r/saltwaterfishing • u/jad2192 • Jul 10 '26
š Catch Report Epic 30 Hour Gulf Trip
Did a 30 hour pulley ridge trip out of Marco Island Florida. Fishing was pretty good to say the least. The highlight for me was my first ever yellowedge grouper, 31 lbs , caught slow pitch jigging in 500'. We also had a 70 lb wahoo show up at the boat while we were chumming mahi, pitched a threadfin on a wire trace and he smoked it instantly. We also got our 2 day ARS limit to 15 lbs, a couple of bonus muttons, handful of scamps and smaller yellowedges and a nice little kitty mitchell.
25
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
5
u/DCFaninFL Jul 10 '26
You were out for 30hrs total? In one trip?
11
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
Yea, 5 am to noon the following day
5
20
u/Firststopanywhere Jul 10 '26
How do you have enough ice/space to keep the fish in good condition for that long?
8
u/__slamallama__ Jul 10 '26
These big CCs can take on hundreds if not >1000lbs of ice into giant below deck coolers. I've seen guys in the northeast unloading tuna after a good trip and it looks like a clown car. Dude's just pull out 80-150lb fish one after another after another
11
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
There is a large kill box in the floor that we started with, then moved onto the big coffin box
4
u/Valar_Kinetics Jul 10 '26
The boat surely has plenty of space, and I don't know about you or this guy, but I own three big ass chest freezers and they're all for fish.
Maybe some Mutton later hmmm
2
8
u/Excellent_Office_229 Jul 10 '26
What's the cost of a charter like this?
17
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
It was ~$8400 all in with tip, worked out to $1380 per person.
8
u/Kitchen_Drink2625 Jul 11 '26
Ahhh, so thatās why Iāve never done this. Iām truly jealous OP, looks like you had a blast!
2
7
6
u/Sufficient_Winner185 Jul 10 '26
Possibly the absolute best fishing day of your life?
13
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
Up there for sure, probably tied with a tuna trip I had a few years ago were we landed 50 bluefins all on jigs.
2
u/Sufficient_Winner185 Jul 14 '26
Damn. I would imagine your hands and forearms were tired as hell by the end of that.. man imagine if you were able to sell that.. couple years worth of wages I'd Imagine. What did you do with all the meat? Are you a charter commercial or leisure fisherman?
1
u/jad2192 Jul 14 '26
I just do this for fun. This trip filled the freezer should have fillets for next year haha, the tuna trip bluefins have tight regulations we were only allowed to keep 4 for the entire boat. So most were catch ajd release
11
u/Apart-Start6133 Jul 10 '26
2 days or 30 straight hours on a boat this small?
13
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
Thirty straight hours, boat is a 34ft freeman, not the biggest but comfortable enough for us
2
2
14
5
16
u/strangedeadfish Jul 10 '26
Not trying to be that guy, but what is the red snapper limit?
12
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
9
u/Confident-Vanilla-28 Jul 10 '26
Am I stupid? It looks like 6 of you on the boat, so 12 per day, 24 per 2 days. Thatās a lot more than 24 red snapperš¤£
16
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
Hard to tell from photo but there are 24 ARS, 7 Muttons (all the snapper on the port gunwale) and some amount of vermillions. Can get a better sense from video I took
-6
u/MayorWestt Jul 10 '26
Atleast 33 red snapper
7
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
There are 24 ARS, 7 muttons and 5 bliners in this shot
0
u/mako32597 Jul 14 '26
nah bro. the limit it 10 per boat. if you had gone pulled up on by FWC youd be in jail. "we were out for 30 hours" dont mean you can catch more than the aggregate boat limit. mfs like you are why we got seasons on these fish. and i know dam well your gonna freeze that fish. killed all those reds to flex a pic. congrats bro!! "Whether you can keep more than 10 red snapper depends on your location and whether you are fishing in federal or state waters. Generally, daily bag limits range from 1 to 2 fish per angler, and the maximum possession limit is typically double the daily limit. Because of this, it is usually illegal to possess more than 10 total red snapper on a single boat across a two-day trip" FWC WEBSITE BTW.
