The weather was beautiful, but the seas were a bit rough when we got around the point. It was, hmm, let's call it a fishable 6-8 foot sea. All I know is that we didn't cruise out there at full speed, so you know it was a bit sporty when the 55' Small Fortune has to slow down. Absolutely safe and fishable, that's all that mattered. We started trolling north of the canyon and got a strike IMMEDIATELY after putting the second line out. Unfortunately, it was just a skipjack tuna (which were EVERYWHERE). For those that don't know, skippies do not have any business being near a dinner plate. We released double digit amounts of these little tuna, and kept a few for bait.
There wasn't much but skippies for a while, but Glenn took the wheel and buzzed us past a lobster pot buoy and we hooked up with a real nice bull mahi on the green machine spreader bar. Andrew reeled it in like a pro:
Eventually we caught what we were looking for, a yellowfin tuna on the same green machine spreader bar. This first yellowfin was short of the 27" legal limit, so it became the first yellowfin I've ever had to throw back. Shortly after, we did get a keeper yellowfin on the boat's secret weapon lure, a purple bird daisy chain with a purple jet head hook bait. So now we had a nice mahi and a yellowfin in the box.
Once the sun set, we set up for the night chunk. It was still pretty rough out there (weather man was a little premature on his "wind will die down at night" prediction. In reality, it didn't die down until sunday morning). The tuna weren't around, and this was the first time that we didn't see massive amounts of squid and baitfish in and around our hydroglow light. We figured we were in a tuna-less area but it was too dark and rough to move spots. So we put out the shark chum to see what we could find.
Not twenty minutes after setting out the chum, we had a tournament quality mako show up. Glenn quickly fileted one of the skipjacks we kept for bait and fed the shark. This thing took it immediately and the fight was on. Andrew got on the rod and fought it hard for about 30 minutes. This fish was fast and was very interested in getting wrapped up in the boat and gear. Under normal sharking circumstances, we'd be able to maneuver the boat to fight the fish better, but being that it was rough and after midnight, we didn't like the risk involved with coming off the anchor and chasing the fish. So you can see where this is going, we ended up losing the fish after 30 minutes when it ran under the boat and snapped the line. We estimate the fish to be about 250 lbs, and it is also officially a caught fish, as we touched the leader before losing it. No shark steaks, but it was an amazing scene.
The rest of the night chunk was pretty much uneventful. On the morning troll, we picked up four more yellowfin, with two being keepers and one of those keepers being a nice 35 pounder that Patrick reeled in. Patrick's fish took a blue/white jr ilander with a ballyhoo. His first keeper yellowfin:
Final Tally: 6 yellowfin (3 keepers), 1 Mahi, countless skipjacks, and a 'released' Mako. A nice trip for this early in the season, we all took home several bags of fresh fish. I have some videos of a pod of dolphin swimming/jumping with the boat, as well as an expletive filled clip of Andrew's reaction to losing the mako. I have a call into the FCC to see if it can be posted. Stay tuned for videos, here are a few more pics (click any picture for a larger image):
2 comments:
Nice job guys, sorry I couldn't have been there. Next time I'll get the fish that Andrew "released."
Hahaha I want that clip! That was one monster shark, thanks for another great weekend on the Small Fortune!!
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