Yesterday was an interesting trip. The seas were calm for a change and it was nice not coming home feeling like I should of married a chiropractor.
We hit the ocean at 04:15 and ran out in the dark. The sun was creating the horizon as we dropped our usual meat spread and we trolled the banks to fill the kill tank. The sounder was lit right up with bait and fish but surprisingly nothing wanted to eat. We saw pilchards busting up in multiple places and found yellowfin under them but the rods were silent. Eventually we had a hit on the shotgun, I passed it to Nolan and it took a lot of line but no jumping so we didn’t assume a billfish. We cleared the gear and started the chase and then he dropped it.
The lines went back out and again plenty of bait but zero strikes. We tried everything from lure changes to drinking a few beer but nothing was tipping the odds in our favour. We assumed it was the tide and the bite wasn’t on yet. The Garmin looked like this almost everywhere.
Eventually the long rigger fired and Nolan skull drug a little 70cm mahi in. We kept steaming and not long later the shotgun fired, porter got us another mahi for supper
We kept plugging away and the skipping yakka on the mid rigger popped the rubber band then went slack immediately. We watched the spread and saw a large boil under the lure on the long rigger and it started howling drag. Nolan grabbed that one then the other long rigger went off and porter grabbed it. I cleared the gear and when I pulled the first line that had gone off the circle hook was missing. Porter got his fish to the boat first and it was a nice hoo. As I was going to gaff it I saw the hook come out of his mouth so I sunk the gaff a bit to far back but got him in the boat. Nolan got his fish in a minute later and it was another meat missile . Porter hauled him over the side of the boat with another sub par gaff shot and the kill tank was looking awesome. Seems we should probably work on our aim with that pointy hook but we don’t mind getting out there for some practice.
They went 11 and 12 kg’s and I wanted to enter Nolan’s into his junior fishing comp for some points but because it was caught on 15kg line it didn’t beat the line class so it’s ineligible.
I mentioned how we were so close to a triple. I also remembered in a previous post last year I said I would get a pic of the two parasites that live in a wahoos gut. Pretty much all of them have two, very rarely one and almost never zero and this holds true all across the oceans that have wahoo. So I cut both gut bags open. First wahoo had two parasites. The second wahoo had a yakka. I flipped it over and there was my circle hook.
He also had two of the parasites.
I also found some type of loooooong white bait in him that wasn’t yet digested. Get a load of how skinny and long this thing is
We then cut wide to try the heavy tackle scene. We had spent more time on the banks then we wanted but the plan was some billfish to put the day over the top. We trolled east past the fad, across the middle grounds where we never catch anything and eventually out at 210m the water changed from black to perfect cobalt blue. There was bait, current lines, dolphins, a deg of water temp change. It looked perfect. The plan was to troll further out but my gut told me to work that area as it had every sign of life and there should be fish around. We cut laps for about three hours. We trolled pay a big black shape and couldn’t work out what it was. It looked like it was about 10m under the boat but I’m not sure how far it was down. I called it for a whale first but when we went over it we saw some sort of a ray. It was big, like as long as the boat and nearly as wide as it was long. Not sure what it was and we should of put the GoPro under the water but trolling at 6-7 knots we would of had to think quick.
Eventually the shotgun went off but it was only a little football and not the billfish we wanted.
We marked two billfish like this
That one was the closest to surface the other was close to 100m down. We couldn’t buy a strike. It was disappointing but we were burning daylight and still had 30+ miles to head home. Eventually I pointed the bow west and started trolling in. We again marked a lot of bait in 160-140m of water
At one point saw a black marlin up on surface catching some sun. We trolled past him and he sulked into the depths. We cut a few laps and he didn’t come up and grace us with his presence. On the way in we trolled through many patches of bait jumping and we trolled circles around and through them every time we saw them. We marked one more billfish about 25m down just short of the fad but he didn’t come up either. We trolled back to the banks, did a few laps and the sounder was lit up but nothing wanted to eat.
Eventually we admitted defeat after giving it our best and pulled the pin. The run in was just as enjoyable as the rest of the day. The seas were as calm as one could ask for and we took advantage of being able to sit down and enjoy the ride.
All up, plenty of meat but zero tags planted. Once again this season has shown us some humility. It was a beauty day on the water but for some reason the fish didn’t want to eat. I would like to say we will get em next time but if this summer has taught us anything it’s that we probably won’t. Back to work next week and my next days off will be the very tail end of the marlin season. Fingers crossed we get out again next days off and can find a couple more before the long winter.