Crazy things you’ve seen offshore fishing

When I was a kid one summer day in the middle of July myself, my daddy, granddaddy and uncle went offshore to go bottom fishing. We were heading to a reef of junk cars that my daddy and a few of his commercial fishing buddies had sunk the summer before. It was about thirty miles out South of Camp Helen to Sea Grove or there abouts.

We were in my uncles 19 foot Glassmaster he bought used in April from a friend of a friend in Biloxi were he lived. It had a Mercury 150 outboard on it and had only been trolling a few times in it but it ran good he said. We went in it because he was anxious to get offshore in it plus it had way better electronics than just the depth finder and Bearcat Marine band radio like my daddy’s 18ft wooden boat.

So we stop at some other spots closer in on our way to this spot. Caught some nice groupers, snapper and triggers. We get to the new reef after lunch and the bite is on! After one pass over it my uncle goes to get us back over it and the engine shuts off. I’m thinking no big deal because daddy and granddaddy can fix anything with oil in it. Uncle not so much.

Well I was wrong. After about an hour of trying everything they could think of it ain’t cranking. By this time it was around 4 o’clock. My uncle gets on his radio and try’s to call another boat in our general area. Nobody answers. I just sit there and keep my mouth shut cause I can see a pissed off daddy.

It’s getting dark now and we still ain’t got the motor started and nobody can hear our weak radio signal. So we are drifting to Mexico I’m thinking and should be there by breakfast I hope. Lol I’m nine years old and don’t know about all this.

Finally around midnight granddaddy starts back fishing. He free spools a hard tail I caught on my Zebco 33 a few minutes earlier killing time in the bow while searching for a rescue boat.

Some time goes by and he gets a fish on. It’s a biggun and kicking his tired butt. Daddy thinks it’s a Wahoo but with no motor he can’t help granddaddy. So he works and works at it and the fish finally starts to tire out. He finally gets the fish to the boat and it’s a small size white marlin! My granddaddy was so happy! He then cut the line and we watched it swim off . As an crusty old salt at 70 years old he had never caught a marlin. And I was so glad I saw him do it.

After that I finally fell asleep. I was awakened a little after sunrise to the sound of a Mercury 150. My daddy had finally got it back started. So we start to head home and as we start seeing condos it appears we are around Destin. We pull into a marina by what is now Harbor Walk. Daddy calls the house and Momma is crying and carrying on. She called the Coast Guard after us not being back by dark and some of daddy’s friends that knew where we sort of was and they were out looking for us. Our neighbor drove to Destin and picked us and the boat up. The coast guard was called off and radio the other boats that we were home and safe.

I don’t know what was wrong with the boat but me, my daddy and granddaddy never went fishing in it again. And after that my daddy kept a tiller on the his boat just in case.

Pontoon boat and a bass tracker way on out

A leather back sea turtle. We actually come along side her and she flipped over on her back. I suddenly got the courage of Steve Irwin and reached down to scratch her belly. She almost put a hole in the hull trying to get away from us. I have seen tons of turtles off shore but this was the first leather back. They are huge. This one was about 7 foot long and 5 foot wide.

Was 125 mi south of OBA fishing the monkey boat tourney in 2004 in a 28' yellowfin. Was pretty slow day when all the sudden our port rigger blew up. We reacted like supposed to and was a pretty big tuna hit it. Tuna went airborne with about a 14' or so tiger shark on its tail. Needless to say we didn't catch him that tuna.

About thirty years ago, my buddy and I were both fighting big mahi about 50 miles out of Pensacola. I got mine to within 15ft. of the boat and a giant white shark came out of nowhere and ate him in one bite. My buddy caught the smaller mahi which weighed 36lbs. I have many, many hours logged in fishing offshore and that is the first and only white shark I have ever seen. My buddy and I both hollered white shark at the exact same time. He looked to be 13-15 ft. long and definitely weighed well over 1000 lbs.

