Yankee Capts Pulley Ridge Lite Monster Fish Extravaganza

July 16, 2019 by cudamanadventures

What can I say this is another one for the books. I must say thanks to all our sponsors http://www.yankeecapts.com , http://www.h4ljigs.com , http://www.tacklenow.com , http://www.strikertackle.com , suarez liquors at 799 West 29 St, Hialeah, FL ,Victor Colon of Island Girl EVSM Prints, and Ralph of “Rods By Ralph”.

On Thursday it all started with hopes of fishing extra time but electric storms vanished that notion as we had to refuge behind the Dry Tortugas Fort Jefferson, on the way there we had a hook injury miss hap. Friday began with slow fishing and quality pickings then Saturday was epic mayhem with big and quality fish all over the boat. On Sunday around 8:15 am we hit the docks and verified who had the biggest snapper then gave away the rest of the prizes.

We all got there around 10 am to load the boat and fill our coolers with ice. It was hot as heck.

With everything loaded we headed out to sea, I got the whole group together and handed out 3 jigs per pack and two mini bottles of rum and vodka to everyone (some packs included assist hooks provided by tacklenow.com. The jigs were provided by H4LJigs.com , Strikertackle.com and this humble blog. The rum and vodka were sponsored by Suarez Liquors. We raffled the “Next” reel and two packs of assist hook sponsored by http://www.tacklenow.com , Victor the fish slayer won the reel. We then raffled the items sponsored by Rods By Ralph; A 9 foot rod which was won by Mario the unlucky and a custom made gaff won by Jordan the self proclaimed Floyd Mayweather of this Dry Tortugas and winner of this year’s big Fish and big grouper spots.

While going on the way to the fishing grounds I gathered everyone and they all received a pack with jigs sponsored by http://www.strikerjigs.com , http://www.h4ljigs.com and13fishing.com.

Yes the following did happen to Mario the unlucky, the waters were on the bit ruff side and as he was walking upstairs he grabbed the rail and an exposed hook that was on a rod. I had to run to cut the hook of the line and get Mario some help. Jordan tried using a pair of pliers to cu the hook off but it was too small luckily for Marion Ralph had bigger pliers and Jordan cut the hook’s barb then pulled the hook. Tony the mate washed Mario’s finger with hydrogen Peroxide and I applied triple antibiotics and a band aid. Mario was a trooper and continued as if nothing ever happened.

We were a few miles off the Fort and Captain Greg Mercurio told me we had to stop behind the Fort because there were too many electric storms. We waited the entire night and began our voyage to Pulley Ridge at 5:00am.

When morning came Chef Chad had a spread of all sorts of baked goods and potato chips as well as other snacks and fruits.

Breakfast was served with eggs and bacon on a fully loaded bagel. Coffee and soft drinks were available during the entire trip. The $125 meal plan was so well worth it and was never hungry.

It was 11 am and we started fishing. Francis got his first Red Grouper on a Mungus jig sponsored H4L jigs.

Lunchtime came and Chef Chad did not disappoint. There were burgers that you could only find at a 5 start restaurant. this pic does not do it justice.

I was able to get a scamp and a long skinny red grouper while slow jigging a slowpitch jig.

Crab cake appetizer at lunchtime.

Friday night the fishing picked up fast. Here is NY Fire Captain and his first mutton on a Jig.

An hour later he connected with a nice 10 to 11 pound mutton snapper while longfall jigging and slowpitch jigging combination. He had trouble getting fish to bite but we all worked with him and fine tuned his technique until he started catching the fish.

This day was Jordan’s day connecting with a big king and his personal best grouper on the slowpitch jigging, later to beat it by catching another black grouper on bait.

On Saturday Jose was very happy when things turned around for him as he and others on the transom were getting pounded by sharks the day before. He got a really nice African Pompano.

Not to say Victor was happy as he was bringing his line up he got hit by a massive African Pompano as well.

Mario didn’t waist anytime as he saw a mahi mahi and tossed a bait at it.

I switched to speed jigging and connected on a couple of snappers while using H4L Jigs. This 150 gram jig made it to the bottom at 270 feet with strong current.

Victor the fish slayer also connected with an H4L sponsored jig.

William got a nice red grouper on the slowpitch jigging.

