Back from fishing the UVI 10 aboard the 122 foot Mary P. with her owner and my son. We found a dream rip about 112 n.m. south of Biloxi - some 75 n.m. southeast of Port Eads and fished it Sunday afternoon and Monday, overnighting offshore on the sea anchor. Two blue marlin, one white marlin, a 100# yellowfin, and about 15 bull dolphin in the 30-50# class. The Mary P. was the winning boat and Daryl Pennington and your own Uncle Vic were declared co-top anglers, each battling 400# class blue marlin to the boat. My son caught the white and the tuna.
I will write about the boat, its systems, and our trip in some detail soon. The nay-sayers who predicted that a 122 foot boat is too big to raise and cath fish are wrong. She is a fantasic marchine designed by Daryl & his wife Mary and built for one purpose along - big game fishing. Just a little bigger B31 Faithful, just a little bigger.
UV
UVI 10 results
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In Memory of Vicroy
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UV, 122' is not too big.
I fished on a 95' Jim Smith last summer, and it was spectacular. It was written up in Marlin over the winter, and has a yellow hull. The owner is in the process of building a 105' Jim Smith, and will enjoy his 1 year old now 95' boat while the new one is constructed. He does not like to own old boats was his explanation. Too many things break on them.
He used to own a large Trinity sportfisherman (126') that was at the time the largest of its type in the world. She was called the Marlena as well.
http://www.trinityyachts.com/126marlena.asp
His favorite thing to fish for now? Fluke... Just makes a nice place to sit down and relax when he is done. The captain makes it all happen from the skybridge, and it is just lovely.
We stopped at a couple high flyers to spin cast for mahi at one point when the action was slow. I forgot I was on a nearly 100' boat except the cockpit was so incredibly enormous. We might as well have been on a B 31 given the maneuverability. Just the coolest trip I have been on ever.
I fished on a 95' Jim Smith last summer, and it was spectacular. It was written up in Marlin over the winter, and has a yellow hull. The owner is in the process of building a 105' Jim Smith, and will enjoy his 1 year old now 95' boat while the new one is constructed. He does not like to own old boats was his explanation. Too many things break on them.
He used to own a large Trinity sportfisherman (126') that was at the time the largest of its type in the world. She was called the Marlena as well.
http://www.trinityyachts.com/126marlena.asp
His favorite thing to fish for now? Fluke... Just makes a nice place to sit down and relax when he is done. The captain makes it all happen from the skybridge, and it is just lovely.
We stopped at a couple high flyers to spin cast for mahi at one point when the action was slow. I forgot I was on a nearly 100' boat except the cockpit was so incredibly enormous. We might as well have been on a B 31 given the maneuverability. Just the coolest trip I have been on ever.
Here is the Trinity description of the Mary P. Stunning. Absolutely stunning.
http://www.trinityyachts.com/t044.asp
http://www.trinityyachts.com/t044.asp
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PeterPalmieri
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In Memory of Vicroy
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- Joined: Jun 29th, '06, 09:19
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
She is indeed an amazing vessel and has a good many features that may be of interest ot the Faithful. I'll first describe our tirp.
Daryl and Mary are old friends from the Port Eads days & my son, Capt. Brent is his favorite light tackle guide. Daryl knew I'd had a couple of bouts with cancer and now that I'm back in shape, invited me & Brent to go fishing with him. Mary was entertaining some of their grandkids so it was the three of us plus the permanent Capt. and two mates. The boat is berthed in the Palace marina in back bay Biloxi in a special slip Daryl had them build that consists of 8 large hollow steel pilings with I-beams driven thru them then filled with concrete. We flew over to Biloxi in Daryl's Kingair 350 (28 minutes) on Friday afternoon and took off on Sat. morning for the mouth of the Mississippi River to decide which direction to head out. Recent reports were that the blue water had gone waaaaay offshore, but some reports were from sources we deemed less than reliable. Plus, due to the extremely high river level and silt build-up, the entrance channel to South Pass at Port Eads had become dangerously shallow. The Mary P. draws 7 feet. So we decided to duck in behind Breton Island on the east side of the Miss. River delta for the night and maybe catch some speckled trout in our lights tht night. My son knows the area like the back of his hand since it is near his headquarters in Venice, La.
