O'SIDE Invitational Port Canaveral

[BrassyHooker]

I hate multiple posts on multiple sites so forgive my late post here.. There is some awesome posts here by some fantastic anglers and I want to share the whole experience so bear with me on the read.. I just don't think the average "Joe" realizes what it takes to go 140 miles off and Tuna Fish...

I got a little boat and few friends that I know I can really hard core fish with , one of them that I will never second guess is my Daughter Ash..

Before I get started, Island Style is a 27 Contender put together by JD and Shanda and we have followed each other to the ends of the earth it seems from Port Canaveral to Grand Cay in "buddy boat" mode, they know where everything is on my boat and will put the time in to make sure we are successful..

Also, we are sponsored out of PC by Blue Points Marina (Brand New) and usually the Team is all ladies..

As the Dwyers Tournament Ticket Sportfishing Charters approached we all watched the weather and I was especially captivated by the 15-20 Knot SW forecast offshore at 110 KM.. Came time for the Captains party and Capt Dwyer informed me the tourney had been pushed.. So a couple weeks later it was time again.. The week before was broke into sections as far as maint., rigging, running for bait, etc.. Next Captains Party we were ready..

But, Mama wasn't feeling good (my wife), Sara was in Alaska serving her country, she is a SSgt in the Air Force and has a job that is well pretty much classified (I'm also in and I don't know exactly what she does).. So a last minute phone call to the toughest/hard core person I could trust and the crew was Ashley, JD, Shanda, Jimmy, and myself.. No pukers, no lazy people, just a bunch of misfits..

The tourney consisted of an aggregate format with the top 3 fish getting overall Top Boat then it went to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place yellowfin, billfish release for Sails, Blues, and Stripes (must show control of the fish in a pic), Largest Skippy, Largest Mahi, and Smallest Wahoo (yes smallest)..

Know it came to entry fee.. The $500 entry was paid by my sponsor and it was like $2200 for all in on the various category's.. Well an 8 day trip to the Bahamas, trips to Indiana and just everyday summer fun had everyone's check books a little low so we opted to enter the Mahi, Skippy, and wahoo and against everything we have been taught and the tough lessons learned we stayed out of the Billfish and the Tuna.. We literally were just happy that we get to fish this tourney and oh by the way the trophy's are amazing..

So in flat calm seas and at 11pm we headed for our fish back destination.. Jimmy and I turned the radar down to 2 miles and put her at cruise.. I have a 28' Whitewater with an inboard Yanmar and the ride was amazing.. The rest of the crew was in a taco of bean bags and a tarp and out like lights except for us jammin..

Now it's 1am and I'm beat, I woke JD up and he lasted for a minute and went down.. Next thing I know Its 550am and I awoke to the turbo spooling down.. I get up and ask "Where we at?" Jimmy states, "Just where you told me to be!..." I fire up the radar to "bird mode" and holy cow there must have been a hundred birds spread out in singles looking for the fish, we actually chilled for a couple of hours and I took another nap and Jimmy and Shanda pointed us south working the cool water we were in..

Refreshed and ready, I got on the helm and headed for it, within 15 minutes we came in on an a school and landed some blacks and a nice skippy we didn't dare bleed..

All day and 20 miles NE of Walkers we worked school after school just slamming Blackfin and skippy's.. Around 1pm we shut her down, made some sandwiches and spent about 30 minutes in the water.. Then with the whole crew refreshed we came into the "school".. Frigates, birds of 3 sorts, and volkswagons freejumpin is what we saw.. 1st fish on and staying on the throttle until we almost saw gold Ashley goes to work.. 10' behind the boat a piece of crap fairly new speedster fails... The back hook breaks right off... .. Next couple of passes we were marred with tangles and just weird things happening because everyone was fired up.. But with a few rigging changes and good spread we actually witnessed this pig freejump then hammer one of our lines.. Ashley is up again but this time she doesn't get a pass and beats this thing all the way until the gaffs were sunk and the high fives were flying.. She was in stand up gear, Tiagra 50, with 80lb flouro tied mono to flouro with a Uni to Uni..

OK, so it is dam near 730 pm and we have 3 yellowfin in the boat, a very nice one, one pretty nice and one just over legal, a ton of blackfin and the skippies were all sacrificed to the fish gods on every pass in a chunk.. Except for one ..

I spot a slick just off the pack and state I'm gonna check it out and possibly take care of the lack of Mahi situation.. 5 minutes later a billfish of nice size crashes the flatline.. This time Shanda is up since she has been looking for a blue since she was born.. Not one jump and some hella runs we were actually thinking sword for a little while.. Finally boatside he came and it was a Blue around 150-200lbs.. His head was pointing straight down and we just could not get it to turn up, we were running 80lb flouro double sleeved wind ons made by yours truly and I would not let anyone leader it.. Just as I was about to tell JD to take a gaff and just loop the bill to pull it up KABAAM.. The 80 lets go and next thing I know.. Shanda looks at Ash, I look at Shanda, and we are all teared up... Yea Yea call it like you see it but it sucked...

So, we are sitting 130 miles SW of Port Canaveral and off we go.. Beautiful trip on the way in with me on the helm for the 4+ hours with a full moon and calm seas.. We clear the port and go to where the Ticket is docked.. Capt Dywer checks all our fish to ensure they are not mangled or propped or harpooned and of we go to bed with a weigh in time of 1240 at Rusty's Port Canaveral..

Wake Up Sunday morning, run down to the house, grab Mama (Brenda) and its to the boat for some boat cleaning and fish counting..Pull into weigh in, Ed (Capt Dwyer) absolutely blew up Blue Points which also sponsored the tourney and kept Ashley and the girls and the fact we were the smallest boat pumped up the whole time.. We held top boat until the 11th and final boat weighed in and the they beat us with 3 nice fish.. Now remember the Skippy? At 19 lbs it took close to $900 and Ash's Tuna took 1st Place Tuna at 76.5 lbs

We got a Kick Ass Tuna Trophy an amazing painting of a Mako busting skippies which I gave to the sponsor..

I hope I have not lost everybody here, but a short report with the highlights just doesn't get it.. Thanks to the crew for making me and the hooker look like rock stars and giving me that puffed out chest that only comes with Mission accomplishment...





From Left to Right Shanda, Ash, Jimmy, JD, and Me















Capt Dywer and Ash

[Disco Lady]

COÑO!!!! Congrats on your win! brother.

DL,

[chummer]

Congratulations on putting it all together. Thanks for the detailed report and all of the pictures. It's nice to hear of some tuna 'catching' and other exciting things happening over on the otherside.

[PETRAFIED]

Way to go! It just takes one good one! Caught a dozen last week and plan on taking a shot at it again tomorrow!

You have to replace the rings on the speedsters. They are crap!

[BrassyHooker]

Originally Posted by PETRAFIED

Way to go! It just takes one good one! Caught a dozen last week and plan on taking a shot at it again tomorrow!

You have to replace the rings on the speedsters. They are crap!

Yep, but this time it was the swivel, looks like it binded somehow.. Won't happen again..