I gave a try to the 13 Fishing octopus jig and connected with 2 red groupers, jigs was 6 ounces so I had to wait for the current to slow down. The 9 and 12 ounce jigs seemed to hit the bottom without problems.

Francis kept going back to the Mungus jigs and kept catching red groupers and mutton snappers.

On the last drift Jordan was fishing for mutton snappers on a strip of fresh caught bonito and hooked up to this monster 60 pound black grouper. Hell of a fish!!!!

On the way out a nice scallop and lobster dinner was waiting for us. Chef Cad outdid himself on this one.

The appetizer which I ate as a dessert was a Blackfin Tuna with a mango sauce.

It was another great trip and the sun was setting and we started to wind down and get ready to get get home.

Once at the docks the fish distribution started.

Proof is in the pudding they say, just look at those coolers. Below are Jose still waiting on his fish to be distributed, then Dan and Dan from team Shake and Bake and Francis with full coolers.

Below are George, Chris, Jordan, Captain Greg, Jongsoo and William still waiting on fish to be distributed.

Full coolers and quality fish, this is our heaven.

Here is Jordan and his big grouper and biggest fish of the trip.

The snapper pool was a tough one since there were so many mutton snappers in the 10 to 12 pound range.

I gotta say Robert’s team knew what they were doing and connected with a lot of fish.

Below is Jordan with his winnings for biggest fish and biggest grouper.

Dan won a painting during the last raffle.

Francis also won a painting print during the last raffle.

George won this painting print for catching the biggest mutton.

Victor won the “Next” fishing reel sponsored by http://www.tacklenow.com

Ralph won a pack of jigs for catching the fish grouper and Keith won a pack of jigs for catching the first snapper.

Once again, thanks to all our sponsors and thanks to everyone that fished with us. I must say that the mates were as always working top notch and Chef Chad had our snacks and soft drinks flowing along with great quality meals.

Puerto Vallarta – the one that got away :)

January 11, 2019 by cudamanadventures

Well, fisherman always say “you should have seen how it battled, it must have been the biggest I would have caught, but I lost it!”. Yes, unfortunately it happened to three of us. But that’s how it goes since it’s called fishing not catching.

Bill invited me once again to go on his yearly trip to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Mexico which is next door to Puerto Vallarta but closer to the fishing grounds. On this trip we were to fish with the Osuna brothers of the Marlas Sport Fishing charters. Fishing with me were Bill, his wife LB and Neil. They got to the Bed & Breakfast a day earlier so when I got there it was enough time for me to get comfortable, walk the streets of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, eat good local food and share some stories.

The following morning we had time to eat breakfast and relax a bit.

After, it was time to setup our gear.

I added my 50 lb flouro leader to the 50 lb test main line on my Valiant 400 and secured it with a PR Knot.

Next was adding the 100 lb flourocarbon leader to the 80 lb test main line on my Gorilla 12 reel.

Below is my gear ready to go fishing. Stella 8,000 on a 7 foot popping rod for small tunas and other fish if present. The Alutecnos on a 400 gram jigging rod to be used as a jigging/bait rod for the tunas. The last two are 7 foot slow jigging rods for the snappers and groupers that may be lurking the waters in the 200 to 25 foot depths we were fishing.

After setting up our gear we went for a nice lunch at a local restaurant called La Glorieta de Don Enrique. Very well recommended to all. From the clam sushi to the shrimp on avocado bed to the local beer and the different hot sauces, everything was tasty and excellent on that day.

Cudaman Adventures , fishing report, fishing photos

Once filled to my limits we went back to the Bed & Breakfast and gather our equipment to load in the boat.

Cudaman Adventures , fishing report, fishing photos

As the mates finished preparing we just watched the pangas come in and out of the marina.

Cudaman Adventures , fishing report, fishing photos

On the way we were.

We did stop to get some bait called Caballitos, these are what we call goggle eyes.

Cudaman Adventures , fishing report, fishing photos

The bait commercial fisherman showed us his hand made sabiki rig, which was a long line of hooks with fish skin and what looked like feathers added to them. It was very interesting to see.

We continued our adventure into the sunset and to the fishing grounds.

Cudaman Adventures , fishing report, fishing photos

We got there at night and caught some squid to be used as part of the live bait in the morning. As morning came we decided to do some slow vertical jigging and slowpitch jigging while there were baits on the flat lines and the kites. Below I hooked up with a Pacific Almaco Jack.