Using Mary P's forward-looking sonar, the newest updated electronic charts, and local knowledge, we had no trouble navigating the old Mr. Go channel and the natural channel to nose up in 25 feet of water behind Breton just before dark. The bad news was the water was muddy and the current ripping so no dice on the trout. But I was the cook and served up some pretty good crawfish bisque over rice with a side of lump crabmeat green salad. That night Brent got a call on the sat phone from a buddy who's dad had fished offshore that day and hammered the wahoo and dolphin on a "dream rip" some 75 miles southeast of us. We pullud up the sea surface temp and color charts on the wifi and quickly located the area of interest. So bright and early the next morning we headed out on a 132 degree heading into the bright sunny Gulf which was getting a little lumpy. Daryl set the twin 2,540 hp V-12 Cats to a nice steady 20 kts and switched the stabilizers on.....now that's what we need on our B31s....takes about 95% of the roll out of the boat and only costs about half a knot.
So after a pleasant three & a half hour run we crossed out of 86 degree dirty green water into purple blue 84 degree Loop Current water with a rip line of yellow sargrasso weed building. Lines in at about 10 am and the hunt was on. The rip got stronger and stronger and the heart of it was about 5 miles long. We saw huge numbers of large bull dolphin lurking under the grass mats but they were in the "switch off" mode and would not crash the baits. We droned on, going from one end of the rip to the other, turning, running back the other way at about 8 knots pulling a large spread of surface lures, some naked and some with ballyhoo. The incredibly long, hyd. controlled outriggers, made a huge swath of baits, and the two mates, Alex from Costa Rica and Chris from Biloxi, did a great job, constantly tweaking our spread. Tackle was Shimano from 30s on a couple of short flats to 130s on the rigger lines. The daisy chain teasers - similar to those used at TSL - are controlled from the Sky Bridge via electric reels.
We had a few UFO strikes but frankly, it was slow until about 1:30 Capt. Trey and I were on the Sky Bridge while Daryl and Brent napped whcn Trey poked me and said "what the hell is that?" pointing off our stb. bow, on the side away from the rip. I put my trusty Nikons on it and there was a white marlin chasing flying fish around a little grass patch. A few toots on the horn to alert the cockpit (its a looooong way from that Sky Bridge to the cockpit, need a parachute) and we swung the baits by the marlin, which promptly ate a green & white skirted ballyhoo. Capt. Brent took the chair - which will articulate to reach any part of the 25 foot wide cockpit - and we soon had the fish leadered, photo-ed, and released. The pressure was off, a billfish was had. Hi-5s all around. Then the Green Monsters started out from under their grass patch nap spots and began crashing our baits....we lost count of the 30-50# class dolphin that hit the ice holds.
Then about 3:30 I was dozing on the salon deck "porch" - which has a/c vents that pour cold air on you while you lounge outdoors, a VERY nice touch - when a big, bad blue marlin came racing through our spread and inhaled a short flat. I was up and took the chair, craking on a 50. Daryl took the wheel (he has a 100 ton Masters license, not your average big boat owner) and deftly backed the giant SF down on my fish while the cockpit crew tried to keep ole UV from passing out in the 97 degree heat. After about a half hour I began to worry the fish might have gotten tail wraped while it was doing its aerobatics and greyhounding. Our fears were confirmed when it became obvious the fish was dead. We finally boated it and took a group photo and returned the fish to the sea, sorta like they did Osama bin Laden.
More hi-5s, more dolphin, and then a nice 100# yellowfin came out of nowhere to further make our day. Now with plenty of good fish on board we decided to spend the night offshore since the weather was stable, if a little windy. So just before dark we ran out into the blue water a few miles and deployed the 30 foot diameter sea anchor for the night. Mary P. is equipped with gyro stabilizers in addition to her pad types. The gyos work at rest and dampen most of the roll, an amazing feature.
We kept a watch all night even tho the twin radars have alarms and the AIS will tell us who is around. I served the crew some braized beef short ribs in dark gravy over rice for dinner and we had an uneventful night. The next morning we had only drifted about 5 miles and had no trouble finding our rip again. More dolphin then a bigger bad-ass blue marlin hammered an outrigger line about 10:30 while Daryl was enjoying a short nap in the enclosed pilothouse. I quickly fetched him and he was rubbing sleep from his eyes as he took the chair. This time the fish was on a 130 and Daryl, who maybe weighs 135 dripping wet, put the hurt on that big sucker, standing on the chair footrest in his bucket harness and cranking the drag down to line-twanging tension. The wind-on leader was in hand in about 35 minutes but the fish pulled away and it was another tense 20 minutes to get her boatside, photo-ed, and released to fight another day. We estimate that one at 450-500 and mine from the day before at 400. We continued the dolphin dance, boating a few more and an occasional barracuda, very unusual for that far offshore.
