First day of the MSSA Tournament. We were worried that the large numbers of boats would ruin our streak. Not to worry
.
We left the pier at 6 am. Radar showed lots of boats off CB. We found some bait and dropped our lures short of the fleet.
Water was pretty calm, so I put out the spread and included two of my "dipsey divers". I love these and run them whenever I can. They act as a poor mans downrigger. In choppy waters, they keep popping and won't hold properly, but today was a classic diver day.
I estimate the lure was down 25 ft and it got HAMMERED. The first guy up on the charter grabbed the rod and drag was being taken. He said "What do I do?" I said hold on and don't drop that rod tip. After a short run, we started to gain ground and netted a 42" spawned out female for our first fish of the day.
We continued south on the troll and a second fish hit a mid depth umbrella. Good two in the box before the low tide at 8:30.
We hit a dry spell and I told the customers I didn't expect much action until about 9:30. When 9:45 came around, all he11 broke lose. I couldn't keep up with putting rods back in the spread. I even had to cut a few lures off the leader and place the fish with lure intact in the box in order to get the next fish to the boat. With the tide now moving and the sun shinning, the single chutes out 4 bars were smoking.
We quickly filled the box with our six fish, and I slowly began bringing in the spread. One of the customers said, "You want us to help you bring the rods in?", and I told him "The slower I bring them in, the more chance you have to catch another fish".
Bang, a roof rod goes off and our first C/R fish gets kissed and sent back to the deep. Thump, another roof rod bends with authority. Second C/R fish swims away. I was wrapping the rods after they got hit, but the customers were loving it. Whack; another rod pops a clip and after the third C/R fish is released, the captain said "Get the rest of those rods in and lets get out of here". It was 10:30 am
Back at the pier, pictures were taken and everyone was talking about another trip (like I could reproduce this one). I got a larger than normal tip from the group (I think they really liked the C/R part of the trip and the fast action at the end).
I know several of our friends were out today and had success as well. I hope they post.
Most of our fish are falling in the 36-38 inch range, nice fish, but not what the tournament guys are looking for.
5th (Marty)