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Our plan was to run out to the Baltimore Saturday morning/early afternoon, troll up some White Marlin, dolphin and maybe a tuna or 3; setup for the chunk once it starts getting dark and start the troll at dawn if the chuck isn't on. The crew was friends Drew, Drew's dad Bud, Billy, Wes and my son Timmy. We started trolling once we hit the nice water that had pushed in during the week. This was along the 40 fa line just inside the Balt. Scattered grass and 81.5 degrees. Not too long into it, Timmy was playing with Whitey on the short right. Dropped back but didn't come tight. Then it switched to the shotgun for a moment and then it was gone. We tried to raise something again but had to settle with catching a few dolphin as we trolled by some of the lobster balls. Here's a shot of Wes and Bud with a couple of the nicer dolphin we got. This was our only double while trolling.
We trolled our way out to the north/eastern bight of the Baltimore and started to reel the lines in to setup for the night. Timmy was just getting the shotgun to the boat when Whitey grabs it and goes. He thought quick and dropped it into freespool and moments later he was tight to a greyhounding white marlin. That fish hit the blue/white hawaiian eye just 15 feet off the transom. Once the fish was a little worn out I leadered it and we released it healthy to fight another day.
We started chunking and just as it was getting dark and we found ourselves surrounded with pilot whales. They proceed to harrass us for the next 3 hours. They kept grabbing the floats and line resulting in pulling line out. We ended up moving because they wouldn't stop and we were worried one might get hooked.
The only love we got during the night chuck (besides the whales) was a blue shark that broke off our deep sword bait. He got caught when he took our deep whole butterfish. The only reason I knew he got the sword bait was because I saw the line hanging out of his mouth when we cut him off just as it was getting light. We decided to start Sunday by hitting some balls with light spinning rods and adding a few more dolphin to the box and then run home. In addition to the dolphin we also released a small amberjack that was hanging with the wrong crowd under a ball.
Here's a shot of Billy with one of the dolphin on light tackle.
Overall it was a great trip, the weather was great, nobody got hurt and we got back safe. Timmy and I leave tomorrow morning so he can start college at Montana State University in Bozeman. I'm sure he'll have good memories of this trip during the school year.
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