By early afternoon the wind was building along with the seas and the rip was getting ragged. A couple of large charter boats from Orange Beach, AL showdd up to fish three day overnighters and the weather forecast was for seas to continue to build and thunderstorms to move in the next day......Uncle Vic suggested the enemy of good is better and the vote was unanamous to call it a day and head home. We were 102 n.m. from Horn Island which is 12 miles south of Biloxi and headed in at 18 knots to arrive in the sheltered anchorage behind the island just at dark, dropped the hook, and I served up some saute' shrimp over rice. The next morning we eased into the slip at the Palace, spent the day relaxing, and came back to Baton Rouge yesterday.
Helluva father's day, Faithful. The Rules Committee of the Uncle Vic International Invitational declared the Mary P the winning boat of UVI 10 and me & Daryl the winning co-anglers, continuing my winning streak, one of the longest in major sports history.
I'll give another report on some of the boats' systems later.
UV
Daryl and Mary are old friends from the Port Eads days & my son, Capt. Brent is his favorite light tackle guide. Daryl knew I'd had a couple of bouts with cancer and now that I'm back in shape, invited me & Brent to go fishing with him. Mary was entertaining some of their grandkids so it was the three of us plus the permanent Capt. and two mates. The boat is berthed in the Palace marina in back bay Biloxi in a special slip Daryl had them build that consists of 8 large hollow steel pilings with I-beams driven thru them then filled with concrete. We flew over to Biloxi in Daryl's Kingair 350 (28 minutes) on Friday afternoon and took off on Sat. morning for the mouth of the Mississippi River to decide which direction to head out. Recent reports were that the blue water had gone waaaaay offshore, but some reports were from sources we deemed less than reliable. Plus, due to the extremely high river level and silt build-up, the entrance channel to South Pass at Port Eads had become dangerously shallow. The Mary P. draws 7 feet. So we decided to duck in behind Breton Island on the east side of the Miss. River delta for the night and maybe catch some speckled trout in our lights tht night. My son knows the area like the back of his hand since it is near his headquarters in Venice, La.
Using Mary P's forward-looking sonar, the newest updated electronic charts, and local knowledge, we had no trouble navigating the old Mr. Go channel and the natural channel to nose up in 25 feet of water behind Breton just before dark. The bad news was the water was muddy and the current ripping so no dice on the trout. But I was the cook and served up some pretty good crawfish bisque over rice with a side of lump crabmeat green salad. That night Brent got a call on the sat phone from a buddy who's dad had fished offshore that day and hammered the wahoo and dolphin on a "dream rip" some 75 miles southeast of us. We pullud up the sea surface temp and color charts on the wifi and quickly located the area of interest. So bright and early the next morning we headed out on a 132 degree heading into the bright sunny Gulf which was getting a little lumpy. Daryl set the twin 2,540 hp V-12 Cats to a nice steady 20 kts and switched the stabilizers on.....now that's what we need on our B31s....takes about 95% of the roll out of the boat and only costs about half a knot.
So after a pleasant three & a half hour run we crossed out of 86 degree dirty green water into purple blue 84 degree Loop Current water with a rip line of yellow sargrasso weed building. Lines in at about 10 am and the hunt was on. The rip got stronger and stronger and the heart of it was about 5 miles long. We saw huge numbers of large bull dolphin lurking under the grass mats but they were in the "switch off" mode and would not crash the baits. We droned on, going from one end of the rip to the other, turning, running back the other way at about 8 knots pulling a large spread of surface lures, some naked and some with ballyhoo. The incredibly long, hyd. controlled outriggers, made a huge swath of baits, and the two mates, Alex from Costa Rica and Chris from Biloxi, did a great job, constantly tweaking our spread. Tackle was Shimano from 30s on a couple of short flats to 130s on the rigger lines. The daisy chain teasers - similar to those used at TSL - are controlled from the Sky Bridge via electric reels.