Took my family out a couple years back and we had a giant sunfish swim under my boat. It was huge. It rolled over on its side as it went under the boat so you could really tell how big it was. He was only a few feet down. Looked to be 10-12 feet any way you measured. I’m on the water most wkends thru the summer and have seen some cool things but this was definitely the rarest.

We were at the 120 mile bouy(Jurassic Park) due east of Cape Canaveral, FL early one morning just as the sun was cracking the horizon. It was very foggy and we were prepping to start fishing when we notice a boat hauling butt right at us from due east. Only thing due East of here is Africa. We all kinda subconsciously thought pirates, and immediately pull in the lines and get ready to haul butt. All gray and black boat with some kind of blacked out wind shield, with quad 300’s never checks up and begins circling us. After about the second pass we can read the emblem on the side of the boat and it’s US Customs and Border Patrol boat. They made a couple more passes and I guess decided we we’re no trouble and headed on back east. We regained our composure and pulled one small wahoo off the bouy, but we didn’t stay long.

Fishing in the flats out of Steinhatchee, my mom was really in a trout when a huge ray grabbed it. She fought it for about 30min till we got it to the boat. It jumped a few times and was purple spotted and bigger than a Volkswagen Beetle. Speaking of Volkswagen Beetle, we saw one of those in about 8’of water once too.

I have some fond memories of that 120 mile buoy also jlbuck. We would time the run to get there at dawn, fish all day and anchor up on Matinilla Schoals and bottom fish all nite with a close eye on the radar since we did not check in. Troll home the next day. Never saw anything super cool other than some mighty full fish boxes. We never got the black boat but did get intercepted by a helicopter cutting the corner out of the Port to fish way north one day. They made it clear we needed to head east RIGHT NOW.

Had a huge mako breech about 10ft out of the water while we were running off of Orange Beach.

Fishing the rigs about 20 miles south of Dixie bar on a pretty calm day. We hopped out to another cap about 2 miles further south and there is a beat to crap 16-17ft fiberglass river type skiff with 2 black guys in it and the cowling off of a 40 hp tiller drive Force outboard with them up to their elbows in grease working on it. Thought oh great, we will end up having to tow these stupid jokers back in. Well we started fishing and they continued to work on that motor for about 20 more minutes trying to get it cranked. They finally got it cranked and it sounded like it was only running on 1 cyl and was missing incredibly bad. To my disbelief, knowing they have serious motor problems, instead of going back toward shore, they point that little dink of a boat south toward the next rig on the horizon and started putting toward it at what couldnt have been more than 3 mph. They may have died out there for all I know. The last time I saw them they were creeping their way southwest heading toward Mexico.

Cobia fishing one day, saw a really big Mako swimming up shallow, just outside the second bar, just east of the Navarre pier and that big joker was carrying an 80-100lb tarpon sideways in his mouth like a dog would carry a bone.

Caught an 70lb cobia out from under a king sized mattress and box spring set that we ran up on and found floating a couple miles south of Mirimar Beach. How a full bed set ended up in the gulf and why it hadnt already sunk to the bottom, I'll never know. That cobia was sitting in the shade and would just poke his head out one side or the other. I finally got an eel to swim far enough under there to get his attention.

I’ve seen some of that. Thought a guy in a bass boat was going to get swamped in Perdido Pass last year.

Some good stuff here. I liked to hear from some others on here that get offshore.
CAL
Dallas County
Cape Horn
tfd ( Nick )
Troy

I’m sure there is others I’m missing.

I'm not an offshore junky because I have always lived in North Alabama but I have been out 20-30 times. With my limited experience I have not seen much of the stranger kind of things many of you have. But I did see five waterspouts the same day about 20 miles South of Destin and three of them were at the same time. We caught a bunch of Kings and a few Dolphin that day. The Capt. stayed strapped in most of the time. I guess he was afraid he was going swimming otherwise.

I watched a 10 foot hammerhead swim between the beach and some swimmers by the county pier at Panama City one time.

