Took a$EA $ICKNE$$ out for a couple days in PC while on our annual family vacation. 

Day one - went out 45 miles in search of some giant grouper in what we hoped was some good bottom area.  Lost our bottom machine about 3/4 of the way there.  Never got it back.  Since we were pulling flounder in 200' of H20, we assumed we weren't on good bottom and called it a day.  We found some nice weeds on the way in & played with some mahi mahi.  HOF entries from the trip: Jeremy's remora & Daniel's flounder.

Day 2/4 - Family days - played with the dolphin at Shell Island

Day 3 - Daniel, Tim, & Tom headed to the previous years bottom #'s hoping for some decent grouper.  We found short snapper and all the 4-8 lb. red grouper we wanted. Daniel was the King - managing 5 kings before the day was done.  Since we had our limit of red grouper, we picked up and headed to a 175' contour line looking for some gag's.  All we found were spotted sharks, possibly spiny dogtooths ???'s   Running out of time, we headed in and found some decent weeds and played again with some small mahi mahi.  HOF entries:  Daniel ties the Bonito record and lands the 1st of a shark species.

We're glad to be home.  But actually wish the boat was with us.  Its presently at a quaint mobile home park in south GA. 

We lost a wheel bearing on the way home and almost had the wheel come completely off the spindle.  On of the bearing races was stuck on the spindle so we couldn't remove it w/out a bearing puller.  We also realized our two spare hubs were not the same size as the front axle hubs which house our brakes (alot of good that did us!).  We are having a hard time getting parts and a repair made.  We have a wonderfully kind good samaritan, Mr. Bass, the owner of the park, helping us out there.  He's confident we'll be back on the road shortly.  He has been kind enough to not only let us leave the boat in his yard, but has volunteered to do the leg work to get parts locally and oversee the repairs himself.  His kindness is amazing.

UPDATE: 2AUG5 - Mr. Bass calls and says we are back on the road. He's got the bearings & hub installed.  Although we won't have a functional brake on that wheel, we can limp home and get it fixed here.  Yaahoo!!!

2nd UPDATE 2AUG5:  Just realized while checking the status of Daniel's pending red grouper JAWR, that his altantic bonito actually beats the pending bontio JAWR by more than a pound!!! Congrats to Daniel.  Mailed his record application off today!

3AUG5 Update - Mr. Bass & a new friend Alan got us back on the highway.  finally, the boat is at the repair shop.