Rosie and I hit the water about 4:30 with a temp of 28 degrees and a forecasted high around 33. Water temp was 27 deg and we made pretty good time out wide. Lures in the water on the 21 mile and within five minutes I picked up a Spaniard off the shotgun.
While I was reeling him in another hit the squid that was still in the water but we failed to hook up. About ten minutes later rosie got one too but dropped it just off the boat. We then had another 14 strikes without a hookup. About 8:30 we trolled east for deeper water then started to cut north toward the honey hole from last Friday.
About half way there we had a strike and Rosie hooked into a marlin that took FOREVER to bring to the boat. We were in a stalemate for ages and when we finally got him up we saw why. Foul hooked in the dorsal fin. Let me tell you, they’re hard to control hooked in the back.
We worked that area for about an hour and had two more marlin on the line but somehow I dropped them all within 4 or 5 meters of the boat.
We picked up a little mahi and kept moving north. Eventually we found the spot but the current line was gone and it appeared to be a ghost town. We did two laps and didn’t raise a fish so cut east and started hunting.
About a mile or two out we saw bird action so moved towards them. Then we saw dolphins. Lots and lots of dolphins, hundreds of them. Then we saw the first surface bait ball. It was a thing of glory. Birds, dolphin, tuna, mahi and sharks attacking the swirling ball of soon to be dead bait. We trolled past for the first look and a marlin jumped ahead of the boat.
Then we started getting strikes. A few were skipjack tuna but most were marlin. I went six in a row and lost them all at the boat before we could get a hand on them. Plenty of video footage of them jumping all over the ocean but I couldn’t catch a break on the end game.
After dropping the sixth one I told Rosie to have a go. He looked recuperated from his dorsal hooked fiasco so he took the next three or four and lost them also. Either at the boat or mid fight. We couldn’t win.
I don’t know how many we raised or how many we hooked but I know we didn’t land another one. I lost count at 24 and I suspect it was close to 40. There were about four hours where I was so busy dealing with fish, bait or lines I didn’t have a chance to drink a beer or eat anything. Several times I would only get one or two lines in the water and we would have another hit. It was pandemonium until the tide change around 1500 when it shut down. We scratched around for another half hour after it turned off then trolled south across the 21 mile and just as we were going to pull in there was a boil on a skipping mullet and a reel screaming. No jumping so I didn’t assume marlin. Lots of head shakes and powerful runs. I had it nearly to the boat twice when it would run again so I wasn’t thinking Spaniard or wahoo because they don’t usually make more then two runs and then the line went slack. I’m almost positive that’s the first fish I’ve dropped on a circle hook once it was set but drop it I did.
So we went from not being able to hook them to not being able to land em but we are raising fish and having some success anyway.
Rosie took almost all the video and hasn’t been very forthcoming with it so those few pics are all I’ve got.
Today I was repairing leaders and noticed several of the hooks are bent so I replaced them all and hopefully that was some of the problem. I’m going to catch some gar tomorrow or Thursday and then be back into them Friday.
I also tried the skipjack tuna just so I could have an educated opinion. Bled, gutted and iced and I tried the shoulder for sashimi. Tasted ok (like a 6 out of 10) but the texture isn’t good for sashimi. To stringy and tough. Prob just use em for bait in the future cause they make great bait.