You rang so I’ll chime in. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything weird offshore but my dad told me a story about a buddy of his in the 70’s spending the night on his sailboat out by sombrero light off marathon Florida and heard something bumping his hull in the middle of the night. He woke up to see what it was and it was a bale of marijuana. Dad said it was commonplace back then for traffickers to drop bales close to the keys by plane and boats were arranged to pick them up. He said they called them square groupers.

Some buddies of mine were fishing a billfish tournament last year and were flagged down by a group of illegals floating on a raft from Mexico. They called the coast guard and they came and got the illegals, they had been floating for 9 days.

not offshore, but I saw a 25 foot er so boat go stern over bow flip in the Destin Pass on day. Water was too rough for us to stay out so we headed in. Tide was ripping out and wind was opposite, bad conditions in the pass. Dang boat went bow dow and just flipped.

I hung one on a rod and reel once. It jumped like a giant pancake about five times and then went straight to the bottom. I couldn't budge it.

I sank my father-in-law's 37ft Tiara....at the dock. We had been out chasing kings and mahi all morning and had to go thru a summer squall to get in. Once we tied up, we unloaded all the fishing gear and coolers then everybody bailed on us due to the weather. The wife and I decided to come on back home and left that evening. The next day we get a call telling us the boat is totally underwater from the windshield back. All you could see was the tower and the bow sticking up. Turns out my father in law had his sheetmetal shop fabricate a new stainless exhaust elbow for one of the Cummins and it apparently failed on us on the way in. We never had a clue because as long as were under way the main pumps could keep up but the way she was wired once you were on shore power only the smaller supplemental bilge pumps worked and they couldn't handle it. So yep, I'm the bastage son in law that not only stole his daughter but also sank his pride 'n joy.

I don't get shook up to easy, but the pass at Destin had me pretty nervous one time under those same conditions. We were trying to beat a mean looking thunder bumper back in.

I used to have bad ass ski boat/bass boat swamper/muffin puffer that I used to take to Destin and Panama City and if it didn’t have a closed nose I’m sure it would have went under and never came back up. Used to scare the hell out of whoever was in it going thru the passes with waves washing over the front.

The Destin pass can be extremely rough at times. It's too narrow. We have had to wait on bigger boats to enter the pass and follow right in their wake to make it safely through.

that narrow pass near Orange Beach is much worse in my opinion.

Nah perdido is easy as pie. Although don't ask the few who came in on auto pilot while asleep. Like the captain of the Tar Baby. Ouch

brother and I were fishing out of Stuart Fl and stopped at the mouth of the river to snook fish. There was a boat anchored nearby, but no one visible. Brother pulled over to the boat and there was an old man laying in the floor, arms and legs wrapped around a 100lb tarpon. Brother asked if he was ok. He said he was waiting for that damn tarpon to die so he could get the hook out of his hand.

Perdido pass is easy.


One day I was offshore with my grandfather, probably 10 years old. A storm popped up and we were surrounded by 8 water spouts. He says “which one of the gaps looks biggest to you?” So I picked one, and we hauled azz outta there. It got rough quick.

Have seen a lot in the Gulf. My family was with me once and we came up on a sunfish. That thing never went down. We circled him for probably 10 minutes looking and taking pics.

Last year while fishing my son hooked a leather back turtle. He ate a strip of bonita while bottom fishing. We got him by the boat and was finally able to break him off with only the leader hanging from his mouth.

Was doing a little trolling a couple years ago and came up on what looked to be two acres of fish on the surface. Right in the middle of them was what looked to be a whale shark. Trolled around it for a little while with no takers.

You never know what you’re going to pull up from the depths while fishing but a few strange fish have came up including a trumpet fish, nurse shark and lion fish on hook and line.

