Dauphin Island Alabama bluewater 6-10

[Atlanta Tourist]

Took another run with my favorite Captain in the whole world Brian Swindel of Hard Time Charters.
Bluewater had been very scarce. we found a rip and some color 90 miles out.
Days trolling began with small bull dolphin and then wahoo. Afternoon on a near full moon was slow. Did manage a 4 foot cow dolphin. Evening began blckfin jigging which produced a good bite, but these are usually small fish. 2 am saw a huge hit on a hardtail suspended with light stick at apporx 300 feet. Thought we had our sword but when the battle finally drew to a close it was a huge yellowfin! Had to be 180 pounds!
The fish came to leader no problem, leader man led him to center transom. The first mate choose a huge 8inch flying gaff. I was to follow with a 5 inch standard gaff. The first mate took the hit, the leader broke and the fish was GONE!

Hearts were broken, we werent entered in the mississippi gulf classic, but this fish would have won $20,000 in the tournament, wow, dissappointment like this is hard to live with.

I began chunking and got a light pick up and missed, 15 minutes later he made a mistake and a large yellowfin was on. I landed the 100 pound class fish quickly ( in anger I guess). 4-6 am saw a good bite of big blackfins, small yellowfin, a lot of fish were boated, plus a 5 foot cuda to get him out of our way.
The morning was tough, bite slowed and we had to begin the trek back. We stopped for some reef donkeys but most of the fish were short. Ended our trip with a good catch and the hope of trying again later for another monster another day!



small bull




small hoo



fat yellowfin




5 foot cuda



reef donkey




cow dolphin



fat blackfins



small yellowfin

[quack quack]

Looks like a great trip

[Relentless33]

Thats an awesome mixed bag to have, I would've fell to my knees on the spot if we missed the monster yellowfin ops: :cry: :twisted:

[Atlanta Tourist]

Captain we are still going over what went wrong and crying over this fish. May have gone 200 pounds the fish of lifetime (for the gulf, not a west coaster).
We have come to the conclusion that our flying gaff was too big and had too large a diameter of a hook. The thing must be 5/8 inch thick, 8 to 10 inches across, and the tip is sharp but not very tappered. I beleive we made the wrong choice, should have come in with 3 straight gaffs handled by the three 250 pound monsters working the transom.