  We were about 130 miles south of Pensacola when we tagged this Blue Marlin.  We were fishing in the PBGFC International but opted to stay out where we were and fish in the good water to see if we couldn't get a weighable fish.  We he got this one to the boat, there was another Blue Marlin swiming under him.  Talk about a great day!!!

June 14th

We landed this 156.5 pounder 100 miles southeast of Pensacola Pass after a 3 hour battle.  Mickey (shown in the photo) went through 6-20 ounce bottles of water during the battle with this monster.  This yellowfin hit at around 1:30 and we thought is was a nice wahoo at first but the fish then went deep and stayed there.  This was our first trolling trip and I'd say it was a nice one!

March 22th - Saturday

Took my wife and son out today along with a friend of my wife and her soon to be husband. We went out 13 miles and the bite was good but not great. We caught several nice 10+ pound red snappers but had to let them go . Picked up a nice trigger fish and the girls fed many more of them. The wind was pretty strong out of the west and the seas were building so I decided to head in. Being an avid fisherman, 1/8th mile into the trip I felt bad about heading in so earily so I begged if we could go out another 15 miles and the girls agreed. We got to the spot and anchored and got right where I wanted to be. We picked up several nice AJ's and a few nice red snappers which had to go back.
We ended up keeping 2 gags, 2 AJ's and 1 trigger. One gag weighed in at 18 pounds, caught on a cig. My wife caught the other on a spin pole with a lazer tail.

March 15th - Saturday

Raffaele, Matt and I left the dock at 8:00am. We waited and waited for Ryan to show but a little too much partying the night before left him too hungover to go.
Anyway, we went out to catch some bait and loaded up the livewell full in 30 minutes. Once again we caught a redfish that was too big to keep.

Went out another 15 miles from our bait spot and anchored. I threw down a jig and caught the big grouper show below. We put down the live baits but could only seem to get AJ's. We switched to cigs but only small groupers and red snappers were hitting them it the triggers left any on the hook. I moved back and forth over the spot but the bite didn't seem to be as strong as last week when I fished with Steve on Dreamweaver. I threw out a live bait on the top with a float and within seconds the line went tight and the fish started running to the front. I tried to stop him but he wrapped in the anchor rope and won. (boy I miss my old center console when it come to chasing them around the boat). Anyway, I rigged the flyline back up and threw it out again. A sorry cast left the 10 feet from the boat and when it hit, a 6'+ wahoo came from under the boat and investigated the live bait for 5 or so minutes but never would touch it. I guess they don't get to be 6' by being stupid. Anyway, nothing hit it for a while so I switched over to a cigar minow. About 10 minutes later, the reel started screaming and the fight was on. Raffaele grabbed the rod and I got all the rods moved so he had a clean deck to walk around in. About 10 minutes later he was begging me to take the rod but I told him he had to do it. About 10 more minutes and I gaffed the nice blackfin. Raffaele was so exausted that he threw up and had to take about an hour break and switch to a two hook rig.

Anyway, we picked up and ran east 15 miles and picked up the AJ's and the other grouper, the mingos (the big one was 15" long... the biggest mingo I've seen)

Seas were a little big in the morning but it slicked off to be an awesome day!

Feb 28th - March 2nd

We left the dock friday at 8:00pm and headed out of AL. Pass... Seas were not the forcasted 2 footers, try 4 to 6 footers. We headed out to the Petronis and stopped about 45 miles out and dropped anchor to wait for the rain to pass.... big mistake! Me, Ryan and Frank all got sick. Anyway, we pushed on and trolled for hours with nothing.... then we caught a nice AJ on a rig on the way to the Exxon. We hooked onto the Exxon and tried some bottom fishing but nothing was biting. I decided to come in on Saturday and we ran 65 miles in the 4 footers. The Albemarle ran like a champ running 20 knots all the way!

So, we planned to go out Sunday and we left the dock (just me and Ryan made it to the dock at 7:00am so it was just us). We went out and found that it was a great day! 1 to 2 footers, nice and warm... We caught some bait and once again caught two nice Red Fish... both oversized. We also caught 2 bobos and put them on ice for future bait.

Once the bait well looked good, we headed out to the "Honey Hole" and caught several legal AJ's but we put them back in hopes of larger ones. There were two dolphins that were playing (and killing) the throwbacks, flipping them 10 feet in the air with their tails and you could see the bite marks on their bodies.... sad to see but the AJ's got their revenge when one of the dolphins decided that our fly line that we had floating behind the boat with a live bait looked pretty tasty. He took the bait and got the hook. I don't know if you have ever hooked into a dolphin (flipper, not the fish lol) before but that is a site you must see. This dolphin was doing tricks that Sea World only wishes they could teach! Flipping, Jumping.... WHAT A SITE! Anyway, I decided to cut the line because he wasn't getting off.

So... we ended up with 7 awesome triggers, a 20+ pound gag and one that was maybe 12 pounds and two nice 30 pound AJ's.

Feb 2nd

Well.... We have broke in the new ride!  We took SOUTHBOUND out on Sunday Feb 2nd and we had a very good trip.  We went out about 10 miles to catch some live bait and ended up catching two huge redfish on sabiki rigs....  I don't know if they were hitting the squid tipped 4-squid sibiki rigs or if they were after the bait that we were catching on them but nevertheless, we caught two nice reds and released them (I forgot a damn measuring device so we had to wing it the whole day).  

Anyway, the bait didn't seem to be hitting real good so we kept moving offshore until we got to the Antaries where we finally picked up enough bait to head to our fishing holes.  We loaded the boat with 12 nice groupers, 2 nice amberjack, some nice triggers and 1 mingo.

The SOUTHBOUND rode great although I think a bass boat would have done the same in the flat seas that we had.  You couldn't have asked for a better day!