Overnighter outta Orange Beach, AL

[Deep_Sea_Gull]

I just enjoyed a great meal. I had toro sashimi with wasabi, ponzu and gari. I chased that with sake.

Thanks for a great trip Capt. Johnny Greene, Reuben, Jon and Kenny. I had a great time aboard the Intimidator. I found that she was a well planned boat that suited her fishing purposes. I have no problems reccomending that all can find a fishing trip aboard the Intimidator a memorable experience.

We left Orange Beach Marina loaded with all sorts of tastey provisions. The Intimidator carried a load of earnest anglers and enough tackle to please the largest tackle ho amongst us. Yes, we were loaded for.... tuna.

I found it interesting that before we started adding new baits to the livewell, Reuben shaved several slices off a chunk of frozen squid and fed it to the livewell occupants. He didn't want them to eat the newbies. I had never considered that the bait has to eat too. After all, we wanted them to keep their energy up. They had an important role in our fishing expedition.

We made our first stop at the first bouy out of Perdido Pass. Crazy fish quickly went into the livewell. Willing biters on our sabiki rigs, they were a welcome addition to the live bait already circling in the Intimidator's livewell.

Our next stop was about a mile off the beach. We targeted the cigar minnows that Capt Johnny had located. We had to work for the cigar minnows that we found. They were scattered and required frequent repositioning in order to secure adequate supplies. I am confident that we caught enough so that later trips were using cigar minnows that we caught.

We headed offshore after we caught our cigar minnows. We put out the bent butt 9/0 trolling rods. These were loaded with a topshot of Monel wire, trolling lead, mono shock leader and a lure of choice on stranded wire.
We ran southwest. We had a fish on and nobody was ready/wanted to take it so I became the angler. Our first fish in the box was a medium sized king mackeral.

Capt Jon cooked us an excellent breakfast in the galley. We dined on scrambled hen fruits and fresh biscuits. Richard added some great tasting boudin sausages to the menu. I pigged out on this tastey offering.

We started bottom fishing some 50 miles offshore in beautiful emerald green water. I quickly saw what makes the Intimidator "THE" crew to snapper fish with. These guys know how to fish for red snappers.

I fished snapper with a topless international 16S, on an all roller rod, loaded with spectra and a 50lb windon. As I was readying my rig, Capt Jon informed me that flourocarbon was invisible about 25 feet down but shines like a neon light below 100 feet. Be that as it may, I have had good success utilizing flourocarbon. I used a 8 oz lead, Sampo ball bearing swivel, 6 ft of 40 lb flourocarbon and a black Mustad hook.

My first snapper was a throw back. That was my only undersized snapper. Most drops we fished cut baits. We were catching snappers, triggers and amberjacks. Capt Johnny commented that we were making his job easy.

I know that I was fishing with a group of serious fishermen. These guys knew how to shuffel around the stern to keep the angles out of the lines. Tangles were few and quickly resolved. I can reccomend any member of this group as an accomplished fisherman. They were the kind of folks I want to fish alongside of me.

We kept working our way toward where we wanted to be for the evening. I recall one particularly productive area. I caught some average snappers on cut bait. Capt Jon said that I was giving my fish nose bleeds by winding them up so fast. LOL That is one reason that I use a 16s. Capt Johnny repositioned us and noted that he had some nice returns on the bottom showing on his furuno unit. At his suggestion, I started fishing live baits on the bottom. First fish was a nice black snapper. Others were playing with nice AJ. My second bait was inhaled by a solid fighting fish. I asked our youngest angler Tyler if he wanted this fish. I got a yes after I assured him that I had a low gear on the reel that would take care of a big fish. I was expecting AJ. Tyler got the largest red snapper of the trip. He did a great job handlinh the fish. I managed to dig up two more large red snappers on live baits from that stop. The remaing crew was scoring on the AJ. Some were undersized, but you couldn't tell that from the fight they gave.

Somewhere along this time, Reuben fired the Green Egg smoker. When it was ready, he put a pork tenderloin on the grill. I was starving from the first sniff. That was some great bbq there. I don't care who ya are.

We continued south and west. We made a couple of stops targeting amberjacks with little success. The third stop was the charm. Everybody that wanted to catch an AJ had their turn. Capt Johnny put us on some good sized Ajs. I just sat and watched. The 6/0 rods did not have a gimbal butt and Capt Jon had little confidence in my 30's ability.

After the AJs we left for the area where we would fish the evening. Since we had a ways to go, I retired for a nap.

I was awakened to a boat going in and out of gear. I soon learned that I had drawn #3 in the trolling rotation. The first two fish were yellow fins and too short to keep. My turn! I grabbed a water from the icechest and got my Smitty's XL Long Range Special plate and belt on.

We were trolling custom roller rods with 50LRS loaded with 80 lb mono around an unnamed oil rig. We were dragging maylar skirted ballyhoos rigged with a bit of wire and a bait spring on 9/0 live bait hooks. The outriggers on the Intimidator were awesome. We had 2 baits back long on the outriggers. A wayback on the center rigger. 2 short baits on the corners and a flat line down the middle.

I didn't have to wait too long for my turn. The starboard rigger line popped from the Aftco roller troller with a strong bite. I took the rod out of the holder and guided it into my plate. Reuben helped me to get the straps onto the reel and the fight was on.

