# 56521: Subject: Gulf of Mexico, Alabama

Submitted by capt_dalton (ip 199.254.206.4)

• Fished on 7/14/2007

• Report received: 7/18/2007

Water Temperature: 85
Water Clarity: Clear Green
Seas: 2-3 subsiding to 1
Weather: Hot with a light west breeze and lots of scattered thunderstorms
Fishing_for: Fish
Boat: Mar-t
captain: Chris Dalton

Report:
Saturday, July 14th (The DIYAT) aboard the MAR-T

Dr. George Koulianos booked the MAR-T some time back for this year’s Dauphin Island Young Angler’s Tournament, (or is it the Roy Martin Young Angler’s Tournament)? Whichever, Doc was accompanied by his son Theo and four of Theo’s buddies; Nicholas Frangos, 15, Jamie Morris, 12, Christian Pearsall, 11, and Evangelos Saviedes, 11.

The weather was forecast to be nice, maybe 1 to 2 foot seas with a few scattered showers. It didn’t start out that way. It was a chopped up 2 to 3 foot kinda of morning with whitecaps all around. There were storm clouds scattered about, but, none where I had decided I would have the young crew fishing.

The first couple of stops were uneventful and had a few of the crew a little green around the gills. Nothing like trying to keep your balance in a pitching boat in the sweltering heat and NOT catching fish. But, I know how these spots are: you either catch dinks, notta, or tournament winners. We were just a little hung up and the dinks and nottas for a spell.

Theo was hot stick for while and was winching in undersized snapper left and right before boating the first potential tourney fish. He hauled what looked to me to be a 4ish pound triggerfish into the boat. We put a few keeper snapper in the boat, but, nothing to brag about. The kids were fishing very hard and soon became accustomed to the seas. Well, everyone except Christian. He found it much more comfortable down on a bunk in the A/C.

A couple of moves later, Evangelos’s rod bent deep and he fought what turned out to be a 5 pound trigger to the boat with a 20 inch snapper on the second hook. The crew was stoked. I wish I had a picture of that young man holding the leader with those two fish. You couldn’t see his face for the huge smile he was beaming. We had used up the morning part of the trip looking for some wall hangers, but, it wasn’t meant to be.

I had planned for the second part of the day to be spent chumming and drifting baits for Spanish Mackeral in a little closer. But, we still needed 5 fish to make our six man limit of red snapper. I dialed in the nearest sho’ ‘nuff honey hole and made way. All of the gear was changed and the circle hooks, long leaders, whole pogies and live bait was made ready for something I knew “Doctor Kewlio and the Gang” would appreciate: a full on snapper bite that would wear you down and make you grin like a goat eatin’ briars while it happened.

We had laid out zip ties to put on each of the youngun’s fish to help with the whole “who caught what” scenario. Thing a bout this spot is, well, you just do not have time to do that. It’s a full on blitz of some of the meanest, hard fighting really nice sized snapper around. As soon as the baits are in the “zone”, everyone is hooked up and that day it was no different. Everyone had their chance to tackle a good fish. Some were boated, some pulled off or broke leaders. Christian was summoned from the cabin in order to get his chance at a biggun. His feet no more touched the cockpit than a stud slammed a big live pinfish. I guess it was good he had been sleeping all morning, as his snapper turned out to be the biggest of the day at some where around the 15 pound mark and all that extra rest helped him fight it to the boat. Once it had been gaffed and admired, Christian was back in the cabin to resume his slumber.

With our limit of red snapper filled and a bunch of extremely happy young men chatting amongst themselves about what they just experienced, I headed the MAR-T north to try for some Spanish mackeral action. My deck man Bradley was tasked with figuring out which fish was caught by which angler by IDing the gaff marks. Once everyone was satisfied with that process, the zip ties were affixed and all of the big snapper were buried in ice.

