We decided to brave the swell yesterday even though it was in the 3m range. Had a fairly good run out, set the spread and trolled for about 10 minutes before a good strike on the shotgun. I pulled it down and gave him 15lbs of drag. He came tight and within 2-3 seconds was gone. I pulled it in and had been cut off where the 200 lb mono wrapped around the hook, behind the crimp. It would of been a Spaniard or wahoo so we set another gar on an ilander into the shotgun (the only hook I’ll run back there) and kept trolling. About fifteen minutes later it went off again and porter brought in a 10-12kg Spaniard. It seemed it had been gaffed or speared through the back within the past few days but either way it ended up in our kill tank.
We then trolled around the 21 mile for a couple of hours without another fish. We had a couple of half hearted strikes on the shotgun but nothing aggressive and nothing hooked up. We marked a ton of marlin or sharks and a lot of bait but nothing would come up and strike.
We then cut out past the banks and trolled north in the 80-100m line. Up where we found the fish last time we found a current line and dolphins so spent a couple hours working the area without any action. We then cut out to 120-130m and trolled south to an area we caught a lot last year at this time. We found lots of swell and blue water but nothing of interest. We then started to cut back in toward the banks when the shotgun fired and I pulled in a little mahi around the meter mark.
We played around the southern end of the banks for a few passes and again marked bait but all the gamefish seemed to have lockjaw again. Just inside of the banks in about 55m of water as we were discussing pulling the gear we had a school of mahi attack. Four lines went down at the same time but only one hooked up. I brought it in and it was small, maybe 75-80cm so I grabbed the leader to flip it up in the boat. About half way between the water and the gunnel it flicked off and swam away to do some more growing.
Between the 3+m rollers, fuel burnt to run/troll 240+km yesterday and lack of fish it was a pretty brutal day but still better then sitting around home wondering how the fishing was. The water has also cooled off about a deg and a half which probably indicates the summer fun is drawing to a close. Last trip out it averaged 27-27.5 deg and yesterday the warmest I saw was 26.10 deg. Within another two months it’ll be tuna season or reef fish until the billfish come back. Rosi played the inshore game yesterday and picked up some longtail tuna (northern bluefin) so they’re around and perhaps one day soon I’ll take the kids out and catch some.
Next trip I’m heading the 37 nm south east to check that seamount that’s supposed to be down there. If it doesn’t exist I’ll troll back north in 4-700m of water and try my hand at a finding a yellowfin or blue marlin.
The Spaniard and the mahi fillets in the bowl.
And his scar. I’m thinking spear but it could be gaff
