With the absolutely outstanding weather, and the day off from school, I just couldn't resist the urge to run for the bluewater. Never mind the fact that there wasn't much really "good" water showing, it has been a long winter. The water to the South was made up of a big back eddy of warm gulfstream water. To reach the main body of the stream looked to be a LONG run in that direction! Other than that, it was relatively cool, mixed water according to sat shots. I have never liked fishing back eddies, and decided to head in a different direction. There looked to be a small temp break right around the 100f curve.
We reached the dock just after 5am, loaded the gear, and departed through the cut right behind the charter fleet. Halfway out the cut leading from Anchorage, the starboard engine hiccups and shuts down. This is unheard of since switching over to the 4-stroke Yamahas! We attempted to restart it, but although it would turn over, it wouldn't fire off. Long story short, after following every starboard fuel line and finding no problems, we found that the seal on the internal fuel filter had busted. Whhoosh! Bit sigh of relief that it wasn't something major. Got the problem fixed and departed at the late hour of 7:30 . Since we had already lost a couple of hours, I made the call to shorten our run time and fish slightly closer to home on a small sliver of a temp break that that mornings shot had shone. Great run out, and we dropped lines in around 9 in 300' of water and pointed towards the deep. I turned the wheel over to one of the crew and began setting da tuna spread! We fished around out in the deep for several hours with not so much as a nibble; all the way out to over 1000'. Around 11 I decided to give it a try up on the high side. Good move! Right as we came up shallow, the rt. long pops hard and then goes slack, I jumped on it and dropped back hard, felt the fish pick it up and hit him with the drag. Felt him for a few seconds and then all went slack. As I wound the slack line in I had a sneaking suspicion about what had happened. We got Hoo'd! I ripped into my tackle bag and began switching out to wire as the tuna clearly weren't there. As I was busy changing one of the rigs out, I hear one of the crew hollering. I turned to see what was going on just in time to see the planer rod doing the bounce. This fish was going crazy! The person next to reel had never experienced how the bridle system works, and didn't back the drag off quite enough. Before I could get over to it, the fish came tight and broke the piano wire clean in the middle of the leader. No kinks, no busted haywire, just a long piece of very curly wire broken right in the middle.. BIG FISH! Oh well, start to circle back on the spot, and I quickly re-rig the planer bait. I sent the bait down right as we passed back over the spot, and immediately it was hit. I was on the rod this time and back the drag down quickly. My brother took over fish fighting duties and I uncovered the gaff. The fish came to the boat deep and green. He made several runs around the boat before I was able to get the leader. Made a nice gaff shot and slung a nice 40lb wahoo in da box! Finally skunk is off! All of that happened between 11:30 and 12. We pounded that same spot for another 2 hours with not another strike. Worked all of the way up to 180'; nada. Around 2 we made the call to reel em up and run down the break to some other spots. Fished at the new spot for a half hour or so with no strikes. Decent water, few flying fish, and nothing marking on the sounder. Punched in the next set of cords with the thought of dropping a few jigs in mind. As we were running to the next spot, I spotted two fins moving along the surface approx. 100 yards to our port. I pulled it back and eased over to see what it was. As we came up on it, I saw that it wasn't two separate fish, but the dorsal and tail fin on the same fish!! A HUGH hammerhead! I have never seen a shark of this size, and I have seen many 4-500 sharks, but this one was a monster! We got up close to it and fed it a small alby we had caught earlier, what a sight! I think one of the crew got a video, if it comes out I will post it later. After that we picked up and continued on to what would be our final stop of the day. Pulled it back over some nice breaks, and after fast trolling around for a few moments looking for fish, found what we were after. Big AJ's and grouper every drift! I sure hated to throw those 15-20lb gags back. Five people hooked up every drift for a solid hour. By this time the sun was beginning its descent and we decided to call it a day. Beautiful run home at 30 knots. Great day on the water and a great way to start off the spring. Just wish we had more wire out when the wahoo attacked. Thats the way it goes though, you win some and lose some!

I will get the pictures up as soon as they are sent to me. Reefcast is already calling for gooood conditions 5-7 days out! Just maybe this spring will be a bit kinder weather wise than the past several.