We dropped anchor at the triple rig just south of the Island and set up a chum slick hoping for some Spanish mackeral action. It was very hot and fairly still with the current moving slowly to the south and a hint of a west wind, so all of the lines tended to go with the current, making it a task to keep them untangled. A couple of lines were outfitted with balloons to catch what breeze there was to move them away from the boat. Our first hook up was a pesky little shark. Then a couple more pesky little sharks showed up. It was looking like it was going to be shark city when a king smoked one of our ballooned ribbon fish. Nicolas did a very good job fighting the fish to the boat on a Penn 850 and Ugly stick combo. I gaffed the king in the head on his first pass close to the boat and chunked him in the cooler. It was high fives all around.

We redeployed the baits, but, the sharks were swarming behind the boat. You could not get a thing past them. We pulled anchor and headed over to the 823 rig to see if things were better there. I slowed a few hundred yards from the rig and had the crew put out two ribbon fish to troll around to see where I wanted to set up. Well, we never did set up because on the first pass by the rig a nice king sky rocketed on the starboard ribbon fish. Now that is an attention getter. I believe it was Theo that angled that one to the boat and Bradley had it gaffed and boxed in short order. The baits were redeployed and we made a whole pass around the rig with out a bite, but, on the second lap we hooked up big on the port side. It was Jamie’s turn and he was ready for the task. This king made a couple of good runs, but, Jamie stayed with him. When he got a little winded, he put the rod in the rod holder and continued to crank the reel like a mad man. After a lengthy battle, Bradley stuck the big king with the aftco gold and added him to the nice pile of fish in the box.

We put the baits out again and pretty near the exact spot every other fish hit, we were on again on the port side. The fish hit like a freight train and there was no stopping it. Theo had the rod but all he could really do was just hold on. I had Bradley tighten the drag twice, but, it didn’t matter. About time I got the boat turned to try and get some line back, the fish found out how much there was on the reel by taking every inch of it. First time I have been spooled in a llooonnngg time. But hey, ya can’t catch them all.

We had time for a couple more passes before we needed to head in. And the weather was beginning to take a down turn. An ominous black cloud was heading in from the North West and I wanted no part of it. Our last two passes resulted in a tail wrapped shark and then a tandem take down where two kings hit and managed to tangle the lines together and both pulled the hooks in the snarl. It was go time

I ran the MAR-T up to 14 knots and hoped we would beat the weather to the dock. We made Billy Goat Hole about time the storm front was at the Dauphin Island Bridge.

This trip was in part to celebrate Theo’s 13th birthday on the 27th. (And also as a reward for his good grades this past school year). Well, my birthday is the 29th, soooooooo, Theo let me share a little bit of his thunder as they broke out the Birthday cake and sang the birthday song, to me and him. Man, what a way to end a fishing trip, chomping down on some seriously good chocolate B-Day cake with the whipped cream type icing.

The temp dropped about ten degrees and the wind started to whip the normally calm waters of Dauphin Island Bay into a 1 to 2 foot whip capped froth. I nixed the idea of heading to the Rodeo weigh station in those conditions. I wanted to take the boys there in the boat so they could be part of the “show”, I just did not think it prudent, so I docked at my normal slip at the Marina and the guys took their catch by truck to the weigh in.

The rain set in and most everyone got soaked to the bone. But, when our crew showed back up from weighing in, there were two extremely happy anglers. Evangelos’s triggerfish was in first and Theo’s was in second. I did not get a report back on the king mackeral weights or the red snappers exact weights, but, they didn’t make the board.

Bradley cleaned their catch and the good doctor and his charges were off into the throngs of folks on the Island.

Doctor Koulianos, his son Theo and his friends were a fun group aboard the MAR-T. I really enjoyed watching the kids fishing.

I checked the rodeo website early Sunday morning as I was checking the weather conditions for that day’s charter. Theo’s fish was knocked off of the board, but Evangelos’s wound up second. Congratulations to the young man visiting from Greece!

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