We got back from San Marcos and I wanted to test out the new trolling set up as well as see what kind of real fuel burn I have. I wasn't going to go at all this weekend, but had a change of heart after dealing with some of the family things. My only plan was to be back at the dock by 1:00 as I have a weekend full of stuff I have to attend (Long story short is my oldest is in a messy divorce and of course we're caught in the middle of it)
Back to fishing. I planned on hitting the 9 and just trolling or casting lures on paddies. The boat ran great on the way out and there were tons of life. (I took mostly video, and need to figure out how to post it, but there was bait, terns, dolphin, Minke Whales, Mola, Flying Makos, and even 2 Hawksbill Sea Turtles! It was awesome, but they were super camera shy.
I stopped on about a dozen paddies, with terns on them, but they were just filled with bait and no gamefish.
The bent butt troller in the middle worked great. I had my new spreader bar trolling way back while also trolling a few other plugs just in case.
The water was pretty cold, so I had to move north to find clean warm water.
The exciting part of the day was watching a GIANT mako fly out of the water next to the boat! Easily 10'... Then he jumped again! I turned the boat so my trollers would go over where he was, but then soon regretted it when he hit the spreader and I was hooked up! Holy sh!t, was this thing going ballistic jumping and thrashing at the surface! I got my other trollers in and started to gain ground trying to figure out what the f@ck I was going to do when I got him to the boat. Just then he jumped and the spreader bar went flying without the shark attached anymore. Whew, it made the decision for me, but ther was one issue. He f@cked up the spreader and I literally lost 1/3 of the rig including the trailer hook...
I lost 3 heads and the trailer. The entire rig needs to be re-tied, but it was worth it for what I had for about 15 minutes.
It was a long ass run back as I went much further than I realized. I passed some breaking fish, but they wouldn't hit any jigs and sunk out the minute I got to them.
All in all I went over 80 miles and burned up more gas than I ever did with the 60 hp.... It was painful refilling, but good to know what sort of range I'll have for the longer trips.
Thanks for reading and this weekend, I'll just be a land lubber. The bay was totally ridiculous with OTL going on. I figured it wouldn't be busy on a Friday, but boy I was wrong.
