We have a chartered trip going out of Freeport on August 3rd on The Blue Fin, a Capt’n Elliott’s boat.
Here’s a link to the boat:
http://www.deep-sea-fishing.com/blue.html
Trip Upade: 8/4/2006
The Blue Fin trip is now over, and we all had a blast. This might even turn into a bi-annual event. I submit it should be the “Bi-Annual No Bananas Inivitational.”
We ended up with 12 on the boat, which included: Me, Bryan, my Dad and my brother and a friend of his, Tim, David, Marc, Matt, Nathan, Randy and Anthony. At 5:35, he headed out from the dock toward the jetties and got to the jetties just before 6 a.m. The seas were 2-4 feet, and everyone was excited out of the shoot.
We headed first for Salvadore Ridge where we found a pretty descent herd of Amberjacks. Three were boated, including one for me, while a few others caught Rainbow Runners. After half an hour or so, they turned off, and we move to a Beeliner honey hole. As soon as we got there, we started catching Vermillion Snapper with most on the boat boating at least 10. We stayed at the honey hole for at least an hour and a half and ended up with over 40 really nicely sized Beeliners. A few “Oceanliners” were even caught.
From there, we headed towards the Tall Rock formation where we found a nice Red Snapper hole that boated us at least 30 keepers and a few other species of fish as well. Dave, Bryan and I landed some really nice King, my Dad caught a gaggle of Snappers, and Nathan caught an impressive Ling. After hitting another hole with more snapper, king and beeliners, we headed for some Shrimp Boats in the area.
At around 2:30, we pulled up to the first shrimp boat and changed from our bottom rigs to live bait and free line rigs. We all put poles in and got nothing, so we headed to the second set of two shimpers that were anchored nearby. As soon as the chum was thrown and the lines hit the water, the fish were ON! We started seeing Ling and Dolphin around the boat, but it seemed that most got caught on the Bonita that were swarming the baits. Matt had the first dolphin in his line, and it was jumping out of the water, showing all of us how amazing those fish are. I told Matt to keep the dolphin in the water, as more are likely to come close to see what all of the commotion is. However, I didn’t specify that the fish should be kept in the water close to the boat, and his fish finally got off.
A quick side note: when a dolphin is caught, reel it in as close to the boat as possible but keeping it in the water to bring other dolphins around. Then, you can just toss a bait to the others and can catch a few more.
After a couple of minutes the poles bent and a dolphin was on Marc’s line. Marc boated his first mahi and immediately had a Ling on his line as soon as his bait hit the water again. Matt got a nice Amberjack and Marc landed his first Ling. A few others got a few fish as well, with Tim catching a large king. We wanted to make another drift run from the shrimpers, but it was time to go.
All in all, everyone had a great time, and we up with quite a catch. Here’s the final tally:
- 40 Beeliners
- 30-40 Snappers
- 8 Kingfish
- 5 Amberjack
- 4 Rainbow Runners
- 2 Ling (Cobia)
- 1 Dolphin
Here are some after trip pics!
Click here for the BIG PICTURE of the motley group of fishermen
About the Boat
The Blue Fin was an awesome boat for chartering, as it’s got plenty of room inside for most people and has a descent sized vbirth that will sleep 4. The boat is immaculately clean, has a large live well, and a good sized fish box that can hold a ton of fish. Everyone on the trip thought the boat was awesome, and Monty did a great job as Captain, and Raul kicked ass as a deck hand.
About the Fish
Here are some ID pics of the fish caught:
Vermillion Snapper (over 40 keepers)
Red Snapper (30-40 keepers)
Amberjack (5 keepers)
Ranbow Runner (4 keepers)
Kingfish (8 keepers)
Ling / Cobia (2 keepers)
Dolphin / Mahi Mahi (1 keeper)
Gray Triggerfish (1 caught and released)
Posted by Brandon 
