Enjoyed a few days of pre fishing and relaxing poolside and having a super bbq at the monkey mansion aka Mark Maus Family Compound, before getting a 2 day beating of rough seas and long runs! We ran day one from Sarasota to 38 miles out of Key West Harbor, it took us over 3 hours each way, we caught quite a few fish, biggest one being 28.08 and got some good camera coverage for the show. Day One we led the tournament with that fish, till the last 10 minutes and we got bumped to 2nd. Day Two the seas were nicer so we ran even further, we were 13 miles from Ft Jefferson, closer to Cuba than Key West, 186 miles each way. Even in calmer seas, you get sore going 50-60 mph just by hanging on for almost 8 hours. We had a BIG FISH sky on our first bait in the water, and he missed the hook. He must have been traveling fast, because he was 20 feet high out of the water and kept on going. That was the break we needed, then we had a 40 lb fish circle on a bait and tail cut the line. Our confidence was still high though, as we trolled around shrimp boats. We ended up catching about 20 more fish, all about 30 lbs, we really needed 35 lbs to get in the Final Five Fishing Day, and we just couldn't get it. We finished 8th overall, but brought home a nice paycheck for it.
Boat ran great, we were the first ones to the fishing spots both days by like 30 minutes or more. It is such a fast boat!
Our friends Ed and Sean from Fish Fever, won, and our buddy Big Bird Blanton came in 3rd.
TV Show to be called Off the Hook
http://www.204studios.net/fishme/fish.mov
copy and paste to see the trailer.
Got some good footage on all the boats involved this tournament.
Will start airing in about 5 weeks on Florida Sports Network.
peace, love, and fishing
