Report submitted by 'Oz'

Port Aransas Offshore Report Port Aransas, TX August 1st, 2004 Tweet

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We make it out about 40miles to our destination and started our drift with our 'Rockstar' shark baits suspended at different depths. While things got off to a slow start, the sun was baking us. Scott decided to jump in to cool off. He later finds a giant Remora (Shark Sucker) under the boat.

I give him the camera and he grabs a couple quick pics of the Remora. After Scott's cool down, he jumps in the boat and I jump out. I check out the Remora and after a couple more pics I get back near the surface and hear Scott yell "DOLPHIN!". I turn around an am surrounded by several nice Dorado including a large Bull.

While I have had Cuda's and Jacks swim right up to my mask and stare, I've never seen this with Dorado before. Perhaps they were attracted by their reflection in the mask. They sure weren't shy of me either and almost seemed to enjoy the company. When Sean and Scott started to chum and chum in larger quantities, I felt with a combination of that and the sharkbaits out drifting that it was time to get out of the water and start catching some fish.

After several suspicious passes by the baits, Scott hooks up first and lands one of the smaller Dorado. At this same time the Giant Remora comes from underneath the boat and nails my bait. As I get him close to the boat he shoots under the hull and plasters himself to the bottom of the boat. Since I couldn't pull him free with the light tackle, I have to once again go in the water this time to retrieve the fish which was a task within itself.

Anyhow I get the fish free and from the help of Sean's brother we get it into the boat to add to our supply of custom made chum. By this time we had drifted several miles and still no takers on the shark baits. We see a couple more Dorado come back and one inspects Scotts bait and the other takes my bait. I am hooked up on a nice Bull Dolphin (likely the one in the above underwater pic) that went nuts when hooked. After making about a dozen jumps I get him close to the boat where just out of gaffing range then takes a speed burst and the line wraps around one of the transom plates thus cutting me off in a matter of seconds. I take the time to gain my sanity back and re-rig the almighty ambassador. A new school of Dorado later shows up and I land my first Dorado of the day. Certainly not a monster but a fun fish on light tackle.

As I am dealing with my fish in the boat, Scott hooks up again.. only this time on a Remora. I would soon get back into the Remora action for they would follow in their own schools picking off all the bait and chum. Scott then once again hooks up on a Dolphin and after several beautiful jumps, the fish apparently saw me and the gaff and wanted to end the fight early so its last jump was straight into the boat! Easy enough.

A while would pass and we would drift another several miles before any more action. As another school of Dorado came up, I see a fish that we all thought was a small Ling and tossed to it. Sure enough it took the bait and sure enough it wasn't a Ling, but rather a psychotic Silky Shark which we released because the little guy would have ate any and everything in the boat.

The day goes on and we see more Dorado but no takers. With the previous problems with the boat and new ones mysteriously developing, we decide to chum the rest of our bait stock and get ready to head in. Scott starts chumming bonita and a school of nice Dorado comeby and make a pass. I instantly grab the rod and toss them out as I watch a nice Bull take the bait and Scott watches as the Dorado makes leap after astonishing leap testing the limits of my light tackle.

After several minutes I get the fish in close but takes off headed straight for the shark lines. At that point we all knew I was doomed. By some some mysterious act of the fish gods we were able to untangle the lines and get the fish back to the front of the boat. Still not wanting to come in it takes 5 jumps in a row within about 10 seconds expanding the rest of its energy. We finally get the fish close enough to where Scott could gaff it and then he sticks it. I get in a nice Bull Dolphin that I will take any day on light tackle.

While we did not get any large sharks, we had a blast hammering the Dolphin. We then decide to reel'em in and head back towards Port A. Thenortheast wind and waves were picking up and started to get a chop making it a bumpy ride back. We hit the closest rigs to Port A on the way in and drifted a couple ribbons. The first drive by resulted in Sean's younger brother hooking up and landing a monster Spanish, that had been attacked by a King on the way in. We make another pass only to having get bombarded by Spanish stealing baits. We finally decide to head in. On our way down pass the jetties we are encountered by the Coast Guard telling us to be cautious of the rig the tugs were towing out. Seems the new ConocoPhillips rig was being towed out to it destination wherever that may be. Looks like a good future fishing spot to me!

Anyhow we finally get back in and after an interesting trip the day is over. We fillet up and distribute the fish and everyone has fresh bag of Mahi-Mahi for dinner. Thanks to Seanfor offering to take us out and being an awesome Captain. While we didn't get the monster sharks, we had a load of fun.

Good fun!
-Oz

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