First offshore trip of the season

[taggteam]

I've been chomping at the bit to try out these shiny new outriggers....
Left the dock just before 3AM, cleared the Cape May inlet and jutted a bit south to avoid the parade of boats headed to the Hot Dog/Masseys Canyon area....as that's where there had been a good Yellowfin bite.

Set the autopilot...dimmed the GPS and put the radar overlay on with a 1 mile range and sat back in my reclining help chair at 15kts slow night cruise. We hit the fishing grounds just after first light and had a spread of 8 variously rigged.... from natural to large Ilander Lure in the WWWWB position in our search for some Sushi ingredients.

We started at the Hot Dog and worked towards the notch on the 30 line....with a lot of weeds to contend with...and an inexperienced and not so lively crew. We finally saw one boat out of 150 hooked up to what appeared to be a big fish...so we pounded that area for a bit. Boated one dolphin about 10lbs and dropped the hook on a white that was pretty insistent about the flatline baits just outside of the prop wash. He beat them both up pretty good by the time I got to drop him a bait....which he took...but never came tight on. My Girl watched him beat up the baits with his bill....head out of the water several times....which I think is a "first memory" that she'll never forget.

All in all, it was a great day.....boat ran from 3AM to 6PM without a hiccup....
We returned to port, cleaned the boat and the fish, and planned the next nights dinner for all aboard....Mahi Tacos with fresh mango salsa....grilled the Mahi on my Kamado wood fired grill....

The only thing better than catching my first offshore species aboard this boat was the time spent with family and friends...both aboard the boat and after...eating our catch together. Priceless...

I love the smell of Ballyhoo and Diesel smoke in the Morning.....

[taggteam]

...

[Russell]

Congratulations on a great day fishing. Seeing a billfish working over your spread is a thrill all of you will remember. But fresh mahi makes great table fare.

[Pedro]

Good for you,,I'm in Ct and the only time I catch Mahi is in the tropics,,I don't think I'm brave enough to go that far offshore in my 96 te with 21 year old motor,,,yet....
Every season (fourth year I've owned it)this boat impresses me more,,good luck out there !!!

[Jeremyvmd]

Good job on the mahi and white! ive been hearing good reports from the south of the state but not as much up by me...need to get offshore this year but its not looking good so far:/

[taggteam]

Yeah Jeremy...the yellowfin bite at the southern lumps in the Hot Dog area is pretty good. I had to do some work around the house this past weekend...and missed a trip. I went down to check on the boat yesterday...and my dockmates were all cleaning YFT from the area.....

Not big fish....25-30 lbs. But...pretty plentiful from what I understand. Hoping to get out soon..

[taggteam]

So...I finally was able to head back to the shore after weeks of packing...moving...etc. This is the first I had time to refuel after the trip. I'm amazed...The Hot Dog is roughly 60 miles form Cape May. We ran there and back....and trolled at 6.5 knots for 8 hours minimum (call it 50 miles). That's a rough estimate of 170 miles traveled.

My fuel burn was a total of 70 gallons!

[catalina_mike]

I reset my Furuno GPS after filling and track the NM traveled for fule planning. I use 1.7 NM per gal for on the fly estimates.

[WillieC]

"15kts slow night cruise."

Priceless.

(From an A25 swabby.)

[catalina_mike]

Yes I was running a vessel to Los Cabo at 10 knots non stop from San Diego. I was glad they had night vision binoculars as I do not like running at night. 10 knots was fast enough....

[Oldies But Goodies]

We have a 1982 Albin 40. We are located in Kemah, Texas.
My question is this...is this boat capable easily of going down ICW to Freeport, Texas and then out offshore for 30 or 40 miles
to fish for Snapper>? I'm just not sure this is the right kind of boat to do this safely..especially with one motor.