20 July 2007

I met Ben, Jim, Sandy, and Carlton at Galvez at 0600 for a morning of Kingfishing. We first stopped for some Pinfish, then headed for the Pass to try the reds. The tide was neap and without any current the bite was non-existent. A short run to the bait boat for some live Cigar Minnows and off to the Sea Buoy.

Once we stopped by the buoy, I put the kite up and set out two flat lines. As I was attempting to get the down-rigger set, disaster struck. I finished getting everything ready to deploy the 'rigger and stood up... right into a hook that quickly found it's way into the top of my ear, to the barb. It took several minutes to assess the problem and attempt to remove the hook. Thankfully I had a few Docs on board who weren't freaked out at the sight of my blood, and with their help, and a good pair of pliers, we safely removed the hook and went right on fishing.

The bite was slow, but we still managed to boat a few nice fish, like this one that Carlton caught.


























As the morning wore on the wind died and I was forced to take the kite down before it came down by itself. At that point we began slow-trolling our way back towards the Pass. Our time was drawing to a close and the boat traffic was increasing dramatically. I asked the fish gods for just one more fish ( a nice 20 pounder would do!), and was prepared to give it another 20 min or so to happen.

A 40' boat passed us just about the same time that the 12lb spinning outfit started screaming out line... and I mean SCREAMING. Jim grabbed the rod and held on with everything he had. He looked over to me and asked as seriously as humanly possible "Are you sure I'm not caught on that boat ?!?" I told him that I was as sure as could be!

The initial run was around 200 yards and it took a long time to put it all back on the reel. The fight lasted about 25-30 min before we finally got a look at what had eaten our live cigar minnow. A BIG King. Another 10 min passed before we could subdue this monster and introduce him to the gaff. We boated the fish to high fives all around and shouts of congratulations to and from everyone. I attempted to get a weight with the Boga Grip, but my 30lb model immediately bottomed out. The big scale was brought out and we got a reading of 35 lbs, what a fish on a 12lb outfit!!! Congrats Jim on a job well done.







We unanimously agreed that that fish would be hard to top, so we set off for the ramp.



Thanks again Ben, Jim, Sandy, And Carlton for a seriously adventurous morning (nothing I haven't come to expect from this bunch).

Capt. Josh