Bill
Administrator
Recovering from 25 hours in the boat. We heard of a good tuna bite going off about 90 miles from our port. Had 4 of us lined up to go. Fuel in the boat, bait in the boat, 300 lbs of ice in the boat and 2 guys backed out. The plan was to chug our way down at about 10 knots to save fuel and be there in 10 hours, fish and then chug home. When the guys backed out my son and I said f-it let's leave now. 10PM Tuesday night we left the dock. About an hour into chugging at 10 knots and calculating fuel burn we decided we could make it but would be sucking fumes on the way home. I had checked the sat shots of the ocean before leaving and saw good warm water in "our" Atlantic canyons. But no reports because no one has fished in two weeks.
We decided to turn east and give it a try. I don't have pics but we caught our first Blue Marlin right at sunset on Wednesday evening. Coolest thing I've seen, blue Marlin dancing on the water with sun setting over the ocean in the background. Blue marlin take 3 guys to catch. 1 fighting the fish, 1 maneuvering the boat and a leader man to control the fish at the boat. When the leader man touches the the snap swivel on the leader it's a legal catch. That fish had me spinning the boat every which way for 30 minutes. When he was finally close enough I left the controls and became leader man. When I got the fish somewhat under control on the leader my son said can I put the rod down and get my phone. I said yes but he wasn't fast enough. The fish took a last jump from the transom and the hook pulled. Awesome even with out that damn picture...
Rewind. At noon on Wednesday we had our first hit after 4 hours of trolling and thinking we made the wrong decision. 1 fish hit 1 of 7 trolling lures and spun drag like crazy. Finally stopped and charged the boat. Smart bastard got off. Probably a rouge Bigeye tuna but no telling for sure. We were crushed but carried on.
Hit a few of the lobster pot buoys for Mahi that lay under them. Since no one had fished in 2 weeks because of high winds the pots were loaded and the fish were not shy. Normally we have to work to get them to bite because their boat shy. A naked bucktail had 15 Mahi attacking it. We threw back lots of peanuts and sight targeted the bigger ones. Mahi is good but it's not Tuna so we threw about 20 smaller ones back before returning to the troll.
5 PM Wednesday the drag sang again and we put 50lb yellowfin in the box.. 6:30 we had a double. I put the boat in auto pilot at idle and we reeled in a big Mahi and a smaller yellowfin tuna. As we finished putting the tuna in the box a reel clicked slowly.
I figured a Mahi found a still bait in the water and grabbed it. My son grabbed the rod and reeled, he said no this is a big fish, maybe tuna. Just then the blue Marlin came tight and danced in the sunset. I don't need a deer this fall! That trip made the year.
We decided to turn east and give it a try. I don't have pics but we caught our first Blue Marlin right at sunset on Wednesday evening. Coolest thing I've seen, blue Marlin dancing on the water with sun setting over the ocean in the background. Blue marlin take 3 guys to catch. 1 fighting the fish, 1 maneuvering the boat and a leader man to control the fish at the boat. When the leader man touches the the snap swivel on the leader it's a legal catch. That fish had me spinning the boat every which way for 30 minutes. When he was finally close enough I left the controls and became leader man. When I got the fish somewhat under control on the leader my son said can I put the rod down and get my phone. I said yes but he wasn't fast enough. The fish took a last jump from the transom and the hook pulled. Awesome even with out that damn picture...
Rewind. At noon on Wednesday we had our first hit after 4 hours of trolling and thinking we made the wrong decision. 1 fish hit 1 of 7 trolling lures and spun drag like crazy. Finally stopped and charged the boat. Smart bastard got off. Probably a rouge Bigeye tuna but no telling for sure. We were crushed but carried on.
Hit a few of the lobster pot buoys for Mahi that lay under them. Since no one had fished in 2 weeks because of high winds the pots were loaded and the fish were not shy. Normally we have to work to get them to bite because their boat shy. A naked bucktail had 15 Mahi attacking it. We threw back lots of peanuts and sight targeted the bigger ones. Mahi is good but it's not Tuna so we threw about 20 smaller ones back before returning to the troll.
5 PM Wednesday the drag sang again and we put 50lb yellowfin in the box.. 6:30 we had a double. I put the boat in auto pilot at idle and we reeled in a big Mahi and a smaller yellowfin tuna. As we finished putting the tuna in the box a reel clicked slowly.
I figured a Mahi found a still bait in the water and grabbed it. My son grabbed the rod and reeled, he said no this is a big fish, maybe tuna. Just then the blue Marlin came tight and danced in the sunset. I don't need a deer this fall! That trip made the year.
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