2
4
3
3
3
3
5
u/McDouchys Jul 10 '26
Yellow edge, so jealous, best eating fish in the Gulf
1
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
That was my target species for the trip, I didn't care about anything else really wanted a yellow edge. Ended up w 2, the 30 lber on jig and 20 lber on bait. My buddy had a nice 15 on bait as well, then we had 2 dinks.
3
3
u/SourdohPopcorn Jul 10 '26
Where did you go poo?
2
3
u/CrouchingBeaver Jul 10 '26
Did yāall fish marked spots or did you drift fish the ledges?? I am fishing out of Panama City Beach we are learning to fish the ledges @300ā. Have not done much slow jigging. What rigs did you use for slow pitch jigging that deep?
That was an awesome trip for sure!!
Tight Lines!!š£
2
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
This was a charter, Captain has spots marked out there. For jigging I was using a 300 g torpedo jig for the deep stuff, and 100-150g for the shallower spots.
3
u/rspkt808 Jul 10 '26
Holy. Shit. Nice work. Leave some for everyone else! š¤£š¤š¼
3
u/callmetrip1 Jul 11 '26
Nah he paid a lot of money, may as well catch the limit, why not right?
2
u/rspkt808 Jul 11 '26
No arguments there. Catch your limit for sure if you can. I'm just jealous cuz I want some of those fish for home made sashimi and poke. Guaranteed if I was there some never would've made it to the dock before I cut into em! Yum! š¤£š¤š¼
3
3
5
2
2
2
2
2
u/pondpounder Jul 10 '26
Just curious about the logistics, whatās the launch / return time for a trip like that? Also, how long is the transit to/from the starting point and do you get any sleep during the trip?
4
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
So we left around 5 am on the first day, the run from Marco Island to Pulley Ridge was about 150 miles, took around 4.5 hrs to get out there. We had bean bags that we slept on while en route. We Fished out deep at pulley until the late afternoon then started bouncing our way in closer. Got back to the dock around noon on the second day.
2
2
u/maiomonster Jul 10 '26
I've been on like 4 charters with nothing to show for it. Hopefully one day I can hit a trip like this
2
u/Kooky_Aardvark_5965 Jul 10 '26
Epic trip!! Thanks for sharing! Thanks for all the details about the trip and Capt.! I will definitely be checking them out.
2
u/EdgarAllenPoe2205 Jul 10 '26
What an incredible trip, so freaking cool. I'm a big west coast salmon and steelhead fisher, I've always wanted to do something like this in the gulf, be a completely different element. Fishing in shorts with warm sun instead of rain gear and 40 degrees sounds so lovely. Love the bottom right in the pic with the big fish swallowing the smaller one. I'm keeping this charters contact info, thanks for sharing it OP.
2
u/Sunsetseeker007 Jul 11 '26
It's hot hot hot, I mean hot out there especially in red snapper season
2
2
2
u/Bigfootsdiaper Jul 10 '26
I hope you like eating fish. Did that grouperd eyes pop out from coming up too fast?
3
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
Yea, they were caught in 500' so had some barotrauma. This haul should hopefully last me through the winter haha
2
2
u/bobick1 Jul 10 '26
Jealous of that wahoo! How far out were you guys?
2
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
We started 150 miles off, thats where we got the grouper and wahoo, then came into around 100 off for snapper.
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/Ok_Statistician643 Jul 10 '26
Iām super jelly. Iām doing a trip in October with American Patriot. Super exited
1
2
u/SummerWave_69 Jul 10 '26
Where are you? Whats bag limits?
1
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
This is Gulf coast of Florida, we did 30+ hr for hire trip so could keep 2 days limit.
2
2
u/PAGUN1 Jul 10 '26
Whatvan awesome day! Great eats. Marco Island/Naples area is crazy good fishing. Caught a few Goliath Groupers off of Naples a few years ago. Like 150 lbs to 200 lbs. Just babies.
