by Robin
We fished on Friday as a family. I know Jack was tired and was considering changing out his brakes on the car, but the weather was so nice, I insisted. It's been well over a month since I fished and I couldn't wait to see blue water.
In the car by 6:30 and out of the Port mouth by 7:30. Lots of other fishermen thinking the same thing.
Our first stop was in approx 120 ft of water, 14-18 mi offshore. We came across this mating pair of turtles. Gee........ we went offshore to get away from all that R-rated stuff on tv. I can't tell you how many jokes from the turtle's perspective were told. Ahhh.... the things you say when you're trolling & bored.
We start off trolling east until we find scattered weeds, which indicates where 2 bodies of water meet. "Stuff" collects in this area, which creates home for bait fish, which in turn, makes great hunting grounds for us. We picked up 1 barracuda right away.
We had no sooner cut the barracuda loose and this huge boat comes hurling down on us. It's irritating because we have long trolling lines out and there's a whole ocean for other boaters to go. Unfortunately, somebody ran over Jack's lines last week when he was out with the guys. This day, it ends up being a check from the Fish & Wildlife guys who were, at least, very considerate to not tangle in the lines. They checked our registration, asked questions about life-jackets, emergency equipment and then told us our registration FL & numbers were too close together. No problemo. They didn't board the boat and they were kind enough to let me take a photo of them after they were done. Nice folks doing their state jobs in federal waters. I'm a little confused on that, but I digress............
No long after, these 2 fins come our way.
They only stayed a few seconds and took off. We were disappointed. I think they must not like our trolling lines when they do their echo location. Or maybe we were going too slow.
We saw flying fish all day long.
My big guys are replacing the chewed up ballyhoo from the barracuda and putting on a fresh bait.
Not long afterwards, we get a bite. We let our eldest take the pole. I grabbed the camera.
He jumped multiple times. This size is roughly 5-6 lbs, which is considered a "bailer", short of bail it over the side of the boat by grabbing the line. He was gorgeous. Jack grabbed that line, the fish flipped out and unhooked himself and swam away. I had slight impulses of jumping in the water after him, but I didn't.
Back to trolling again. Somewhere in this photo (unseen to my eyes, but I know it is there because I saw it in real life) is a 6 ft long hammerhead and swam right through our lines.
A 2nd fish takes the bait and ruuuuuuuuuns. Big fish. Big jumps. We give our son a 2nd chance and he's reeling and reeling. This fish is closer to 20 lbs and probably as long as our son is tall. He gets him not far off the back of the boat and his wrist accidentally hits the "free-spool" button, releasing the line & pressure off the fish. Sadly, he swam away too. I thought our son was never going to recover from that heart-ache.
We were all saddened by such an unfortunate accident that anybody could have made. All you can do is continue on. We had another barracuda come & go. The heat of the afternoon drove the fish down and the bite disappeared for a couple hours.
Maybe it was too much for this little guy who sought refuge in the shade, yet enjoying the air flow from trolling. Those early morning hours really get to you after a while.
Eventually he got up in time to see this single spotted dolphin join us for a short ride.
I'm so glad my kids don't freak out at not seeing land. While he may see this as a hobby he will not pursue later in life, I have found much peace in being offshore. We all seem to enjoy seeing the wildlife. I love fishing & eating fish, but it's more than that for me and Jack.
Later after 3pm, a 2 ft fish from the tuna family made a 360 flip with our lure and then disappeared. I saw silver. Jack said he thought it was a blackfin tuna. Oh wouldn't that have been nice to land?
We had a small peanut mahi grab the line but wasn't hooked.
I eventually put down the camera. Helped Jack with preparing to bring in another mahi that he had the pleasure of reeling in. I'm guessing he was about 8 lbs (?). It would have made an awesome photo to see his fin ripping through the water. But, then the 80 lb braid line in Jack's hand literally disintegrated. The fish swam away, lure and all.
Jack looks at me, totally serious, and says, "Did we tithe?" It was rough loosing 3 nice fish that were so close to the boat. I did pray again. Always praying while on the boat....
The reel goes bzzzzzzzz........... I jumped on it. It's my turn finally. I worked carefully, as to not lose this one, playing with the drag here and there. I get it boatside and Jack grabs the gaff. This one is a gaffer-size. We're both determined to not lose this fish. Stab, swing, cooler, slam the lid, sit on the top. That fish kicked and kicked inside there. When she calmed down a good 5 min or so, I pulled her out for this picture. She was the amazing chameleon. Golden stripes on green/yellow before gaffing, to green/yellow. Here, she was losing her green/yellow and changed to a blue/white back in the cooler. It was like my eyes were playing tricks on me.
We tried some more trolling and finally gave up right before 5pm. Lots of fun & exhaustion set in. We had a serious 24 mi ride back in to the port even after trolling several miles west to catch this fish.
We were suppose to fish on our friends' boat the next day but we cancelled. Too much sun and ache in my back. We had a family day picking blueberries and strawberries instead.
Jack is offshore today with his friend Hector (from accounting). Hector is an Uruguay-American. Really nice person. I can't wait to see what they come home with.
Btw, we normally get kingfish while mahi fishing. We were so diappointed that we never picked up one.
Happy Fishing
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