Tortola or Bust! (Caribbean 1500)

N 33° 34' W 70° 59'

Fish On!

November 04, 2009


Today, we’re getting clear of the Stream and it’s 86+ degree water, the weather moderated, and Pete, our fisherman went to work with the hand lines off the transom. I was on a mid-day watch, and keeping an eye on the shock cord that dead ends at the boat end. The theory is that when you see the shock cord stretch, you’ve got a fish on. The practice is a bit more complicated, as it’s pretty easy to catch a clump of Sargasso (they don’t fight to hard :-)) and for the line to get fouled on the low-hanging davits aft — both of which we saw, and both of which distrubed Pete’s sleep. The third time, I waited a few minutes to wake him, thinking this miight be more Sargaso — nope! Instead we had a smallish Wahoo on the line, which Peto proceeded to filet on the fantail and turn into fabulous fish tacos a couple of hours later — eat your heart out locivores! Actually, the Wahoo is a quick, sporty fish, and is quite colorful — green on top and bright yellow down the flanks. It was almost a shame not to toss him back and let him become bigger Wahoo — or so it seemed until one got a bite of those VERY fresh fish tacos by Pete.

Pete however, turned out not to be the days fishing hero. Nope, he offered the next fish to John, and while all were below the reset line with snug again — sharply and with real authority this time. Pete saw the line when he came on deck and went immediately to the afterdeck looking for something big, followed closely by John, who proceeded to sit on the deck, sans fighting chair, reeling in hand-over-hand a gorgeous Black Marlin, which Pete estimated at 100lbs. Wahoo! indeed. When’s the last time you tossed a fish back because it was to BIG?

The wind moderated throughout the day, but was still blowing 12-15 through much of the night.

P.S.:  Have pix of both Fish, and will upload on arrival — saving bandwidth now . . .

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