Later it was a nice size Hachinago Pargo, wich is a kind of red snapper.

Next up I decided to try a new jig on the market, it looks like lobster and to my surprise it was a favorite to skip jacks and pacific bonitos. Both of which were needed as bait for the big tunas. Unfortunately I lost the $25 jig to a rock at the bottom of the sea.

Bill closed the morning slowpitch vertical jigging with a Cabrilla also known as broomtail grouper.

The flat lines and kites were not producing so the captain decided to start trolling live skipjacks. It was my turn as one of the lines got hit. I really wasn’t ready as I did not have my fighting belt on so I had to rail the rod a bit until Bill let me borrow his belt. I fought the fish and tough I was gaining line when the line went slack and then I started reeling real fast fearing the the fish was actually swimming southeastward the boat, then again I felt the pressure and started to reel but to our dismay it was no longer a fish I was pulling but the buoy of a commercial long liner, AAARRRRRGGGG!!!!, I lost the first big fish of the day.

We started trolling again. We had about 5 baits to start with so we were good for a bit.

As we kept trolling we saw some commercial fishermen pulling their long lines filled with yellowfin tuna.

Then the lines started singing and it was LB’s turn, she fought the fish for about half hour or perhaps even 45 minutes but got fatigued and had to hand the rod to her husband Bill whom fought the fish for about another hour and fifteen minutes. The fish was up a good three time as we saw it’s fins skimming the waters. The leader came in the rod;s guides and as soon as it would do so it would find energy and make another run for it’s life. Unfortunately for Bill and fortunate for the fish the hook came off about 15 feet from the boat. We now lost a second fish. This one was a big fish over 250 pounds without a doubt.

They always say three times a charm and it sure was. On Neil’s turn bill set him up with his fighting belt. Neil started the fight on the transom and when the fight started to be a tug of war between Neil and the fish, the Captain recommended the fighting position be moved to the bow where a few minutes later the fish was gaffed and sent to the transom to be hauled in the boat.

Below is Neil and his catch of a lifetime. By the measurement the fish was around 237 pounds.

Once that fish was caught the sunset came upon us and with high winds and rough seas decision was made to take refuge in the bay of the island and spend the night there.

It was dinner time now so the captain decided to surprise us wit a delicacy prepared by his own hands, Yellowfin Tuna Belly cooked on the grilled with spices and seasoned with a mayo, ketchup and mustard base sauce. I must say it was delicious.

Adding to that was chicken and beef fajitas.

Below is the captain grilling the tuna bellies and corn tortillas.

The ending plate of deliciousness.

As morning came we started jigging again. A few Huachinangos snappers and chicken groupers were caught.

Once the bite slowed down it was time for first breakfast; fresh fruits and yogurt.

We trolled and trolled without success so second breakfast came in handy :)

Then it was lunch time when we ate delicious tuna rolls, sushi and sashimi.

We had plenty bait and this day we lost at least three hook ups. Then a nice hookup ended being a porpoise that was released. Night time came and bottom fish and flat lines were the order. We got no hits on the flat lines but bottom fishing ended with plenty of Perro Jacks (horse eye jacks) and a couple of yellowfin snappers.

At dinner time we had a nice plate of seared tuna, spaghetti and salad.

The trip was a bust for me as I was not able to land a yellowfin tuna this time, buy hey it’s fishing not catching. All in all next time I will request the use of the kite and flat lines more often to give us a chance to do some slow vertical jigging and slowpitch jigging. At the airport I had nice meal ad one drink, then I was on my way back home.

Good by La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and Puerto Vallarta!

Until next time, tight lines!

Herbert

Capt. Yuri Dry Tortugas Slow Jigging and Bait 9/14/18

September 28, 2018 by cudamanadventures

I was invited to go fishing on a trip to the Dry Tortugas. I was asked to replace a fisherman that was not able to make the trip so I jumped in. Many times you arrange a trip in advance things come up and people can’t make it. I was in their shoes as well looking for a replacement but ended going fishing as I was able to resolve my plans. On this trip my goal was to test my back and jig as much as I could. I’m glad I’m able to enjoy jigging a lot more now. I jigged the first two days and had to rest on the third, but I made it.

