48 hours of Non-Stop Fishing With Capt Johnny Greene on Alabamas Gulf Coast

This past weekend, the third in October, we had a 2-day offshore charter trip with two anglers, whose goal was to try to catch as many-different types of fish as he could catch in 2 days. Many people have a misconception that to charter an overnight trip, you have to have a lot of people, but that's not true. You actually only need at least two people for a charter trip. On many charters, you can take as many, or as few, people as you want to take.

On this trip, these two fishing buddies decided they wanted to do their own thing. At our first stop, we caught a large number of giant triggerfish. Then we moved offshore to fish for scamp and red snapper. We caught six or eight scamp and snapper averaging 10- to 15-pounds each. We were catching the scamp and the red snapper about 35-miles offshore from Orange Beach. Next, we put-out our high-speed trolling wahoo lures and headed offshore, moving down to the 70 and 100 Fathom Curve. When we reached a 280-foot bottom, we started fishing for 40- to 60-pound amberjacks. They caught four of those big jacks, which was their 2-day limit.

Then, we went further offshore to spend the night fishing for swordfish. We found a big offshore shrimp boat pulling its net at about 200 fathoms on 1,200 feet. We put the outriggers on the boat and trolled with six ballyhoo baits for tuna around the shrimp boat and caught big blackfin and skipjack tuna. Then we circled the shrimp boats and hooked-up a big yellowfin tuna. When the tuna hit, Tim Howard, one of the fishermen, put-on the harness and fought the big yellowfin for 35 minutes.

Howard has learned how to pump the rod to take big fish - let the rod down 1 to 1-1/2-feet, while turning the handle on the reel one revolution. Using this technique, you keep the line tight at all times, and you can take-up line when the fish isn't running. Pumping works because you're keeping the tuna's head above its tail, forcing it to come-up. These fishermen use short, vertical pumps of the rod, trying not to take-up more line than a full revolution on the reel, to keep the tuna coming into them. Some anglers believe you have to reel way-down until you almost hit the rod tip parallel with the water and then pull-up the rod to the 12:00 position, drop the rod and try to reel. But with this tactic, most anglers can't reel fast enough to keep the tuna's head turned-up toward the surface. Once that tuna gets its tail above its head and pointed downward, you're in for a long fight. We've learned that short pumping the rod is a much-more effective method to get really-big fish to the boat quicker, without losing them.

We got the 80-pound tuna to the boat, but failed to get another bite, although we saw several other tuna busting the surface in open water. Open-water tuna are much-more difficult to catch than the tuna around rigs, because those open-water tuna constantly are moving. After we boated the tuna, we went further offshore and fished for swordfish that night. We had three bites and caught one 6-foot long, 50-pound swordfish, called a pup, because of its smaller size.

The next morning we headed back-in and caught more big red snapper to finish out our 2-day limit on snapper. On the last spot we fished, we caught a 30-pound grouper. We had a great trip and caught numbers of fish and different species of fish. On a two-day offshore trip, we could go to more fishing spots, fish for more species of fish and catch and keep a 2-day limit, rather than a 1-day limit. These two guys really understood how to have a good time on a 2-day trip by catching whatever was biting. We caught plenty of fish and had fun.

To fish with Captain Johnny Greene on the "Intimidator," out of orange Beach, visit www.gulfshoresdeepseafishing.com, call 251-747-2872, or email him at johnny@fishorangebeach.com. You can learn more about other attractions available in Gulf Shores by calling Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism at 800-745-SAND (7263), or by visiting www.orangebeach.com/fishing, where you also can get the weekly "What's Biting?" fishing report.