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Howdy,
I'm on the way back to Houston after fishing the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic this weekend aboard the matagorda boat Mattiduke (54' Bertram) - great boat, owner, and crew. We went out to an area that looked promising on Realtime-Navigator and had a great trip....2 for 3 on blues, missed a white, caught several wahoo/dorado/yellowfins in perfect flat water. Saw 3 whales just sunning on the surface and blowing their blowholes...when we got close, they would bow up and dive, showing their tails. Pretty cool. When we got close to 2 that were together, they dove leaving behind a 40 ft diameter brown murky circle in the cobalt blue water. (?)
Our largest blue was caught yesterday morning while trolling a rip - it came up and popped the long left rigger (miss #1), then swam over, bill and dorsal out of the water popping the right flat (miss #2). We are concentrating on looking at the spread and don't see this big weed patch that we plow right thru (*#!#)...looking back to the spread, the left short rigger has a big clump of weeds on it, and the marlin doesn't care! It comes up and pops it hard (miss #3). By this time, we are getting frustrated and shouting and yelling. Then she comes up again and does a body slam on right short (miss #4!). Finally, she comes up to the left flat and eats it - Fish On! We got her to the boat in about 45 minutes and see that it's a legal fish so into the cockpit she comes. Onward to Biloxi for the weigh-in with a solid 500 lb class fish.
When we get there, we find out the my partner David Finkelstein fishing aboard the Galati Boat (68' Viking) is in First Place with a 666.2 lb. Blue, so the owners of Hilton's Realtime-Navigator were sitting in First and Second Place, for a while anyways. UpToIt brought in a 541 lb'er kicking us back to Third. The C-YA brings in a monster 722 lb hoss right before the end of the tournament knocking us down to 4th, and my partner down to 2nd. I was hoping my partner and I could finish First and Third out of 86 boats, but it wasn't meant to be and had to settle for 2nd and 4th.
BTW, the top six fish weighed were all RTN subscribers.
In any case, it was a great weekend, great tournament, and great company to fish with aboard the Mattiduke. Thanks for the invite.
Pics to follow.
All the best,
Tom Hilton
I'm on the way back to Houston after fishing the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic this weekend aboard the matagorda boat Mattiduke (54' Bertram) - great boat, owner, and crew. We went out to an area that looked promising on Realtime-Navigator and had a great trip....2 for 3 on blues, missed a white, caught several wahoo/dorado/yellowfins in perfect flat water. Saw 3 whales just sunning on the surface and blowing their blowholes...when we got close, they would bow up and dive, showing their tails. Pretty cool. When we got close to 2 that were together, they dove leaving behind a 40 ft diameter brown murky circle in the cobalt blue water. (?)
Our largest blue was caught yesterday morning while trolling a rip - it came up and popped the long left rigger (miss #1), then swam over, bill and dorsal out of the water popping the right flat (miss #2). We are concentrating on looking at the spread and don't see this big weed patch that we plow right thru (*#!#)...looking back to the spread, the left short rigger has a big clump of weeds on it, and the marlin doesn't care! It comes up and pops it hard (miss #3). By this time, we are getting frustrated and shouting and yelling. Then she comes up again and does a body slam on right short (miss #4!). Finally, she comes up to the left flat and eats it - Fish On! We got her to the boat in about 45 minutes and see that it's a legal fish so into the cockpit she comes. Onward to Biloxi for the weigh-in with a solid 500 lb class fish.
When we get there, we find out the my partner David Finkelstein fishing aboard the Galati Boat (68' Viking) is in First Place with a 666.2 lb. Blue, so the owners of Hilton's Realtime-Navigator were sitting in First and Second Place, for a while anyways. UpToIt brought in a 541 lb'er kicking us back to Third. The C-YA brings in a monster 722 lb hoss right before the end of the tournament knocking us down to 4th, and my partner down to 2nd. I was hoping my partner and I could finish First and Third out of 86 boats, but it wasn't meant to be and had to settle for 2nd and 4th.
BTW, the top six fish weighed were all RTN subscribers.
In any case, it was a great weekend, great tournament, and great company to fish with aboard the Mattiduke. Thanks for the invite.
Pics to follow.
All the best,
Tom Hilton
