The water was very, very blue and very, very clear. We fished 285 feet around the Baker platforms.
The bait of choice was the 9 inch vertical jigs with steel 5 foot leaders----silver, green and pink were the dynamite colors. We caught red snapper, king fish and AJs and Jack Crevalles.
We had a big finish! I hooked into something big and 42 minutes later we could see color in the water. It was a silver color coming up from the abyss. I got a good workout. Me 'n that fish played tug-of-war for a long time. I thought it was a shark, but it turned out to be a 55 inch 90 pound Amber Jack. This fish was the trophy of a lifetime. It was a tournament-winning fish, and we were so excited to have this big fish on board. It made for a great finale to an awesome show. Tony D, my main TV Camera man, captured it all on high definition video, and it'll air on KSAT Channel 12 later this year.
Angler's note: Fishing in Deepwater requires strength, stamina and technique. Make sure that your gear is up to this challenge. 65 pound at minimum braided line is required to fight big fish in Deepwater. I generally prefer a 90 pound but this amberjack was caught on 65 pound multicolor line which enabled me to determine when I'm making headway with the fish making headway. It was really cool--the multicolor line enables you to see segments across the line as it goes into the water to identify if you're able to retrieve more line onto your reel or if he's taking more line down into the deep blue.
