Sarasota Slam, Team-X-treme. Fishing report and picks.

First of all Let me thank all involved for doing such a great at putting this event together. This tournament just made one of my favorite 3 events. The Auction is great. Last year we spent over half of what we won on a bunch of killer artwork. They actually had an original Vangoh.

The evening started with deciding what to do on this voyage. I knew after weighing in several giant Warsaws in the last events that everyone would be gunning for a big Warsaw in this event. Then I thought if they are all going for the Giant, I will too! But I am not going to waste my time trying to catch it I will use the minor solunar to try and take the big dog out.

The time was 4:40am the sun and moon where 1hr 10min apart directly across from the earth. It was very close to an eclipse. This is when Giant Warsaw bite best, early in the morning. We started out dropping baits to the bottom in 590ft and the bite was on but the wrong fish, Scamp, kitties, Tile; we move to another spot, same thing not the right fish.

By now it is just past sun up and I decide to try 1 more before we change our game plan. We manage a 30.5lb Yellow Edge and a 15lb Scamp and a 20lb Kitty. Still not good enough. I know now the the big dog isn't going to bite this morning. I could see the Giant Warsaw down there they just didn't want to bite. Thats ok. I figure that if I knew for sure they where down there and they didn't bite they didn't bite anyone else either.

I new the Major Solunar feed was going to be at 11:48am. The moon ad Sun would be directly above and the bite should be on. But if I stayed and waited for the solunar I would never make it home in time from this distance. And neither would anyone else that stayed to deep. So I made a 20mile run in shore to 410ft So i would be closer to home after the major feed. Still in Warsaw bottom but I was where there was alot of gags and large snapper.

I knew I needed a grouper 40+ and a Snapper at least 25. And at least a 60lb jack to get in the money. A had a good feeling about this area. We made 4 stops in this area and the bite was on. The first stop Pulling in 25, 21, 20 and 18 pound snapper one after the other and 15 to 25lb. gags. We all looked at each other and knew we now had a chance.

The next 2 stops where gags and scamp, Still no big gags or warsaw. Until stop 3. First fish in the boat my boy "Yellowtail Mike" pulls the 38lb gag in the boat. It's 12:35pm and I say thats good enough. Lets go get them jacks!

I run 12 more miles closer to home into 350ft I know the jacks on this spot start in the low 50's and go to 120lbs. So I say "drop 2 rods and whatever we get no matter what we take them and go". 1 stop shopping the baits only made it half way down and both rods hit the gunnel. 2 jacks hit the deck 55 and 58.5lbs.

It was now 1:15pm and we had 107miles to go. We had to push the boat to the edge to make it back in time for the weigh-in. Praying the hole way home she would hold together. Well as you can see we made it. 2 Years in a row yellowtail mike pulls the winning grouper in the SHBA Sarasota Slam. I am already dreaming and planing for next year.

See you guy's at the Grouper Grab next weekend in Pine Island.

lick-snapping mustache-lickin' lip-flippin' doo dog dippin'

I never heard so many lick-snapping mustache-lickin' lip-flippin' doo dog dippin' before in my life. I added bladder tanks, I'm gonna beat you this year, We're goin' deep, We're going farther than you, These are the lippy-dipp-doo comments I heard before the Tournament. There's only one thing all the lippies forgot - That it takes many many years of experience doing deep water drops just to get the bait to the fish, not including getting the fish to bite, and then the fish to the boat. Two years in a row, prehistoric mammoths come to the scale. Including 25lb+ Red Snappers to take the trophy, the money, and the glory. Starting our trip out, in 500ft+ of water, the bite was slow to go but the fish were huge as you can see. Most of our fish came from the 100 fathom curve. On radar, I saw multiple boats bill-fishing within 15 miles of me. Not quite to the steps just up inside in the flat mesa. Most of these people don't know about these places, they only fish the brakes. But a lot of the bottom fish come just inside the drop to get away from the current and onto the feeding grounds. Our biggest fish was caught on chub-mackeral and sardines. Live baits work okay out here, but not as well as the big stinker! All in all the weather was great, the bite was slow but sure, and it took patience, experience, and refined technique to pull these mammoths from their slumber. All I can say is good luck to you all, and I shoulda gave that DeSoto blanket to Travis and his team to cry on on their way back home. I have to give them a little shizzit, guys, it's my old fishing team. Like they say, "Out with the old, in with the new."

French Kissing Gags,and a nice mixed bag.

