docofthebay
New Member
- Sep 10, 2009
- 461
- Boat Info
- 1985 390 EC
- Engines
- twin 3208TA Cats
Twin disc transmissions
Well we entered the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo 7/20-7/22 and held our on and represented SeaRay very well to those big Bertrams and Hatteras's.
My team of 6 spent 18 hours on the boat on Friday and 30 hours Sat into Sunday. As of Thursday might te forecast was for 2 ft seas and scattered thunder showers. At 5am Friday when we went to the boat, it had changed. Here is a picture of the Sirius weather screen
View attachment 25843
I don't know why this didn't load. Imagine a radar screen covered with thunderstorms.
We headed out anyway and decided to troll out to deep water. We went 62 miles to "The Nipple", which is the closest point of 600 ft water and where the big ones live. We rocked and rolled in 3-5 ft seas and rain, somehow missed thunderstorms. Toward the end of the day, the weather improved but high seas remained. Mid afternoon we had hit on one of the trolled lines. It was a White Marlin that ran under the boat when we got him close and cut the line on the props. That was my poor boat handling for catching fish fault. Caught a couple of small Bonitas but nothing else worth keeping. As the weather was bad, we decided to head home for the evening.
Next morning looked the same but we headed out anyway but this time the weather and seas improved rapidly. We trolled to deep water again with my hard working crew
A picture of a trolling Sea Ray and for those that care, the antennas are up straight, those are outriggers leaning back
Later as we trolled we had a hit on one of the lines again. This time my son Caleb, pulled in a nice sailfish after a 45 minute battle
We practiced responsible catch and release on this one
When we returned to trolling, we had a nice Wahoo that somehow threw the hook as we tried to gaff it to bring it in the boat.
Since weather was nice we decided to stay out that night so we motored a few miles to 800 feet of water and cut the motors ( not the generator) to drift.
We then dropped 2 humongous squids with huge hooks and flashing disco ball light attachments to about 200 ft. In 15 minutes we had hooked a swordfish and my nephew pulled it in in 30 minutes
I was thinking surely sword fishing isn't this easy, and it wasn't as we only caught a few small sharks the rest of the evening.
Next morning we trolled again and caught nada in deep water so we turned for home, about 65 miles away at this point and trolled with different lures for King Mackeral. We caught a few unimpressive ones and one scrawny dolphin.
We did see a nice rainbow on the horizon
Nephew Cory said take a picture like its coming out if his mouth, so in a spirit of poor taste, I did.
When we made it back to tournament headquarters on Dauphin Island, they took the swordfish off the boat
We were actually in 2nd place until just before the closing time and two other swordfish came in that were bigger and knocked us out of the money
I had a blast, got to spend three days with my son, nephew and 2 old friends, learned a lot about deep water fishing, learned a lot more about using the radar, found out autopilot is the greatest invention ever, and was amazed at the range these boats have at trolling speed or hull speed. I was getting around 2.8 mpg at 8 miles per hour.
Thanks to Frank for finding me low rpm fuel burn numbers so I could feel confident about my range when heading straight out I to open waters
My team of 6 spent 18 hours on the boat on Friday and 30 hours Sat into Sunday. As of Thursday might te forecast was for 2 ft seas and scattered thunder showers. At 5am Friday when we went to the boat, it had changed. Here is a picture of the Sirius weather screen
View attachment 25843
I don't know why this didn't load. Imagine a radar screen covered with thunderstorms.
We headed out anyway and decided to troll out to deep water. We went 62 miles to "The Nipple", which is the closest point of 600 ft water and where the big ones live. We rocked and rolled in 3-5 ft seas and rain, somehow missed thunderstorms. Toward the end of the day, the weather improved but high seas remained. Mid afternoon we had hit on one of the trolled lines. It was a White Marlin that ran under the boat when we got him close and cut the line on the props. That was my poor boat handling for catching fish fault. Caught a couple of small Bonitas but nothing else worth keeping. As the weather was bad, we decided to head home for the evening.
Next morning looked the same but we headed out anyway but this time the weather and seas improved rapidly. We trolled to deep water again with my hard working crew
A picture of a trolling Sea Ray and for those that care, the antennas are up straight, those are outriggers leaning back
Later as we trolled we had a hit on one of the lines again. This time my son Caleb, pulled in a nice sailfish after a 45 minute battle
We practiced responsible catch and release on this one
When we returned to trolling, we had a nice Wahoo that somehow threw the hook as we tried to gaff it to bring it in the boat.
Since weather was nice we decided to stay out that night so we motored a few miles to 800 feet of water and cut the motors ( not the generator) to drift.
We then dropped 2 humongous squids with huge hooks and flashing disco ball light attachments to about 200 ft. In 15 minutes we had hooked a swordfish and my nephew pulled it in in 30 minutes
I was thinking surely sword fishing isn't this easy, and it wasn't as we only caught a few small sharks the rest of the evening.
Next morning we trolled again and caught nada in deep water so we turned for home, about 65 miles away at this point and trolled with different lures for King Mackeral. We caught a few unimpressive ones and one scrawny dolphin.
We did see a nice rainbow on the horizon
Nephew Cory said take a picture like its coming out if his mouth, so in a spirit of poor taste, I did.
When we made it back to tournament headquarters on Dauphin Island, they took the swordfish off the boat
We were actually in 2nd place until just before the closing time and two other swordfish came in that were bigger and knocked us out of the money
I had a blast, got to spend three days with my son, nephew and 2 old friends, learned a lot about deep water fishing, learned a lot more about using the radar, found out autopilot is the greatest invention ever, and was amazed at the range these boats have at trolling speed or hull speed. I was getting around 2.8 mpg at 8 miles per hour.
Thanks to Frank for finding me low rpm fuel burn numbers so I could feel confident about my range when heading straight out I to open waters
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