We had a few UFO strikes but frankly, it was slow until about 1:30 Capt. Trey and I were on the Sky Bridge while Daryl and Brent napped whcn Trey poked me and said "what the hell is that?" pointing off our stb. bow, on the side away from the rip. I put my trusty Nikons on it and there was a white marlin chasing flying fish around a little grass patch. A few toots on the horn to alert the cockpit (its a looooong way from that Sky Bridge to the cockpit, need a parachute) and we swung the baits by the marlin, which promptly ate a green & white skirted ballyhoo. Capt. Brent took the chair - which will articulate to reach any part of the 25 foot wide cockpit - and we soon had the fish leadered, photo-ed, and released. The pressure was off, a billfish was had. Hi-5s all around. Then the Green Monsters started out from under their grass patch nap spots and began crashing our baits....we lost count of the 30-50# class dolphin that hit the ice holds.
Then about 3:30 I was dozing on the salon deck "porch" - which has a/c vents that pour cold air on you while you lounge outdoors, a VERY nice touch - when a big, bad blue marlin came racing through our spread and inhaled a short flat. I was up and took the chair, craking on a 50. Daryl took the wheel (he has a 100 ton Masters license, not your average big boat owner) and deftly backed the giant SF down on my fish while the cockpit crew tried to keep ole UV from passing out in the 97 degree heat. After about a half hour I began to worry the fish might have gotten tail wraped while it was doing its aerobatics and greyhounding. Our fears were confirmed when it became obvious the fish was dead. We finally boated it and took a group photo and returned the fish to the sea, sorta like they did Osama bin Laden.
More hi-5s, more dolphin, and then a nice 100# yellowfin came out of nowhere to further make our day. Now with plenty of good fish on board we decided to spend the night offshore since the weather was stable, if a little windy. So just before dark we ran out into the blue water a few miles and deployed the 30 foot diameter sea anchor for the night. Mary P. is equipped with gyro stabilizers in addition to her pad types. The gyos work at rest and dampen most of the roll, an amazing feature.
We kept a watch all night even tho the twin radars have alarms and the AIS will tell us who is around. I served the crew some braized beef short ribs in dark gravy over rice for dinner and we had an uneventful night. The next morning we had only drifted about 5 miles and had no trouble finding our rip again. More dolphin then a bigger bad-ass blue marlin hammered an outrigger line about 10:30 while Daryl was enjoying a short nap in the enclosed pilothouse. I quickly fetched him and he was rubbing sleep from his eyes as he took the chair. This time the fish was on a 130 and Daryl, who maybe weighs 135 dripping wet, put the hurt on that big sucker, standing on the chair footrest in his bucket harness and cranking the drag down to line-twanging tension. The wind-on leader was in hand in about 35 minutes but the fish pulled away and it was another tense 20 minutes to get her boatside, photo-ed, and released to fight another day. We estimate that one at 450-500 and mine from the day before at 400. We continued the dolphin dance, boating a few more and an occasional barracuda, very unusual for that far offshore.
By early afternoon the wind was building along with the seas and the rip was getting ragged. A couple of large charter boats from Orange Beach, AL showdd up to fish three day overnighters and the weather forecast was for seas to continue to build and thunderstorms to move in the next day......Uncle Vic suggested the enemy of good is better and the vote was unanamous to call it a day and head home. We were 102 n.m. from Horn Island which is 12 miles south of Biloxi and headed in at 18 knots to arrive in the sheltered anchorage behind the island just at dark, dropped the hook, and I served up some saute' shrimp over rice. The next morning we eased into the slip at the Palace, spent the day relaxing, and came back to Baton Rouge yesterday.
Helluva father's day, Faithful. The Rules Committee of the Uncle Vic International Invitational declared the Mary P the winning boat of UVI 10 and me & Daryl the winning co-anglers, continuing my winning streak, one of the longest in major sports history.
I'll give another report on some of the boats' systems later.
UV
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In Memory of Vicroy
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- Posts: 2340
- Joined: Jun 29th, '06, 09:19
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
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In Memory of Vicroy
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2340
- Joined: Jun 29th, '06, 09:19
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Thanks, Capt. Patrick for guiding the computer dumb thru that....the perpretrators, from left: Trey, the Capt./Engineer; Alex, first mate: Chris, second mate: owner Daryl Pennington (behind Chris); and your ole Uncle Vic, the angler. Pix taken by my son, Capt. Brent. Me & Daryl are known as Team Geritol.
This pix gives you some perspective of the size of the cockpit - the chair is in the middle...Mary P's beam is just under 25 feet.
UV
This pix gives you some perspective of the size of the cockpit - the chair is in the middle...Mary P's beam is just under 25 feet.
