We fished for shark out to the east Saturday. Gary and Scot joined Deb and me for this trip. We had lines in around eight and began the wait for the right shark to show up. We had a fair drift in a light steady wind with a good swell mixed in on the 30 fathom line.
We had four rods out. Three were suspended and the fourth was a tip rod that was shallow and could quickly be retrieved and used as pitch bait. About 90 minutes into the game the tip rod with the mackerel sings off and Scotts got the belt on. He starts reeling only to get a tug and a drop. He reels up and a check of the mack shows a gash not a bite. So we clean it up and redeploy.
A couple of hours of chumming produced the first sighting. A flash in the chum line revealed a mahi picking off the small chunks of bluefish we were tossing. I grabbed the spinning gear and baited it with a small chunk. The visitor was willing to eat and took the bait that I free lined out about four feet from the side of the boat. It was neat to see the mahi engulf it and immediately turn to look for its next meal. I closed the bail and waited to feel the fish turn the offset hook. With the line tight the fish came alongside and then made a couple run offs. While Gary grabbed the small gaff and every one else pulled shark rods from the holders, I held the mahi at bay in hopes others would show themselves. The 2.5 – 3 foot fish hadn’t fought all that hard and I was already thinking of how good the first mahi of the year would taste. Then this female must have read my mind and made hard run under and around the back of the boat. The next thing I felt was the line scraping and then nothing. The line came back with come of the ablative coloring and a clean cut where it probably ran across the trim tab. I’m still replaying this scene over kicking myself and know we should have had that fish in the boat.
After that burst of excitement it was back to sharking. Some more time passed with everyone looking for another sighting. Then the long deep rod goes off and it’s screaming. I pick up the rod and start reeling until the line goes tight. This rig was set far off the boat and there was a good amount of line to pickup. I end up with a little tugging deep the feeling slack start reeling fast because this shark is heading for the surface fast. I’m beginning to believe it’s one of the right kind when it splashes to the surface 150 feet from the boat. By this point we can tell it’s not a big fish. When it gets near the boat it’s clear it’s a six foot skinny male blueshark. The fish had some bite markings on its back in front of the dorsal that looked recently inflicted. We wondered out loud whether the little guy was in a fight or if a female wasn’t too receptive to his affection. Gary does a nice job placing a tag on its back and Scott cuts the wire. We couldn’t try out the new de-hooker because this shark inhaled the hookbait. It swims off after release looking to be in decent shape after having a bad week.
We had one more blueshark show up later free swimming up to the boat a few times and nudge the balloons. That fish wasn’t hungry and the crew wasn’t either. We pulled up stakes and tried a slow toll back through our slick with no takers and the switched to tuna speed with small lures hoping we might salvage the day with a SBFT or another lonesome mahi. We did get two nice knockdowns before we got to the Gully. One was a bite off. The other an ocean sized bluefish with the 50. We took the bluefish as a sign to pick up and run for home.
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