I saw that boat last weekend at Harbortown Marina. The brand of boat has been removed. It's bad ass, so long he had to back out of the marina. Those guys were armed to the teeth. I've been stuck like the OP, but just 3 of us 14 year olds for two days. It was so rough we had a live fish swimming in the boat when the coast guard finally got us. I've seen tons of stuff, the coolest was a submarine. Once saw something show up on the 72 mile radar that took up half the screen. Kinda spooked us pretty bad. About 2 hours later we could see it and it was an AirCraft Carrier. Been surrounded by waterspouts when we were too stubburn to leave a good bight. Been in a boat hit by lighting---twice. Been on a boat that landed a 888 lb blue and had 4 80w spooled simultaneously - it was either another sub or 4 big bluefins. And the best was wrapped kilo.

Hey Dallas county I've got my grandads old logbook from his charters. Dates back to 72. He noted all sightings of weird things. It's pretty neat

Boobies.....Fishing the Elf rig south of Venice...had a boat come up on us with a rather well endowed lady that apparently had run out of beer. We happily exchanged a few cans of the sweet nectar in return for the show.

Was trolling for kings years ago and had a #5 hook shoved thru my big toe from bottom to top . Whole leg went numb up to my knee. Couldn't get it out. Point was just under the nail. My dad found a dead guy floating off Texas and the deputy who showed up told him to pull the guy in the boat. Dad said you're the one getting paid here you do it! Saw a couple guys in a 14 ft. john boat 15 miles off Fort Morgan. Saw a boat tied up under an oil rig fishing and the rig had some kind of release and it dumped some kind of water/chemical all over them! Ha Ha

Was out with my college roommate taking his parents boat from Pensacola to Ft Walton. My roommate brought along his new girlfriend. She comes up from underneath butt naked to lay out.

Now that's just cool. I bet that's some fascinating reading.

We were trolling the rubble back in late 80's and a navy hovercraft came very close. Like almost on top of us close. It's was loud and fast

Had a coast gaurd jet give us a double fly by about 100ft off the water 2nd time he came by he banked right and did a double barrel roll right over the top of us. Like to busted my eardrums but it was dang cool. That was out of port mansfield texas bout not far from south padre. We were in a 25ft mexican panga so he may have thoght we was messicans. Was fishin the jetis at aransas pass(get very rough there) watched a dude and his buddy runnin up through there in a small bay boat. An rekin they thought it wudnt to bad till they started hittin some 3 an 4 footers bout mid ways through they tried to turn an when they did one hit the side an came over the gunall an it didnt completely swamp them but it washed have of their tackle and junk off the other side. They got the stern in the wind and got the heck out of there. That place was pure torture for little boats..that scared us for them but as the old sayin goes stupidity can be hazardous.

I plucked 2 20 year guys off an unmanned oil rig just after daylight one morning. Their boat (actually girlfriends daddy's boat) sank the afternoon before, they swam to the rig and climbed the ladder. Their clothes were soaked in gas so they had to strip to their boxers and spend the night on the pipe rig in the storms. This was the old #881 yellow pipe off Ft Morgan, about 17 miles from Perdido Pass. We took them to the Orange Beach Pass and dropped them with the police and fire and went back fishing.

Another time we saw what was either a Great White or extremely large Mako eat a porpoise just South of Horn Mountain.

I was taking a leak off the transom one night while we were swordfishing and a large mako appeared in the Underwater lights just off the props. I quickly moved back into the boat. We had another mako swim under the boat while tuna fishing one day in the winter and it had to be 13' long. I could see the tail on one side and the head on the other and this was in a 31' Cape Horn.

About 15 years ago we had a Blue Angel buzz us a couple of times and then come back and turn straight up and climb. This was really cool to a bunch of College Kids drinking beer and AJ fishing. He was so close we could see him wave.

I've seen a lot of strange things floating out there, but nothing stands out as just extremely strange. I've seen sunfish, old boats, pallets, 55 gallon drums, etc. Probably the most surprising thing - not offshore - but fishing in Big Lagoon here in Pensacola around the docks, my buddy in the back of the boat said, "What is that a car sunk in the water?" Then up out of the water comes a giant manatee blows a little snort at us and swims off on his way. There's always a few reported sightings around here every year, but that was a first for me.