UV
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In Memory of Vicroy
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- Joined: Jun 29th, '06, 09:19
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Mike - my old saying is "you gotta fish where they live and must be present to win".....that was us on this trip, a lot of experience fishing this area and putting 2 & 2 together and coming up with the right combo.
Now, not to start a controversy, but this fish is the second blue marlin in a row that I've had die on me - last August at TSL in Panama the last fish of the trip - about the same size as this one - got tail wrapped and died too. I've been fishing blue water for over 50 years and as far as I can remember these are the first two I've ever had come up dead at the boat. Don't get me wrong, we used to kill them all in the old days, but they were all live at the boat when the 12" flying gaff hit them. I was among the first to preach tag & release in our area and have not intentionally killed a billfish in 25 years at least. But to have two in a row die on me? An almost 69 year old skinny-ass double cancer survivor? I'm tough, but that tough?
But I always used at least 80Ws for marlin. The tail wrapped TSL fish I had on a 30 and the one you see here was on a 50. At TSL - a place known for conservation - they now try to get the fish to the boat for the release as quickly as possible to avoid stressing them and like to use heavier tackle to achieve this.
So is light tackle bad for billfish survival? What y'all think?
UV
Now, not to start a controversy, but this fish is the second blue marlin in a row that I've had die on me - last August at TSL in Panama the last fish of the trip - about the same size as this one - got tail wrapped and died too. I've been fishing blue water for over 50 years and as far as I can remember these are the first two I've ever had come up dead at the boat. Don't get me wrong, we used to kill them all in the old days, but they were all live at the boat when the 12" flying gaff hit them. I was among the first to preach tag & release in our area and have not intentionally killed a billfish in 25 years at least. But to have two in a row die on me? An almost 69 year old skinny-ass double cancer survivor? I'm tough, but that tough?
But I always used at least 80Ws for marlin. The tail wrapped TSL fish I had on a 30 and the one you see here was on a 50. At TSL - a place known for conservation - they now try to get the fish to the boat for the release as quickly as possible to avoid stressing them and like to use heavier tackle to achieve this.
So is light tackle bad for billfish survival? What y'all think?
UV
I have always understood light tackle to be more fun for the angler, but much tougher on the fish, regardless of species. It usually means that you have to fight the fish longer, resulting in a much more tired fish. It is more vulnerable if it lives to be released to being eaten by a shark or other predator, and so on.
Heavy tackle keeps the fight short and sweet (er), and does increase the chance of a very live release.
D
Heavy tackle keeps the fight short and sweet (er), and does increase the chance of a very live release.
D
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mike ohlstein
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Other Results
Andre, Trey and I just got back from Bolivia.
Andre and I each killed 4000 doves. Trey killed 7500 doves, and 4 turkey vultures.
Uncle Vic was declared the winner, with an amazing 25000 doves, 32 brown pelicans, 7 bald eagles, and 2 ruby throated hummingbirds.
Was there ever any doubt?
Andre and I each killed 4000 doves. Trey killed 7500 doves, and 4 turkey vultures.
Uncle Vic was declared the winner, with an amazing 25000 doves, 32 brown pelicans, 7 bald eagles, and 2 ruby throated hummingbirds.
Was there ever any doubt?
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In Memory of Vicroy
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- Joined: Jun 29th, '06, 09:19
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
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mike ohlstein
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Is this a trick question? I would like very much to hook up with something that “should†have been fought on heavier tackle. The Penn 30 wides have been more than up to the task unfortunately. Winching in little mushmouths might be even more depressing if it were an 80 or 130.
Is the corollary question here if any of us would cut one off if we saw a +400# class fish jump after hitting a lighter rod-reel? It’s not flattering but I don’t foresee myself doing anything but growing one eye brow and my fangs going through the decking until it was brought to the boat or lost….
…Gotta check surface temps and look for some warm water around Block Island….
Stephan
Is the corollary question here if any of us would cut one off if we saw a +400# class fish jump after hitting a lighter rod-reel? It’s not flattering but I don’t foresee myself doing anything but growing one eye brow and my fangs going through the decking until it was brought to the boat or lost….
…Gotta check surface temps and look for some warm water around Block Island….
Stephan
Possunt quia posse videntur
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In Memory Walter K
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400 Mako and several 250+ Threshers taken off Montauk not to mention Blue Sharks last weekend. The Mako was supposedly hooked at 1:30 pm and they didn't get back to the dock till 9:00 pm. Missed the tournament deadline (would have won). Sounds like light tackle to me. Those are your waters. Go to it!
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In Memory Walter K
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