Finally recovered a bit and have the energy to type up a report.

Left Virginia Beach around 1100pm Tuesday night and made a casual drive down to OI. Our team for the week was myself, Ryan(astrobud311) who made the trip up from Florida, my buddy Jimmy and another buddy Mike. Put boat in water around 515am Wed and headed out with the fleet. Put lines in just slightly NE of the Tuna hole and within 20 minutes had 3 lines go down. 1 stays tight and we put approx a 40 lb YFT in the box.(caught on new p/w G&H rig) Spread back out and nothing for a couple hours. Watching the seas as we notice they are progressively building on us. Only one other boat in sight. Around 1000 he calls us on the radio and advises of a front building which is going to turn things very nasy. We make decision to get out of dodge. Before we can begin clearing lines, uncertain which rod it was but one of them begin screaming. Ryan takes control and with a nice little fight, brings a large bull to the side of the boat. I still him with steel, throw him in box and we all scramble to get the riggers in and secure all rods as seas are quickly building. We begin to haul A#% at a very slow rate for OI. 5 - 5/5 hours later, we safely manuever and make our way the 36 miles back to OI in 10-12 foot seas. It was not fun! Jimmy did a great job and the team worked well together to ensure we made it back safely.

Boat out, everyone changed into dry clothes and on our way to the house. Lodging for the week was a very nice 3br house on the beach in Frisco. Courtesy of a friend of mine who had no renters in it this week and allowed us to use it free of charge. We took Thursday off to recover. Attended the Captains meeting at Pirates Cove Thursday night. Great to see the VBSF crew there in great spirits.

Friday morning we headed out of OI around 530 and headed back to where we found fish Wed. No good sat shots available due to Wed weather. Head out to prestine conditions. Ocean was slick calm. Arrive at the Tuna Hole around 700 and spend the next half hour till lines in looking for the right spot. Pilot whales everywhere. I couldn't even begin to estimate how many of them. Boats, greensticks, whales, and bait. Everything except fish. Picked up one mahi approx 15 lbs and that was it for the day. Saw some nice size gaffers outside a weedline but couldn't even get them to look at the spread. Had a very large blue marlin freejump 3 time 150 - 200 yards off side of boat, hammerheads, and BAIT and WHALES but that was it...Not a great day for us..

Team debating on game plan for Saturday. No fish weighed for us day one and a less than favorable forecast for Saturday. Come up with plan. No Wahoo weighed Friday and no reports of wahoo being caught out of OI..Being that we are staying in Frisco anyway, we decide to put in at Teach's on Saturday and stay closer to shore working in 125 - 250 feet of water in search of getting a Wahoo...Figure any Wahoo would lock us in for $$$$ as it would probably be the only one weighed.

Little late start Saturday. Lines in around 750 in 160 feet of water, just west of the weather bouey. Work the area hard. Pick up a couple scattered mahi. One nice size but not big enough to take any leads. Conditions beginning to get worse. Just as we cross the 30 fathom line, the planer rod starts screaming. There it is...the one we are looking for. I pick up the rod and before we can do anything, it's gone mainline broke. Not much doubt in my mind it was the wahoo we were looking for. There is however a very nice size hoo swimming around with a large black/purple islander in his lip followed by 30 feet of 130lb mono and a #6 planer dragging behind that....Fish a little longer pick up another small mahi and at 130 we call it quits and head back in before things have a chance to get really nasty on us again.

No money, only fish eligible to be weighed were on prefish day....but most importantly, we had a great week and my family enjoyed some blackened tuna steaks and grilled mahi for dinner tonight.

Great seeing all the VBSF members down there. Even better to see Team Still Thinkin' hang in there to get the outboard division. Great job guys...

Great report! Sorry about the weather... On the up side, at least you had some good eats..

Ryan

Nice report Keith....sorry you all didn't get in the fish, it sounds like it was pretty tough out there.

Nice try anyway, and good plan regarding the wahoo for $$$. Too bad it got loose. Man, it seems like the fishing has been a little off for everyone this year. Here's hoping it heats up soon.

Pretty work Keith. I'm sure you guys will get into them next time!

Bummer on the lost planer, was it a bridle setup?

no bridle...it is in the plans but the new 70 2 speed didn't come in time for the trip. Rigged a small #6 planer on one of the 50w just so we could get one down a bit. Drag must have still been just a bit too tight with the fish on for the 60lb to handle. Oh well, _ _ _ _ happens. We had fun and hopefully got all the bugs worked out for the VBSF Bluewater.. It's a much more fun tournament anyway...I wasn't at all impressed with the Pirates Cove tourney this weekend. Festivities were quite boring to say the least. Definately did alot to increase my appreciation for all the work Don, Dave, George and everyone else puts in to this great tourney we have here.

Boy, I agree with this statement. I think this tournament effort sucked. The food plan was a joke and they are first guys I ever seen that trouble keeping score. Great people that fished in the event, but the tourament management was amateur hour.

Kent

The way the food was rationed was definately rediculous. First tournament for the new management company out of Virginia Beach (Cabin Fever) From what I understand there were cutbacks across the board from this tourney in previous years...No bucket, no team shirts (avail for purchase for $17 and $20 each) Captains received a poster and a manilla envelope with their paperwork. Food was rationed tighter than a prison, no real sponsors to provide any form of door prizes or raffles that I saw. Only thing that seemed to convey was the 3 drink tickets per night. I have not fished alot of tournaments yet but from what I saw this year, especially when taking the price of this tourney into consideration, I will not be returning next year. I will continue to hold out for the Va Bch Tuna tourney and the Blue Water classic. Hats off again to our organizers for all their great efforts. When compared to others, none comes close. You all do a fantastic job.

Finally got some pics from the crew..Thought I would share. This was Wednesday's catch prior to the big blow..