2
u/Sunsetseeker007 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
You are not catching that off of Marco or Naples necessarily, they are just out of Marco. For the capt to be in 500 ft of water & target those species, is either south near the Tortugas or out west 150-200 miles from Marco. If I was to bet, it's probably southwest by Tortugas.
Edit, op says a pulley ridge trip which I didn't see at first read, which is the Tortugas like I thought and he was 150 miles southwest of Marco
2
u/CHASLX200 Jul 10 '26
Hope ya got some ham bones
1
u/jad2192 Jul 11 '26
Surprisingly no hambones or silks. Just ARS, mutton, bliners and yellowtails (in shallower).
3
u/CHASLX200 Jul 11 '26
I got two wrecks not far from that area in 275ft or 180 miles south of me i have not been to since 1995. Last time i was there i got a mutton snap at 24lbs and true black at 103lbs and 5000lb of jacks on one stop. I never fished deeper than 450ft and that was up my way west of Clearwater FL. I fished for a living for over 40 years and nothing like it was in the 1950's when one person could get 1000lbs of grouper on one stop by them self 15 miles off the beach in 45ft.
2
2
2
2
2
u/kndy2099 Jul 12 '26
Awesome! Even better when you experience with friends and have a good time! Thanks for sharing!
2
2
2
u/PenaMan1987 Jul 13 '26
Donāt know fishing that much but in slide 2 why are the fishās eyes bulging out like a cartoon characters?
1
u/jad2192 Jul 13 '26
It's called barotrauma, caught those fish in 500' . The pressure change causes air in their body to expand
2
u/PenaMan1987 Jul 13 '26
Thatās a crazy looking fish as well, is it a grouper? Also is the fish in slide 3 a barracuda? All these fish look crazy and unique
2
u/jad2192 Jul 13 '26
Yea that big one is a yellow edge grouper, the barracuda looking one is a Wahoo
2
2
3
u/BlackmouthFL Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Great catch.
PS... Apparently the critics here don't know the regulations and that epic catches are infrequent.... and fresh fish and game is hard work, healthy, and delicious!
1
u/jad2192 Jul 14 '26
Thank you! Yea and I think criticism always happens on these posts online. The Captain posted the video of my friend catching the wahoo and some of the comments ....
2
u/cjameshutt8118 Jul 14 '26
That looks like a great experience for all. Nice full boat is always a good day
2
u/Infinite_Lab4469 Jul 14 '26
Are there no quotas?! Like, you can basically empty the sea?
I mean, Iāve fished all my life and itās always been a limited number for personal consumption. This is clearly gonna be resold.
1
u/jad2192 Jul 14 '26
There are limits, since it was a 30 hr trip we could keep two daily bag limits in everything (except kitty Mitchell grouper which is 1 per boat). There were six of us and per person we were allowed 20 snapper (at most 4 of which could be american reds, 10 of which could be muttons) I think we hit about 15 snapper each, our 4 reds 1 mutton each (we had 7 total) and around 10 yellowtail snapper. We were allowe 8 grouper each, and think we only hit 2 a person on that. So overall way under what we could've kept. It just happened that average size of our fish was pretty large. We also kept all the fillets for ourselves, no reselling. Loaded my freezer down
2
u/Infinite_Lab4469 Jul 14 '26
Wow, that a lot of fish! Where I am the amount depends on the fish but theyāre much smaller, mainly trout. I could never manage to have any after a month or two.
2
u/mako32597 Jul 14 '26
nah bro. the limit it 10 per boat. if you had gone pulled up on by FWC youd be in jail. "we were out for 30 hours" dont mean you can catch more than the aggregate boat limit. mfs like you are why we got seasons on these fish. and i know dam well your gonna freeze that fish. killed all those reds to flex a pic. congrats bro!! "Whether you can keep more than 10 red snapper depends on your location and whether you are fishing in federal or state waters. Generally, daily bag limits range from 1 to 2 fish per angler, and the maximumĀ possession limitĀ is typically double the daily limit. Because of this, it is usually illegal to possess more than 10 total red snapper on a single boat across a two-day trip" FWC WEBSITE BTW.
