After a few months of heavy seas, lots of rain and a few extra weeks of work we finally got out yesterday. There weren’t any recent reports because nobody has been fishing in the past few weeks. The swell and wind have been relentless. The runoff from the rivers is gross and we never found any truly blue water even 30+ miles out.
We did the usual trip and started on the banks. A couple of quick hits gave us a yellowfin and striped tuna. We then rolled north toward the next little spot on the banks and picked up another pair of yellowfin and a spotted mackerel. We then cut north and east for the hards. Before we got off the banks the mid starboard rigger fired, it dropped that lure but the shotgun went off a second later. A quick 15 minute fight gave me a 2.15m sail. The pics suck or are cut from a GoPro but you’ll get an idea of what she looked like
We then trolled up to the hards and back south with two marlin strikes of which neither hooked up. We came back across the banks and Nolan added a Mac and yellowfin tuna to the box. The striped and Mac tuna are all being kept this year because they make such good bait in the winter up north.
The wind and swell were pretty rough but it was good to get out again. So far this year has been unseasonably windy and rough and on the days we do get out we struggle on the billfish. Being as they’re all gone by next month my plan is take the experience, try and learn from it and attempt to forget about this summer altogether.
Tomorrow is supposed to have good weather and less wind so we will give it another crack and after we try the banks for some more tuna we are going to head wide to the shelf for some heavy tackle fish. I’m to lazy to respool all of the reels with 24kg topshots so we will try them on 15kg line and 150lb leaders.
Very few pics out on the water and I had most of the fish cleaned by the time I thought to take a pic.
The mackerel fillet
The yellowfin were all little football size like this but still tasty.
See how tomorrow goes.