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After our great trip last weekend, when we saw the weather window open up again, the decision was easy. After monkeying around trying to get the boat ready and waiting on BlueWaterTX's bro to arrive in Rockport, we finally left the dock around 1:30 AM, bound for the Dutra/Falcon/East Breaks area. It was a little bouncy trying to sleep up front on the Blue Runner going out, but completely smoothed out by the time we passed Baker. We arrived around 4:30 and BWTX tried drifting for swords for a bit until it was trolling time. No action, but the baits were only in the water for an hour and a half or so.
At about 6:30 we began dragging in the same area we caught the wahoo last week, but they were not around. Started working over and around the rock, and at 7:15 the shotgun exploded. A nice blue, around 250-300lb went airborne and started dumping line off the Tiagra 80. BWTX and his bro started clearing the lines as I fumbled to get the harness on. It had somehow gotten tangled up, and that combined witht the shaking that goes along with seeing a marlin jumping and line smoking off a reel the size of a coffee can prevented me from being able get strapped in time. Just as I finally got the d**mn thing on, the fish finally jumped off. Somebody should have had the harness on to start, as BWTX had said, but for whatever reason nobody did. Oh well, there will be plents of shots at billfish this summer.
There was a lull in action, then at about 8:30 we caught a nice bull dolphin. A few minutes later we get a smaller cow, and then another bull. Around 9:00 a little blue came in hard from the side, lit up and slashing through the baits. At the exact same time dolphin came in from the other side, and we had two lines go down. One is a smallish dolphin, and the other is dumping line off a Tiagra 50 like nobody's business. At first we aren't sure if we have hooked up on the little marlin or not. Finally the mystery fish comes to the top and it is a huge bull. After a 20 minute battle, he finally came to the boat and over the rail, and our jaws are on the deck. Truly the largest dolphin we have seen, and it was at that point that we realized nobody was entered in the STAR. He weighed 47lb on a rusty hand scale, not sure what the actual weight was, but he was a hoss any way you look at it.
After the dolphin quit eating, we decided to work out to the 300 fathom hump to look for a weedline or rip. Didn't find anything too interesting, but did pick up another decent dolphin on the way over. We worked our way back toward Dutra and found some decent patches of weeds to work around, and managed to pick up a nice 'hoo, but nothing else. There was scattered salad everywhere and tons of boats working the area, so we decided to go and look for our afternoon tuna. We spent an hour or so looking, but never found the tuna. Pointed the bow towards Port A and enjoyed a smooth ride in on calm seas.
We did a better job taking pics today, to make up for last weekend when we only took one. Here are some of the better ones.
At about 6:30 we began dragging in the same area we caught the wahoo last week, but they were not around. Started working over and around the rock, and at 7:15 the shotgun exploded. A nice blue, around 250-300lb went airborne and started dumping line off the Tiagra 80. BWTX and his bro started clearing the lines as I fumbled to get the harness on. It had somehow gotten tangled up, and that combined witht the shaking that goes along with seeing a marlin jumping and line smoking off a reel the size of a coffee can prevented me from being able get strapped in time. Just as I finally got the d**mn thing on, the fish finally jumped off. Somebody should have had the harness on to start, as BWTX had said, but for whatever reason nobody did. Oh well, there will be plents of shots at billfish this summer.
There was a lull in action, then at about 8:30 we caught a nice bull dolphin. A few minutes later we get a smaller cow, and then another bull. Around 9:00 a little blue came in hard from the side, lit up and slashing through the baits. At the exact same time dolphin came in from the other side, and we had two lines go down. One is a smallish dolphin, and the other is dumping line off a Tiagra 50 like nobody's business. At first we aren't sure if we have hooked up on the little marlin or not. Finally the mystery fish comes to the top and it is a huge bull. After a 20 minute battle, he finally came to the boat and over the rail, and our jaws are on the deck. Truly the largest dolphin we have seen, and it was at that point that we realized nobody was entered in the STAR. He weighed 47lb on a rusty hand scale, not sure what the actual weight was, but he was a hoss any way you look at it.
After the dolphin quit eating, we decided to work out to the 300 fathom hump to look for a weedline or rip. Didn't find anything too interesting, but did pick up another decent dolphin on the way over. We worked our way back toward Dutra and found some decent patches of weeds to work around, and managed to pick up a nice 'hoo, but nothing else. There was scattered salad everywhere and tons of boats working the area, so we decided to go and look for our afternoon tuna. We spent an hour or so looking, but never found the tuna. Pointed the bow towards Port A and enjoyed a smooth ride in on calm seas.
We did a better job taking pics today, to make up for last weekend when we only took one. Here are some of the better ones.
