Report from Tuesday!

[Becky]

What an awesome day on the water! Weather was beautiful and crew was great! We had Bill (HIT N RUN), Lee (LC), Mr. Grogan AKA Pops, Mike and Jack (Zipper) and me... Let me start by saying that what you are about to read is all my fault... I take total responsibility for us not catching any fish... That's right, not even a strike all day... Here's how it happened...

We all met up Monday and got stuff ready then hung out and chatted for a while... Got up early and off to fish... Got to the fishing grounds (we started at 375 line and fished down the edge with the fleet all the way to the 250 line)... After about 2 hrs I went to change and realized while looking at my feet that I was wearing socks with banana's on them... What had I done??? Had I cursed our entire day??? I decided to keep this info to myself for the next hour or so and when the discussion came up of how slow it was I decided to come clean... I had to immediately take the socks off and my good buddy Lee tossed them overboard... (Which I think cursed the entire body of water) [grin]

Anyway, the rest of the day was just as slow as the beginning of the day... We listened to chatter in the area and seems most folks had a slow day too... Was it the socks??? I don't know, but I do know that despite the slow day I had a great time...

Bill, thanks again for getting me out to the deep blue... Hopefully you'll invite me again despite the banana incident... I swear it won't happen again...

Lee, thanks for all your time teaching... I always leave these trips with more knowledge than I started with!!!

Pops, You are the bomb!!! Thanks for helping out so much in the kitchen... (we may not have caught tuna but we had a killer spread on the dinner table) [wink]

Jack and Mike, it was good to meet you guys and hopefully we'll all meet up again and slay the tuna!!! You never get skunked 2 times in a row!!! I hope... [sad]

Becky-

[RAYMOND RHODES]

It was'nt the socks. We were south of you and it was real slow for all of us.

[Becky]

Thanks for the vote of confidence!!! [wink] The socks did win us a sweet box of jumbo shrimp and some soft shell crabs for dinner... Ran into a buddy of mine who had mercy on me... LOL

How did you guys do?

Becky-

[RAYMOND RHODES]

Waiting on Jimmy to post. We were right around there with the rest of the TF crew. Slooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww!

[swancaller]

Did anyone fish the 280 rock??

[Bill Fisher]

It wasn't the banana for sure. My best day last year we had a banana onboard. It was slow but you at least gave it a shot. Should have come a little more south[wink].

[HIT N RUN]

Yes Becky, your still allowed to fish w/ us but complete strip down will be mandatory prior to you boarding the boat.

Mike, yes, we focused most of our attention around the 280 rocks because at least we had some structure to work. The whole line was just to straight without any unique features and it seemed fairly lifeless. Very few marks on the screen and those that were there were way too far down. We tried everything in our power to pick off a bite or two but it just didn't happen. The funny thing is the talk on the radio was how the fleet could not believe how different the bite was from the day before. We heard about the bite that was down below but it still didn't sound red hot and given that I had already traveled about 75 miles one way it didn't make a whole lot of sence to chase a slow bite at best. Looks like from the SAT shots the eddy that produced the good water on Monday got knocked out by the W wind over night. And the steady SW wind throughout Tuesday isn't going to help things for the OI fleet. We had crew and were planning on fishing today but decided against it based on the wind direction. The eddy that looks to be near the 000 is where I would fish if I had an outboard today. You know it's going to be a long day when Billy Maxwell gets on the radio to celebrate finally getting the skunk out of the boat and it's late afternoon.

Oh well crew, thanks for the great day and company and hope to get em' next time!

Bill

[Chumlord]

You don't know if you don't go!!!!!!!!! At least you were out there!!!!!!!! I'm thinking maybe banana socks work fleet wide, like all the way down to the 200 line……………could it be????[wink]

[HIT N RUN]

Oh yeah, two other things that should have been in my other post. From what I heard on the radio yesterday, after this last blow the crack is done. THERE IS NO MORE WATER, NOT EVEN FOR AN OUTBOARD! As for the inlet, it is okay. In fact I never saw less than 12 ft across the bar. Just remember to take the next span to the south under the bridge, not the original lighted one, and then go straight to the first green which will keep you far enough away from the north side shoaling. Always remember there is plenty of water at the south end.

And as far as the run out of OI, your two options are Hell's gate which is no problem or they have now marked w/ barrels a minor short cut which you will see if you go to your left at marker #50 (Red). Stay to the right of the barrels going out. IMO there is still some shallow sections in this route especially near the pier. We had to come down off plane and idle through this section which I did not like and given the lost time from that alone I'm not sure it's much of a saving and certainly not as safe as Hell's gate.

Bill

[reelguy]

thanks for the banana's becky.....you'll gett'um next time. may is better for oi. it's a long run to the 250. they'll be @ the point in a few weeks. saw the oi fleet trolling north around 1pm yesterday...
joey