Well it all started at 4am Friday morning. Met with our buddy Mike and his 3 friends for a day on the water in the new 31 Fountain. What a nice ride and killer boat overall. They had gotten some nice live baits the day before. The forecast was kinda sketchy. 15 knots for sure from what we could tell and getting rougher that night. So we decided to play it safe and stay close to home.

We started fishing around 50 miles out(in 137 to 145ft) and the shows were good but the fish didn't want to cooperate. Even the jacks where kinda finicky in this depth. We tried a couple spots and the same results. So before it got to rough I said what the heck lets go a little deeper. With all the bad weather lately and the fish were on the move I didn't want to pass a big school of movers up.

Next depth 165ft and the bite was on. nice Scamp, Red-grouper, Gags, Mangos, and Triggerfish. O yeah, the Red-snapper also bit every spot as well, and had to be thrown back. Moving 20ft in depth was the right choice. The fish where starting to cooperate. We tried 2 more spots and pulled the same mixed bag.

The bait of the day was Pinfish and Sardines.The wind picked up to 15 to 20 and we said let's get it inshore before it gets any worse. Over all it was a good day some real nice fish and no boat problems. We wanted to go deeper but mother-nature wouldn't cooperate with us. Thanks Mike and the boys, Until the next one.

Slicing Gags on the KNIFE-JIG in 60 to 80ft

Some new tackle to try. A friend of mine, Kevin, who fishes all over the world told me about a new rod that came out. It was the TVC-66mh Trevala. And the guys at Dog-Fish had them.

I told him I already had 2 of them connected to Penn 4/0 Precision auto reels. I go on to tell him how you cannot break it even with the electro. So we stop by Dog-Fish and looked at them to see if it was the same rod I had. And it was. But the difference was they had the Torsa 16N hooked up to it. Kevin got the rod & reel for us to use on our fishing trip.

In Kevin's travels he picked several kinds and sizes of Knife jigs from all over the globe. We use them every trip. We have caught almost every kind of fish on them. This kind of jig Blacks and Scamp really like. I have caught more Gags on the Knife than any other jig I have used in all my years. And I have been a Jig Man since the beginning.

On this particular trip instead of dropping a natural bait to the bottom on the drift to see if they where there we dropped the KNIFE to see what was up. Also we did this because the Red-snapper where so thick you couldn't hit the bottom for the first 15minutes. The KNIFE cut right passed the Red-snapper and got down into Blackie territory. The Snaps ate the gig too but not near as if it would have been a natural bait.

If the Gags were there and ready to fire you would find out quick with the Knife. Wow what excitement to get slammed on a jig by a black. I think the feeling is better or equal to sex. If the Knife got bit we would anchor. If not we would move on to the next one. The Knife really helped cut through the shizzet of wasted time fishing a school of Red-snapper. If Snapper season was open it would have been a different story.

We started fishing 50 miles SW of The Withlacochie in 65ft and worked our way WNW to 83ft for the day. The Winter bite is over. The big schools of Gags that where in this depth for the last couple months have moved on. There are mostly homesteader's left the rest went deeper to spawn.

The bite was slow overall for what I expected. Look forward to a great snapper season. Some of the smaller stock from 2 years ago have grown up enough to spawn. They are moving deeper and their babies are starting to show up even shallower than I have ever seen.

The bait of the trip was the KNIFE-JIG, live pins and sardines.

The catch:

• 1RustyBelly
• 15Gags
• 4Redgrouper
• 2Triggerfish.

The 30 and 40break should be hot this month. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and let us do some deep-water fishing this week. If you want to see the Trevala-TVC-66mh with the Torsa-16N, or the Shimano Butterfly Jigs. Dog-Fish has it all.

M,O,D,D Going Deep Hurts More. The men of deep dipping. 3/10/07

Oh my god. Please get me some epsom salt and Icy-hot. If you are going to fish 500ft plus. You will need some too. What a great day fishing. Warsaw right at 60 pounds a Speckled hind 23 pounds and Tilefish,Yellowedge Grouper,Scamp and large amberjacks. Where all in the mix. We left the dock at 9am planning to fish that day and then that night on the moon and sun up then home. But what happened next was what we all dream about. First stop 127miles SouthWest of Newpass around 2:30pm. Geared up for monster fish with 2 Crystal reels with 200lb test and 3 electros with 100lb test. we start Droping in 474ft and the current is ripping about 1.5 mph. Holy crap what do we do now. We go up the anchor course about a 16th of a mile and drop. I watch the GPS and fish finder and all the sudden the show blows up and the rods go DOWN. Tile fish are biting like crazy. We are catching some on the heavy tackle. We were waiting on the bigboys but they don't show. So we gear down a little changing the hook size and leader. Then it is on. Tile fish, big porgies,Yellowedge and scamp coming in one after the other.