We left the docks around 9:30 pm and got to the fishing grounds around 12:30 am. On the first stop the current was fairly strong, Rory was able to get a pig of a mutton snapper but then shortly after it turned into a sharknado. No matter what you would put down it was shark after shark. Morning time came and current was still fairly strong. I was able to use 220 grams slow pitch jigs hooking up to several American Red Snappers and small mutton snappers. Then things got a bit better and was able to land a nice Scamp Grouper then again we were hit by another sharknado and ended up moving away as they were even hitting our jigs making us loose several of them until I added some flexible Tyger wire. This is a pretty good wire that is very hard to kink and is so flexible that almost acts like heavy mono filament and you can tie knots with it making it very easy to handle.

Below is Rory with his nice Dry Tortugas mutton Snapper.

One of my American Red Snappers.

The sharks started hitting the jigs.

My scamp grouper below was caught with a slow pitch jig .

Rory getting ready to release an American Red Snapper.

Bill and his American Red Snapper.

Having moved only a few minutes away it was donkey kong time! Ben was able to land a 70 pound class amber jack with the help of Rodney the rod holder. I was able to somehow get away from them and landed another scamp grouper. Fishing hadn’t been as good as we wanted and so the Captain suggested we do some deep drop fishing and out came the electrics but me and Jongsoo tried jigging with 500 gram jigs anyways and was able to get down successfully only to get tangled with the electric reel lines as the Captain kept trying to stay on the spot by power motoring. We decided to get a rest and Jongsoo got in the electrics while I helped a few times bringing in the fish. I should have helped more, my apologies to the guys for that.

Ben and his Amber Jack that was released. The pic does not do justice on the real size of this fish.

Below is my second Scamp Grouper of the day. I got a total of 3 Scamps on the #slowpitchjig.

A sample of the deep drop fishing snowy groupers caught by Rory and Bill.

Sunset came and no black groupers, no mutton snapper just sharks and sharks and more sharks. We decided to just eat a nice dinner prepared by Captain Yuri then rest and went to sleep waking up at night to try again but the sharks were just too thick. Morning came and things went for the better. A few porgies were caught as well as a couple of red groupers. Rory’s dad Bill got some nice mutton snappers and Greg got his first ever mutton snapper and it was a pig of a fish. Way to get a first with a 12 to 14 pounder. I also got into some mutton snappers on the slow pitch jig. By this time it was already 3pm and the Captain decided to move.

A nice Dry Tortugas Sunset.

Below is Jongsoo on a battle with a big shark.

below is Jongsoo with a porgie caught on a slow pitch jig.

Then again a Red caught on another slow pitch jig.

At this time of the day it was #slowpitchjigging time and worked nicely. Rory with a mutton snapper caught on the slowpitch jig.

And another mutton snapper caught by me on the slowpitch jigs.

What I call a white grunt caught by Greg.

Below is Bill with another mutton snapper.

Rory with a nice porgie.

Here is Greg with another nice Dry Tortugas size mutton snapper.

i also took a turn with a nice size Dry Tortugas mutton snapper.

Next spot was not so great we power drifted to keep vertical but all we hooked up again were sharks and re sharks. Sunset move was also not productive, no black groupers just more sharks and the rest of the night proved much of the same, sharknado! Jongsoo took the cake with a shark over 200 pounds or so.

Morning time came and it was basically the same so the Capatain took us to a shallow water flag yellow tail spot. The boys were able to land many nice flag yellow tails but I was not prepared for that. I was able to land a nice mutton snapper and a nice Barracuda but that was it. It was the end of our trip.

Here is the nice cuda.

All in all it was a sharknado trip with slow catching and some quality fish in the mix. In the end we took dinner home for a few weeks if not a couple of months so this was an ok trip.

Below is me with two of the fish not in the above pics and the overall catch from the trip.

Until next time, Tight Lines!

Reward Fishing Fleet – All Day Trip 1-9-16

January 9, 2016 by cudamanadventures

I wanted to go fishing this weekend so I called the Reward Fishing Fleet to book a spot on their special all day trip, for $100 it’s a nice bargain to go out all day fishing without having to go back to the docks and the wait for the boat to leave back on the next trip (taking two 4 hour trips on the same day).

