Robin's Reports

5/21/06 A dream come true


Some kids dream of ponies or being firemen or driving monster trucks. My son, he dreams of catching his first mahi and today was HIS day!! We set out this morning after church to have a daywhere nothing else was on the agenda but teaching "M" to reel in big game. We head about 15 miles east of the Port. We started to see a few flying fish in 70 ft of water. We set out 2 lures (pink/white w/ ballyhoo and one naked 'hoo). Jack didn't even have the 3rd line in the water when the first one goes off! I was navigating on the due East setting so I just stayed in the Capt's seat. Jack hands the pole to M, who is reeling and reeling and reeling and reeling. Finally, I had to go neutral because the extra resistance it put on pulling the fish in and dragging him at the same time. First, we could see pink, then we could see slightly brownish/long bodied forked tail. A couple cranks more and we could have really seen it and gaffed it, but........ it scream, "BOAT" and spit out the hook and took a right turn away from us. It was so disappointing because we're sure this was a heavy 3-4 ft fish. This first picture is him fighting the fish at 1:45pm.

By 2:20, another line was screaming off a pole. Same drill. I slow the boat down, Jack hands the pole to M and M is reeling and reeling. Again, this one is not a jumper (nor was the first). Our hopes of mahi were dashed as they love to jump. In this picture, you can't see it, but in the original, we see our first glimpse of green/yellow - a mahi!!! "Pull M, reeeeeeel, pull up, reeeeel" Eventually, we can see it isn't huge but definitely the right size for M and the poor fish is as tired as our son.


M has done a fantastic job of getting it boatside and stepping out of the way for daddy to pull in - not a gaffer in the case. This blogspot does no justice to the actual pictures we took at high resolution.

This is one happy kid. Pure satisfaction from having done it all by himself.



I can't tell you how proud we are of him as well. Didn't weigh it but it was 22 inches to the fork in the tail, probably a few pounds, caught in 105 ft of water.