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Hey guys, well we finally got us one!
We entered the Barta event again this year and were able to win our division. Actually we were the only outboard to catch a billfish at all. What a weekend. 4 adults, 5 children (2 @ 13, 2 @ 10, 1 @ 8) on a 33' boat. Ma Nature gave us all we wanted too with so many folks on my boat.
Friday we decided to make the most of the weather and headed to the east side and started around the Tamaupus just trying to catch some fish for the kids. Nice grass line there and things were looking good. Lines in and we started working. The grass started getting too heavy and it just did not feel right so we decided to head on off to the deeper water looking for less grass and a bill. Finally broke out of the worst of the grass around 65-70 fathoms, and very shortly after we had our sailfish on. 10 yr old Davis was on the rod. I gotta tell ya, I am so proud of this kid - little guy from Georgia, and he put on a belt and with a bit of help holding onto the rod by his dad he was able to bring the fish in!! We had a couple other nice hits during our day but were bit off, hey thats what can happen with 100# mono and no lure to help with chafe protection - thats the risk ya run. We ended the day with a sail and a 9.something# king. These guys were troopers - 1 of the fathers got sick and a couple of the boys - but to their credit they all wanted to tough it out, and in the end they were all rewared for it. Side note, as tradition says, ya gotta be tossed in the water after catching your first billfish. Tred wasn't doing it til Saturday and we decided not to wait - our young angler Davis took a nice "reward swim" in the turning basin on our way back to TCM.
Went back out Saturday and wanted to head on up that way again, but I heard a couple big 55-60' boats already on the east side say they were only making 14 kts and getting it handed to'em - needless to say we decided to stay a little closer. Started out at West Rock and kept working from spot to spot heading deeper. Picked away at small kings and mahi all day. Couple nicer fish hooked up but they managed to avoid the air conditioned ride home! I was finally getting to some deeper water to look for a bill and we ran into the heavy scattered grass again. After what we dealt with for so many miles Friday and hearing reports it was that way all up and down the beach until ya got pretty deep - we decided to stay closer to shore and not give the kids the extra pounding and give us a break on the grass. Final tally was 10 fish, 2 per child.
anyways, we got all the kids weighed in and got'em all medals for their catches. At the end of the day we were able to pull Water Damage up to the dock and watch up close as Tred tossed all the billfish kids in. Then we got to pluck'em out of the water. Got some great photos too.
We ended up winning the Outboard Division, and our junior angler placed 12th overall junior angler billfish. We just missed the top 15 kings by about 1/2 a pound.
Good seeing a lot of folks out there (John, Marty, Holy Smoke, Hotrodmarlin, and others) despite the weather. Sorry if I was a bit "out of it" but we were running late most of the weekend and I just couldn't get my head outta my arse - sorry. What a fun event, especially for the kids. I am so proud of our kids, slogging it out on a small boat (for the conditions) and to use a Tred phrase - "doing the work" to make it happen. I am willing to bet our young billfish angler is about the only one to catch a fish standup, no electric reel, no 80 or 130 wide strapped in a gunnel or fighting chair - and he really is a small kid! CL and I were very proud of these young boys! We got a few pics but they are on CL's camera - I will try to get it from him later today and get'em posted up.
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