The trip started by gathering bait. The mates and a few other fishermen collaborated with catching white bait, pinfish, and small grunts. Once the bait was non responsive we moved onto another bait spot, the famous Bent Marker outside of Government Cut Miami. There we met with a numerous amount of boats trying to catch bait themselves. Below is a pic of the Marker.

We then moved up to several other spots where people were catching vermilion snappers, Amberjacks, and Almaco Jacks. Jongsoo caught an Amberjack that was tagged, the fish was lip gaffed, taken a picture of, measured and released again. Below is Jeff the mate before measuring the fish. Sorry I didn’t take a pic of you Jongsoo.

On the next move we saw some birds but nothing was biting under them, we kept moving and then as we stopped to fish I saw a Mahi Mahi and let everyone know, I wanted to make sure someone got it before it left. Leaving a caught Mahi Mahi hooke in the water will bring others closer to the boat if they are schooling together. I went to get my plug rod as Will sent his out first cast catching the first Mahi Mahi. I sent my plug flying out and as I retrieved it with a sweeping motion I caught the next Mahi Mahi with an H4L Wingman plug. I caught another right after while using the same plug. One of the mates set up some pitch rods and people started catching more mahi mahis including Jared who was ready with his own pitch rod. A total of 12 were caught ensuring many would take a nice dinner home. Below is mines.

At one of the spots we started to get a few small Blackfin Tunas, mines was one of the smallest ones and one of the fishermen by the name of Ben whom is another experienced slow pitch jigging fisherman that was only using jigs caught the biggest one, a football size one with enough meat to get a couple dinners out of it. Here is my small Blackfin Tuna, it was so greedy that it swiped a jig half it’s size.

As the day went by a few yellow eye snapper, sand tiles, and a rare Long Tail Bass was caught by Jeff another experienced slow pitch fisherman. I should have taken a picture but I was busy fishing, sorry guys, I was trying to maximize my fishing time. On the deeper end of the trip we fished down to 500 feet of water where Will caught a nice keeper Amberjack.

I was still fishing with my prototype slow pitch setup and Shark Fishing Jigs when I hooked up a Snowy Grouper and then sent my 500 gram slow pitch jig down again and hooked a Yellow Edge grouper. What are the odds, the only two keeper groupers caught were back to back on my setup. Below is the Snowy Grouper and the the Yellow Edge.

The highlight of the day came when Jared hooked up with a Sailfish on a jig. He fought it for 30 minutes going around the boat 2 times until he got it close enough to touch the leader and made it an official catch. The jig was extracted using a gaff and the fish was released. High fives went around and the fish swam away to live another day. Below is Jared fighting the fish and also a pic of the Sailfish with the jig on it’s mouth.

Below is a video of part of the fight.

All in all it was a good trip and plenty fun was had. We left with a full boat’s fish cooler. Back at the Bayside Marina Docks the fish were unloaded and the mates cleaned the fish for those that wanted that service. Below is the mate sorting and giving the fish to the fishermen.

Below is a fisherman that was using bait and tried out vertical jigging. He caught dinner and wanted a picture for him to later retrieve from the web. So here you are Sir. You are welcome to download your own picture, enjoy your fresh fish dinners. Just click on the picture to make it bigger, right click on it and save it to your PC or phone.

Happy New Year to you all and Happy Fishing in 2016. thanks again for visiting my site.

Vertical Jigging tips:

In order to reach the bottom use 1 gram weight per foot of water (if fishing in 300 feet of water use a 300 gram jig), if the current is stronger adjust accordingly by using a heavier jig. It works the same way for Slow Pitch Jigging.

If of any interest to you I was using a 60 to 400 gram Slow Pitch Jigging Rod, a Shimano Ocea Jigger 2000 with high speed gear 6.1:1 loaded with 30 lb test braid line, 40lb test fluorocarbon leader, and 3/0 size hooks with 2mm length assist cord. two hooks on top and two hooks on bottom.

ShoreBound Adventures

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Tag Archives: slow pitch jigging

Yankee Capts Pulley Ridge Lite Monster Fish Extravaganza

Puerto Vallarta – the one that got away :)

Capt. Yuri Dry Tortugas Slow Jigging and Bait 9/14/18

Reward Fishing Fleet – All Day Trip 1-9-16