Great Family Fishing With The Kids

We went out on a family fishing trip with my wife Debbi, our three children, my dad, brother Freddie and his two kids (Jody and Hayden) along with our long time friend Jim Hendrix and boy did we have a good time!  After getting an early start, the L&H headed offshore.  Before the sun even broke the horizon, Debbi spotted a frigate bird off in the distance and as we got closer everyone could see hungry tuna feeding under the diving frigate!  Excitement mounted as we approached the school of fish and when we got into position, lines started popping out of the outrigger clips, rods began bending over, and reels and children started screaming from the pull of the fast moving tuna!  Five tuna pulled for all they were worth, but they were no match for the five eager children who battled the strong fish to the boat!  Before long, blackfin and skipjack tuna were coming over the rail and landing in the fish box!  Jim and Freddie stayed in the tower and kept up with the rapidly moving tuna school.  Multiple hook ups were the rule rather than the exception and Debbi and I worked feverishly to keep getting the lines out!  Before most people were even out of bed that morning, our crew of kids (most of whom were under the age of 10) had boated over twenty nice tuna to about fifteen pounds!  Everyone was having a blast!  As the sun continued to climb, the tuna became more difficult to catch so we decided to head further out!  Several miles offshore, I was watching the bottom machine when I watched the water depth plummet from 1000 feet to over 1200 feet in less than one hundred yards!  We had found a deep hole in the ocean floor out in the middle of nowhere!!  Freddie and Jim quickly spun the boat around to the spot I had now marked on our gps!  James readied a rig and we baited several hooks and sent them to the bottom with a large lead.  The instant our rig hit the bottom, we began getting bites!  The kids started taking up the fish with the help of an electric reel.  As everyone peered over the side, anxious to see what we had, we were delighted to see a full string of nice sized rose fish!  There was one on every hook!  We sent the rig down again, and this time with even better results!  Although I didn't think it was possible, we had a fish on every hook, but this time one of the hooks had two fish on it!!!  It was amazing!  We made a few more drops with great success and then decided to call it a day.  We headed back to the marina where we had pizzas delivered and took a bunch of photos with the kids and cut up lots of great eating fish for my brother, dad and family!!!!!

Chucks Busy Day

Chuck Wagner of Chaska, MN fished with me on the L&H eight years ago and we had a great day. So I was very excited when he booked us to try his luck again. Chuck ended up coming by himself and with beautiful weather I knew it would be an awsome day. The bait came easy and we anchored on a shallow wreck. Before we could get all the lines out Chuck was hooked up. For the next hour Wes and I worked fast and furious to keep baits in the water as our angler enjoyed bent rods (often several at a time)! When we left the spot we had our limit of kingfish up to 25lbs, released several others, and Chuck did a great job catching and releasing a big sailfish on twelve pound test! Now it was time to look for bigger game. While Wes got everying reorganized and regrouped I steered the L&H toward a deep shipwreck. Once again Mr. Wagner did a great job muscling up big amberjacks (to sixty pounds) from the deep, with heavy tackle, until we had our limit. With a little more time left in the half day trip, I suggested we try one more spot to see if we could find something different. It was our day! As fast as Wes could get a bait down, we got bit. We added a half dozen almacos, a beautiful twelve pound snapper, and a nice tuna to the now full fishbox! It was one of those days where everything goes right and the Wes/Chuck team performed like a well oiled machine! Thanks again you guys for all the hard work. I hope Chuck will be back with us on the L&H before another eight years go by!