After recently repairing my trailer and seeing a decent forecast me and friends/brothers Cory and Garrett made the last minute decision to head off the coast of SC to do some bottom fishing. A front lingering about 60 miles offshore made things a little interesting but we ONLY ran out 45 miles to spots of live bottom in 100 ft. 
So, no problem!
Added a little insurance to Blue Runner - two 5 gallon jugs of fuel. Left the dock at about 5:30 ish watching the sunrise. We were able to make a comfortable pace of around 23 - 25 mph, add in a pee break and we hit our first spot within about 2 hours. First things first - refuel. Put the 10 gallons in and watched my fuel guage register darn near a full tank! Cool!
Had an awesome time out there and caught our limit of black seabass and red porgy - although we did not keep two of the porgy that were on the small side even though they were an inch over the 14" min. Threw back several like that.
In addition, we caught several amberjacks, some beeliners that did not measure up, a bigeye toro (first for me!), several sharks, and lots and lots of fish. Threw back a lot of keepers looking for the bigger ones. At one point I hooked something BIG on the bottom. I poured the coals to it and got it to the surface in no time flat. When I first saw color I was thinking HUGE cobia but when it hit the surface it was a TIGER SHARK about 100 + lbs. I wanted nothing to do with getting this guy boatside....so after a short fight the leader popped and he swam off.
At several points the peanut dolphin (mahi) were all around the boat. Cory finally caught one on a bottom rig. Also had a remora hanging around desperately trying to get a morsal of food. Somebody ended up hooking him later on by accident.
Headed home at 30 mph...on a flat ocean. Burned 45 gallons of fuel for the day.
Here's the pictures.
So, no problem! Added a little insurance to Blue Runner - two 5 gallon jugs of fuel. Left the dock at about 5:30 ish watching the sunrise. We were able to make a comfortable pace of around 23 - 25 mph, add in a pee break and we hit our first spot within about 2 hours. First things first - refuel. Put the 10 gallons in and watched my fuel guage register darn near a full tank! Cool!
Had an awesome time out there and caught our limit of black seabass and red porgy - although we did not keep two of the porgy that were on the small side even though they were an inch over the 14" min. Threw back several like that.
In addition, we caught several amberjacks, some beeliners that did not measure up, a bigeye toro (first for me!), several sharks, and lots and lots of fish. Threw back a lot of keepers looking for the bigger ones. At one point I hooked something BIG on the bottom. I poured the coals to it and got it to the surface in no time flat. When I first saw color I was thinking HUGE cobia but when it hit the surface it was a TIGER SHARK about 100 + lbs. I wanted nothing to do with getting this guy boatside....so after a short fight the leader popped and he swam off.
At several points the peanut dolphin (mahi) were all around the boat. Cory finally caught one on a bottom rig. Also had a remora hanging around desperately trying to get a morsal of food. Somebody ended up hooking him later on by accident.
Headed home at 30 mph...on a flat ocean. Burned 45 gallons of fuel for the day.
Here's the pictures.