Enough of this type of fishing we came out here to go for the Glory. We decide to move. I tell Mike to gear back up for the big dogs and we are of 12 miles deeper for the Sundowner. I was worried about the current being worse but the gamble was worth it. Stop number 2. 519ft The show is unbelievable. The current was not as bad out there. The baits hit and the rods are all bowed-up. 2 Giant fish hooked and then both cut off. And you know what I mean if you've ever seen a crystal rod bent over the rail. next drop 3 on 2 up The 60 Warsaw and Gag about 30lbs. That we ofcourse let go. Then a big jack and a kitty and so on. The guy's underwear where so far up his arss after hooking the biggest fish of the day and then getting cut off after a 3 minute battle. It was definitly a big SAW I would say 150 or better. His new nickname is T-back. The bite was on until dark and then shut off like a light switch. After looking at the fish box We couldn't get another fish in. And decided instead of staying out we would come on home so we could brag to our buddies that weren't even expecting us until the next day. The fish where biting on everything we put down, Tinkermacs,pinfish,bonita,squid and sardines. All in all one hell of a trip. Hope you guys enjoy the pics. Untill after the 15th. SEEYAAA.
Clay & Gordon preparing for some extreme deep dipping.

Tom & Gordon with the bottomed out 60lb Boca.
Warsaw, Tiles, and Kitty before the fillet knives got 'em.

A kitty mitchel caught by the virgin.

Yellow Edge fresh on the floor.

Welcome to X-treme Fishing X-peditions Blog

Hi everyone, this is Frank of KNL, I'm the developer of XFX's new web site. I hope you like the clean new look and crisp lines. The old site had been up for so long the biggest comment we got was when are you going to update the site? Well we really updated it.

I think the new site is a lot more intuitive to navigate. If you have any comments let us know or if you need a site, some photography or video let me know. I produce the first TV show for the internet called Next Level TV that actually started from Tommy wanting me to do a fishing TV show. Just to give you something to read here until Tommy gets going I thought I would relate to you how I know him.

Doing this web site stuff as an independent can be hit and miss so I often work a regular job while doing this to supplement my income. A few years ago I was working at a fuel dock where the owner and Tommy were business partners. At that time Tommy was running the boat Reality Check.

He took me for a short ride on it once. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. I was with Mike standing in the very back of the boat where there was a large arch to hold on to. Tommy was taking this 45' boat about 55mph through a part of the intercostal where there is no speed limit. He made a hard turn to stay in the channel and the boat was so massive that as it took the turn I was leaning at about a 50 degree angle and didn't have to hold on because I was plastered to the floor.

The huge diesel engines were right in front of us roaring with the spray flying in the air. I could look just to my side and there was the water ripping by my face just a couple feet away, I look to the other side and there was Mike, smiling away, way up in the air with nothing but the sky behind him, the wind blasting in his face. The ride only lasted about 10 minutes and that turn for about 10 seconds but like I say, it was a total thrill just for a ride if you are into adrenaline.

On the way back we went a lot slower and my dog (black lab named peek-a-boo) was riding on the bow of the boat having a blast. She had her front toes right on the very point of the boat with her ears flapping in the wind straining to get even further out. Just like in "Titanic" she was the queen of the world!

As for fishing, to be honest, I don't fish. I love eating fish and seafood but I don't do well on boats for long periods and especially ones that are sitting still. I suppose I could get used to it but it just isn't my thing. But I did work at the dock where Tommy came in after every trip. HOLY CRAP!!! I'm 5'9" and I saw fish on a regular basis that were well past half my length. I grew up in Ohio fishing inland lakes and a 5 lb bass is big. These things are enormous! Mahi Mahi that were so vibrant in color that it is almost a shame to kill them. But DAMN are they good to eat. Grouper that could eat a small kid, in one gulp! Amber Jack that were just unbelievable in size.

There were a lot of boats that went out fishing and I ran the fuel dock where they would come in and go out of, buy their bait and clean their fish. I can honestly say, no matter what you hear about Tommy, there is no one that came in with bigger fish and more of them. NO ONE. And I don't just mean by a little bit, I mean the fish were easily twice the size of everyone else's.

Well, hope you enjoy the site and if anyone needs any services please let me know knlpres@knl1.com
Frank