2 years ago we're at orange beach...i'm 6-8 into a 12 pack standing in waist deep water and I see 2 really big shadows approaching. Bout pissed those 6 or 8 but one of the manatees topped and blew some air. That was pretty cool to have them swim 20ft or so away from me.

The weekend before Hurricane Katrina hit NOLA we were ~75 mile south of Venice in about 5300' of water. Greasy calm, hotter than hell. Only breeze was when we were running. About 1pm we decided to jump in and try to cool off. I dove off the tuna tower and went down about 25' thinking I'd hit a little cooler water - surface temp was in the mid 90's. Temp never changed. Floated around for about 10 minutes but the water was not even comfortable. No dive ladder on the boat so we had to step on the foot of the motor to drag ourselves out. I was the last guy to come out. Just as I was starting to pull myself out of the water the other guys start screaming for me to get my ass in the boat! I pulled up and looked back to see the biggest tiger shark I've ever seen (I've seen some giants) go right under where I'd been. Her dorsal fin hit the motor well - that's how shallow she was! I don't think she was there to eat - or one of us would have been dead long before we saw her - think she was just curious and checking us out. Got my attention though for sure! It made one more pass before leaving - it had to be 14-15' long! We pitched a 40# YFT on a 130 we had rigged for shark and she swam right past it and didn't give it a 2nd look.

1 more: About 20 years ago had my wife, sister and BIL in my boat heading out Destin Pass one early afternoon. Boats were EVERYWHERE and the pass was really chopped up so we were going pretty slow. Look down and see a wallet floating by - reached down and grabbed it. It hadn't been in the water too long because there was still papers in it that were dry. Took it back to the condo and dried everything out good. Tried to contact the guy while we were in Destin to get it back to him - figured he was sick because it had over $600 in cash in it. Finally reached the guy the following week - he lived in Louisiana. Told him I found his wallet floating in the pass - he lost it on a snorkling boat. He asked what all was in it - I messed with him and told him him there was no cash... then said "just kidding, there was ~$600 in it". He told me to keep $100, which I declined and sent it back to him with everything in like I found it. About a month later he sent us a beautiful slate tile with a picture of NOLA painted on it - still hanging in my house today!

Retarding; opps Retiring from Charter Fishing out of Destin Fla., after 25 years....The most unique/weird/never do it again thing I did/saw in the Gulf was to pick up a Navigational hazard, reported to the U.S.C.G,and requested to pick up; was a 55 Gal. Barrel floating out in the middle of no where. Long story short; radioed C.G. we were in bound and were I birthed; They met us, and after opening said barrel, Me, my crew and 6 customers spent 5 hours of integration and peeing in bottles, to ensure that we were not importing Cannabis into N.W Florida. I have stated since that "meeting", if I were ever to seen another one, well, lets just say it would have been sold...

Wapiti

That probably wouldn't turn out well either if it had GPS tracking device........ just sayin

I would have smoked it with outback reno and perch

X2
I've seen some neat things over the years like whales and a whale shark right at the boat but the craziest thing was a 16' bass tracker 25 miles offshore and heading south!

A friend told me that when he was fresh out of the Army he took a 14' aluminum boat with an 18 horse Evinrude far enough offshore that he couldn't see land. That ole boy would eat grasshoppers and jump out of perfectly good planes though.

Had a whale shark come up right beside the boat one night out at the Beer Can. It hung around for about 10 minutes. Got some cool VHS video of it.

We were fishing the DI Rodeo about 10 years ago and had a guy on a jet ski trolling a rod just outside Dixie Bar. The weather cleared and we headed out 10 miles to an oil rig. Same jet ski showed up about an hour later trolling around the rig. Biggest problem was how iffy the weather was that day.