I made good progress for a short while gaining some line. That changed with a suddenness. I had a good bend in the rod and a fish taking drag. I discussed the drag setting on the reel and what kind of line it held with Capt Jon as I was waiting for the fish to settle down. I learned that I was hooked up with 23lbs drag and that I had less than half a spool of 80 lb mono remaining when the fish settled down and I could start to work.

We were nip n tuck, give n take for a period. Capt Johnny slowly chased the fish to regain some line as I did my job of putting line on the reel and keeping a bend in the rod.

I was asked at one point in the fight if I needed to handoff. Nope. Not me. I did need a couple of bottled waters from the cooler. I wore some and drank some. I was red and hot on this fish.

We discussed increasing the drag and low gear as the fight wore onward. I decided that I would use high speed as long as I could.

Capt Johnny did a great job of circling backwards on our quarry and I continued to wind and follow the fish from side of the boat to another. We did increase the drag past strike. Capt Jon had to remind me to use a smooth movement when I lifted the rod and followed through with the wind down. I am a too eager angler. I try to put as much pressure on a fish as I can stand.

I really enjoyed watching the sun set hook up to a good fish. I couldn't tell you how much time elasped. 45 minutes to an hour? Maybe someone can assist here. I do know that I had to take my sunglasses off.

We were slowly backing down on this fish with the drag stepped a little higher and most of my line back when I noticed something strange. I was not fighting a fish straight down but rather away from the boat. What???

I got my answer. Someone yelled look at that bill! I looked up from my work to see a blue marlin violently shaking her head at the surface.

Well readers, that was it. My line went slack as I reeled at my max hoping that my fish was still on my hook.

I reeled to the boat a badly mauled, bruised and scaled yellow fin of about 30 lbs.

In hind sight.... I had a ballyhoo that a yellowfin bit that soon became bait for a blue marlin. The too small hook pulled and she was able to toss that mean tuna out. I pray that she is healthy and thank her for the dance. I have the leader and the memory.

We then pulled up to the rig to begin chumming and chunking. The surface current and the deeper current ran in different directions, Chunking was difficult at best. We also began jigging with diamond jigs and I used a Braid products jig. This jigging paid off with nice black fin hookups. I caught several on my international 12T topless 2 speed. Mike seemed to have the hot jig stick. He caught several and handed off several. We jigged and tried live baits along with chunking until the work boat tied off to the rig requested that we leave. They were going to start pumping flammable products.

We motored a short distance and shut down for dinner. Reuben fired the Green Egg smoker and cooked an excellent dinner of ribeyes and tbones. Capt Jon prepared potatoes and a salad. We all enjoyed this excellent dinner and the lightining show to our southeast.

I hit the rack soon after dinner. I was tired from spending the day fishing and we were drifting slowly towards the southwest. Wakeup would come at 3:30 and I didn't feel that jigging or sword dropping would be productive.

I danced with that marlin all night! I did hear when Capt Johnny fired the engines up though. Time to rise and shine! Well, I got up anyway.

We went to the Beercan. Chunking was more difficult here than earlier. Live baits yielded a cuda... Jigging was once again productive on the black fins. We were joined by two other sportfisher charters in the early morning hours.

We started trolling ballyhoos again shortly before dawn. We had good luck doing this. Unexpectedly, most of the anglers chose to return/stay in the rack at this time. Mike and I were the anglers along with the expert rigging of Reuben and Jon. We caught several blackfins each. We all got soaked in the nice morning shower. Except Mike. He put on a pancho. Mike and I took turns on the fish. We had several double headers. I made the mistake of going to the head... Mike hooked up to the lone, large yellow fin of the trip. I would guestimate it about 80 lbs.

Capt Greene called for the kite! We soon had two live baits swimming underneath the kite. We had several hookups and many misses. Most were blackfins. Nick did get a bigeye.

Sooner than I wished it was time to head in. Richard had Reuben fire the Green Egg smoker and cooked some more of his excellent Boudain Sausage. Capt Jon added biscuits to our breakfast. There may have been more food. I don't know. I was still stuffed from the day before so I didn't notice.

We redeployed the 9/0 trolling rigs on the way in. It was an unsucessful effort. I watched the spread as long as I could. The water changed from cobalt blue to emerald green to a light blue before I decided to hit the rack for a nap.

While I was napping many of our crew arose. Someone fired the Green Egg and cooked some hamburgers and weiners. I'm sure that it was great.

I woke to Capt Johnny slowing down inside Perido pass.

I had an epic blue water adventure aboard the Intimidator. Great eats. Good company. Excellent fishing. Thanks to all for the memories.

[Mike]

Great report... does the captain have a website? or any photos we can see?

Thanks

[Deep_Sea_Gull]

We're working on getting some photos available.

Capt Johnny's website is:
www.fishorangebeach.com

I'm sure that he will not have reports for a couple of days. He has no desire to give the potlickers any information.

[Deep_Sea_Gull]

Here are some pictures courtesy of Richard.
The comments are his..

DSG on his Mack


Tyler with his AJ


DSG starting the dance


DSG dancing


DSG near endgame


Reuben and Capt. Jon fitting Tyler who was first up for tuna


Fat Boy with a BFT


Mike on his YFT


Mike hugging his YFT - shoulda heard the thump when it hit the deck!


Almost home dangit


Snaps anyone


or would you prefer tuner? !!

[Capt Ted]

Great Trip!!!