Report submitted by 'Oz'

Monster AJ Offshore Report North Padre Island, TX April 25-26th, 2010 Tweet

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Chris was off from work and we had a moderate to good weather window for an overnight trip. Javier and Jacob joined as we ran out Packery late Sunday morning and was in the Gulf by 11am. Seas were still moderate but the wave period was stretched out so it wasn't too bad. It took a while to get out to our location but we stayed relatively dry. Right off the bat we begin to try to get some Grouper. Since rockstar'n it the night before, felt like crap for about an hour. Anyhow, We have baits out and I finally hook up on what seems like a solid Warsaw on the bottom. I Get the fish up about 100' off the bottom then somehow destroys one of the two drops. I reel in the line and about another 30' it gets hammered hard. A fish picked up the other drop. Thinking it were a Shark at first... I was like... "crap".

The fish was pretty strong and was stripping some line on a locked-down Avet. After a few minutes I finally get it to where we can see color. At first glimpse... we saw it and were like 'damn shark...' As it gets closer we notice that it is different, something ain't right. Then we see what it was... it was a monster donkey AJ! Bonkers. We get a couple gaffs in him and into the boat... Monster!!

Jacob jumps in and helps hold the beastly jack up for a pic

Specs of the fish were 70" total length, 65" fork length, 38" girth. Est 118 by way of weight formula.

At the current time I thought the state record was in the 140's so I didn't worry about it. Plus, we had a fish box issue so we did keep it but was maintained as well as it could have. No ones fault, but we did want to take it in to get it weighed... to bad it was the very first fish of the trip and we weren't going to be back for another day. Oh well, we get back to work. We eventually get a visitor that would come and hang out with us for a while..

Chris finally hooks up and puts a med size fish in the boat...

We duked it out for a while but things were just slow. Were losing fish on jigs but slow day overall. We then proceeded to troll for the last couple hours of daylight...

The troll was very slow. We blame in on the NW winds. Nothing much to do but duke it out til sunset.

During the night we would setup and swordfish. Didn't take long and an 80W starts to scream bloody murder. Fish never got the hook and dropped it after over a minute. I am bringing that bait in and guessing the Sword followed it back until it came across Chris' bait. Then Chris hooks up and begins to get smoked on a 50W. After 2-3 minutes the hook pulls. Damn. Good fish. We bring the baits back in and both are clearly evident of swords. We put baits back out and as the seas glassed over, things remained calm the rest of the night. The next morning we wake up and begin to troll immediately. Our feathered friends return as well.

Things were very slow in the morning with the troll as well. We spent hours trolling and nothing. Saw a couple other boats out with no luck either.

The birds were invading us like an Alfred Hitchcock film. They were there on the boat picking of very tiny insects/flies and also drinking the condensation build up of water in any small crack or area that would hold it. This particular bird was a bit more hardcore and went straight for the Monster energy drink... think we eventually saw it fly off and spontaneously burst into a fireball.

However, with the trolling being on the slow side. It did give me an opportunity to get a few decent pics of our avionic friends.

Another pic...

Since the trolling sucked, we figured we'd go back and hammer some more AJ's. At first I was losing some nice fish on jigs and there was nothing I could do. We then decide to live bait real quick and begin to get into them. In between fending off the Silky Sharks, Jacob gets hooked up this time...

Gaff Shot

Jacob's largest AJ yet...

I end up getting one nice AJ to the boat via jig

Not bad for a homemade jig...

Chris then gets into the action but ends up hooking a shark..

We got the fish to the boat and it was a foul hooked Sandbar just over 6'. By now it is 5pm Monday. Time to head in. We get packed away and ready for the long ride home. On the way back I keep having that big AJ stuck in my head and wondering how close to the record she really is... or if she has lost too much weight til where she might not even tip triple digits. I won't know til the next morning the earliest. Anyhow, we make it back safe and sound after another great adventure on the water. Thanks to Jacob, Javier, and Chris for another fine trip.

The next morning I wake up and with the fish taken care of much as possible, I take it to Roy's. I can visually see that the fish has lost a bit of weight and mass, particularly in the posterior section where it was least preserved. We grab the certified scale and bring it outside not to dirty up the place. We drag the fish over and get her on there.... On the 3rd day since it was caught, and partially iced and fully bled, it hits the scale at 103 and something something ounces. Still a big triple digit fish! If the fish was brought back in fresh, it would have been a different story and would be very close to the current state record that is 64.90". If they measured it to the fork, then mine was bigger at 65". If they measured it by the total, then mine was several inches longer. Regardless, I am still happy that it is a hell of a fish. I believe this to be my 12th or 13th different species of fish which has exceeded 100lbs. Pretty damn cool! Guess we'll just have to go back out and catch a bigger one.

I get back home after Roy's and didn't trust the quality of the the meat (and present parasites known for AJs), therefore I re-arranged one of the deep freezers to store an 'ERB', aka Epic Rockstar Bait. And trust me, it will get run sometime this summer on a calm night from the beach, with no more than two killer grander baits out of it. That should be an adventure in itself. Tune in for that!

Til next time, whether it be sand, open ocean or foreign seas...

-Oz

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