I need to preface this with the experience being 100% my fault for not recognizing the finesse job from the beginning.
My brother in law and my self were going to Marathon for a fantastic vacation in an air b and b for the last week of March and both loving fishing we thought it would be an excellent time to charter a boat and have a local give us a DEEP sea fishing experience as that is something we both havent had. Marathon is known for its Marlin, Tuna, Grouper and Mahi mahi to name a few and we were excited to battle these monsters. We by passed the group charter because they really cant do any deep sea fishing and mainly stay static.
We ended up choosing to charter a 3/4 day trip for $1050. The first day was canceled due to high wind ...understandable. Second day we were up bright and early only to be told he was going to be late. We were on the boat by 8:15 and the first thing JJ says is "Ok whos got the money?" So we paid the man and then it got interesting with the rules of the boat. Basically none but if we had any questions just ask and oh yah if you need to pee just pee off the front of the boat and if your shy ..."here just pee in this cup and throw it overboard". I kid you not this is what this man said. And #2 we dont even entertain that thought even though there is a head on board the boat.
It was starting to feel like we had been friends for a long time and he just borrowed the boat so we needed to be extra carefull with it especially when he busted out the soft scrub every 5 minutes to clean the boat. We then end up at the bait store and he purchased some frozen Ballyhoo I guess thats all you need. From there it was a five minute jaunt to the reef so I thought we could catch bait fish. We were using #2 not 2.0 but #2 hooks without any weights and just letting the tiny piece of Ballyhoo he put on the hook sink it. He cut up 2 Ballyhoo to use and we caught tiny fish after tiny fish( not keeping any of them)and I finally busted out my own rod and set up with a simple leader a 1/2 oz weight and a larger hook and what do you know we caught the only keeper on that rig. THis went on till around 10 when the group charter boat showed up and fished not far from us. That was a clear sign that I ignored but JJ moved the boat after that to another spot just 2 minutes away. No 7 mile bridge no marathon hump and still no deep sea fishing.
Now to be clear JJ offers 2 different types of fishing experiences to choose from one being reef fishing and the other being deep sea fishing and we were clear on wanting the deep sea experience. At this point we were pressing for the deep sea fishing and he gets frustrated and says we dont have enough time but goes below to rifle through his gear and 1/2 hour later he pulls out these 2 ratty old lures which sucked because you cant even use all four lines if you only have 2 lures. That wasnt stopping us so I rigged up a split beak Ballyhoo rig I learned from you tube and used it as our third line. 20 minutes and wham zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzrzrrzzzzzzzzzzzzzrrrrrrrrrrrrrzzzzzzzzzzzz the Ballyhoo rig got hit hard. The line was spooling out so JJ stopped the boat to grab the line...I kept asking what he needed like should I get the other lines out of the way and such but he didnt say anything just started to reel it in and it kept taking the line. I was super excited and all the baloney that happened earlier was the furthest from my mind as this was a big fish. ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzSnap.... dam it was pure adrenaline and then complete silence. We set the lines back up just the 2 this time so we could maximize our time while I set up another Ballyhoo rig. I grab the pole that had the original rig that broke and started to pull the line out so I could feed it through the eyes of the pole and guess what ZERO drag. At this point I was getting sick to my stomach and needed to use the head.
He is not happy that my inner Grogoo has to use the force on his boat but reluctantly he moves a bunch of stuff around so the toilet can be accessed. He then says im good to go and lets me in and shuts the door. What do you know there is no light to turn on and its pitch black ,,,,go figure. Not sure what he was thinking as this could get a whole lot messier for him lucky my aim is true. He calls it at 1 and says we need to head back in....back in with 1 9 inch fish that he cleans for us ...thanks man you rock JJ.
What ever you do dont let him pick what to do because he will pick the
easiest least gas using least fish catching least boat cleaning thing to do.
Bait used - 3 frozen Ballyhoo , didnt have enough lures only 2
Fish caught - 1 Keeper read more
