Well we got here... Mother nature did not want to play nice nice though. Our crossing was someplace between gut wrenching and flat out crummy... The boat definately is a different girl with all the weight we had on her and 25kts of beam beating took its toll on a couple tower welds...
Now the good news. Despite the rumors of Chub being shut down and done we have a half full marina, plenty of fuel and power. Plenty of great company to be found on the docks and the island is well kept.
Customs man was backed up big time wth commers and goers so nothing got done yesterday... Violent storm caught up to us in the night and worked over our eisenglass.
Today the wind was still howling from the north west and we spent the morn moving stuff around, setting up camp, doing little repairs and tearing up some entenmens donuts...
This afternoon I wanted to just test the waters real quick for dinner. A dolphin was quick to respond and I tucked inside to do some jigging... We punched the ticket on a couple buckets full of bigger than usual strawberry groupers a few yellow tails and then doubled up on a couple slob reef donkies in the 50-60 class... Not bad for an hours worth of work...
This wifi here is painfully slow but seems to work a bit.Tomorrow afternoon we'll tuck back out and may try dragging a spread for a couple hours...
Boys got in late this morn... The edge didn't have much to offer for the first hour or so... Then we found dolphin at Yellowbar... Then as I came around the corner we got into wahoo hell... Snip snip snip...
As we continued on the hoos got smaller and we had three that didn't manage to clip the 200 leaders... Ok now thas a little better...
We raised a white and Scotty wanted a crack at it... Kinda stuttered on the bow up and the fish bounced off. Ask me if I care... Better than shoveling snow... We slid further south and did a quick lay up for a bucket of berries...
THe wind was screaming from the north and the south wall was sloppy. Our buddies Cabo called to say they had let go a blue so our spirits were high.
I decided to get in the lee of the flat a little more north and Whaaaaaabooosh! Big blue piled on the rigger. Now here a big one is 400 so lets not hear about the azores or brazil...
The fish pulled off quick so I swung back for a second pass... Never got there... Another blue hammered the flat. Not as big but I'll take it... She charged the boat and as I throttled away from her down goes the rigger... Yep a double of blue dogs!
All this in between Waterboy and the Christina.. Who got quite the show as we got em both...
The ride back to chub was uneventful... Yes there are pics. Gotta get the passengers to up load them but I have a couple...
Half day, two dolphin, 3/10 wahoo, 0/1 white, 2/3 blues, a dozen or so groupers... I'll take it as a start considering still off moon and way wrong wind...
I like a good start in crappy conditions... The flying fish are back this year and so are the real fish...
Deep Deckand leaders brendans fish as Scotty still works his.
Scotty and Brendan take some well deserved rest...
The "bycatch.."
The first time the new old girl has flown laundry...
Yall better go get a cold one and a box of popcorn for this one....
Out of the gate same ol not much til yellowbar.... Then a trio of good sized dolphin... Flyers on the back edge looked good but I wanted to play in another spot given the condition of tide and wind...
Pop Pop! Wahoos... One gets boxed one snips us off. Pop pop! same story... I slid out of there and continued the quest...
I was comming on one of my dog leg numbers when I noticed two bright blue bars behind my flat... Oh crap! They're pec fins and pretty bigguns at that... I barked at Deep deckhand and just as he got there whamboosh! She launched... Good fish of 250 class...Game on.... Welll the tld 30 just doesn't hold all the string I'd like it to and it wasn't long before the girl shot for the basement and that was farther than our spool would allow... The line let go at the far end and it was back on the troll...
I felt bad on that fish cause it was Robs turn. Rob is a prosecuting attorney for the coast guard and has the distintion of being our only cg rep prosecuting insurgents in of all places Baghdad... Super guy is understatement... At least he had a show...
We tried something different today. Instead of heading up the edge we did a cross pocket pull... Out in 2500 or so feet the masher went away. Blind bite... Slow at first we had ample time to clear... Then she launched and launched then charged!!!!
I was deep on the black smoking end of things as godzilla herself came a chucggin. I could see those you tube images as she came hard. Then here came the big on! Wham crah smash snap crack oh shit! She landed on or rigger totaling it!!!!
Luck was on our side nobody got hurt. Even more amazing was witha ll that busted hardware and rigging to tangle in we were able to get her clear and continue for the next hour and a half til Deep Deckhand got her under control. Fearing nothing he grabbed the 700ish girl and she about broke his hand slamming it against the boat. He held on and we did the long proper release...
Two hours later Deep Deckhand billed the beast and she about broke his wrist slamming his hand against the hull...
View from bridge of busted rigger...
Well today was better... Cookie II and I had the place to ourselves and as we were setting our spread we were only setting the third bait out when we drilled a blue right smack in front of Momma Rhoda rock about a quarter mile from the cut... The boss man was in the chair and did great in getting it to the boat quick... Not a big fish. In fact a rat but still a great start. First bite we have had close to home...
We worked on further down the line collecting a cuda and some bigger dolphin... The corner was dirty and weed filled so I slid over to the joulters side... Cookie came in too and we started to beat the area... We had cycled around our group and the boss was up when I saw a bill swinging at the rigger... This time a big sloppy white. This fish actually was bigger and friskier than the blue we caught earlier in the day... He mastered it to the boat in good form and that dish was released clean too...
I wanted badly wanted to find a sail but the weeds and dirty water kept us deep. A couple more dolphin were boxed and then we missed another white...
We kept trying to find a sail but no sign of one to complete the slam. Still a dandy day...
The boss works the early fish with marina and island as a backdrop.
Fan? Try full blowed pratt and whitney mega jet engine today. Was supposed to be ten knots... Add twenty!
The north wall was choppy and no fish so I did a cross pocket crawl only to find it really really big in the middle. Got to the south wall and it was dolphin hell. So bad we were leaving the engines in gear and skipping the green bastards to the boat. A section of powder blue water came off the edge up against the purple and it was game on time...
First whiff was a sail that tried to dry hump a masher... A white was next at burning us. Then we finally stuck one. A nice fat white... Whiffed another white then stuck one... All the while the green death tormented us... Down to one spread of baits left after starting with 5 dozen we decided to get out of there before it got rougher.
Center pocket it was full tight eights and all I wanted to do was get home... A smallish blue had other plans and in the trough we just didn't connect... Less than a minute later here came another... This one ate a thirty and was a bigger fish. Back down was no option so I ran at it then in front where it swam to us for a quick tidy release. I went for my camera but it had rolled off the bunk and lost her batteries so no pics from me on that one but I do have the whites... I'll post later. My shourlders and arms are cramping from fighting rough stuff all the way into the inlet...
When the smoke clears though we have had eleven great days of fishing. 7 blues, 4 whites, 10 sails... 42 clean shots.... around a zillion dolphin, a hand full of wahoos, a dose or two of groupers and more smiles than I can count...
Father son double up on the sails...
Brutal piles of dolphin...
Ooodles of bait out deep...
Gotta love grouper too...
Popping a blue cherry is always good for a memory...
We weren't the only ones with dolphin issues...
The only sushi we saw this trip...on our buddy's boat...
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Well we got here... Mother nature did not want to play nice nice though. Our crossing was someplace between gut wrenching and flat out crummy... The boat definately is a different girl with all the weight we had on her and 25kts of beam beating took its toll on a couple tower welds...
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Big blue piled on the rigger. Now here a big one is 400 so lets not hear about the azores or brazil...