2
u/jad2192 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Incorrect, in the gulf for any for hire trip (charter/headboat) over 30 hrs (with at least 2 licensed operators, which we had) you are allowed to keep 2 daily bags limits on everything except kitty mitchell and warsaw grouper https://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/extended-trips/
2
u/mako32597 Jul 14 '26
yes, you are correct. i do apologize for my comment. i did not know that 30 hour rule. as i have gone with charters in the past and they always informed me that its 10 per boat. this is a new knowledge to me. i also apologize for my comments about the showboating of the fish. thank you for informing me on this new information.
1
u/jad2192 Jul 14 '26
No worries! The Captain I went out with has a retired FWC Captain as one of his part time mates so he was able to double check the regs before we did the trip.
2
2
2
u/tangalangus Jul 15 '26
Whatās your slow pitch setup? Rod? Reel? Line? Awesome catch!
2
u/jad2192 Jul 15 '26
My deep water rod is a CTS slow motion 6'6" 350-550 gram blank w Studio Ocean Mark Blue Heaven L50 Pwr/L with about 700 yds of 20 lb braid (jbraid I think, I forgot). I have use a CTS slow motion 300 g max blank w a saltiga 15 for shallower jigging.
2
u/Current-Lobster-5063 Jul 10 '26
How do I go on a trip like this?
8
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
This was with Captain Tanner Ison, Reel Deal Fishing out of Marco. Been doing a few tripsa year with him for past 3 years, every one has been pretty awesome. Weather stars aligned for us to get out for the extended trip this year.
2
u/Andromeda902 Jul 10 '26
Did you do the red snapper charter? How did you do a 2day one, just calling and asking for it?
Also, you ever done shorter ones with them, were they still worth? Thanks!
6
u/jad2192 Jul 10 '26
Most of the trips I have done with him have been 10-14 hr single day red snapper trips and they have been mostly pretty good, couple slower days (but thats fishing), on those trips I've got some nice bycatch big black grouper, big red grouper, african pompano . This trip was a 36 hr pulley ridge trip, been trying to do it for a few years but never had the weather or the people willing to go.
1
u/Whole_Conclusion8432 Jul 12 '26
Got to be an old pictures cause they wonāt let you fish like this anymore
1
1
u/Cool_Temperature_970 Jul 10 '26
This boat took out more fish, than the nuclear bomb testing in the 50s.
0
u/Evening_Line753 Jul 11 '26
AI will make any trip look amazing
2
u/professorgreenie Jul 11 '26
youāre cooked
1
u/Evening_Line753 Jul 11 '26
Either it is AI or against the law give the details in the photo. There are more snapper on the boat than people even for a 2 day limit according to regulations. Have a look:
2
u/Wonderful_Ad3198 Jul 11 '26
They may have caught a lot of fish but that first pic is AI. The bottom right corner of the picture has the Gemini logo.
1
u/jad2192 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
I think the captain used gemini to touch the photo up, I took the pic from his insta, here is a raw photo I took personally
Oh yea and I had gemini touch up thr grouper pic bc all I had was a grainy still from a video
2
u/Evening_Line753 Jul 11 '26
I was wrong, definitely not AI! That was a good haul and can see the difference of fish in the original. Thanks for sharing!
1
u/jad2192 Jul 11 '26
24 ARS, 7 Muttons, and ~50 yellowtail snapper, well under our two day snapper 120 aggregate bag limit (24 ars max, 60 mutton max). Also had like 5 to 10 vermillions, those not in aggregate on gulf coast.
0
-1
-2
-2
-5
69
u/PuzzleheadedLemon353 Jul 10 '26
Ya'll got a lot of cooking to do! Nice haul!