What a fantastic June day to be offshore out of Virginia Beach. The ocean was a mill pond most of the day. The temps were hovering in the mid 70's and the fish were snapping. We launched still think'n at Owls creek at approximately 0345 with visions of all kind of fish jumping in the boat. We ended up with a GPS track to the 450 line in about 1200 fathoms, which is where the offshore gulf stream eddy was pushing in. We arrived at approximately 0700 to Clear dark blue, 74 degree gulf stream water. There was scattered weed, whales, jumping dolphins, Mola mola. It was like a national geographic show out there today.
Crew consisted of myself, Otter, John Hamilton and Dale kling and we immediately got to work getting the spread out. Not long after we get set we get a double of slinger Mahi jumping on the baits, got them in the boat and set out the spread. around 0930 the left shoft comes out of the clip, not hard but in that subtle knockdown that just screams White Marlin. I see the bill whacking at the left short bait and otter starts dropping back. At this time the Left Long G&H Blue and White sea witch come down and John is immediately on the rod feeding the fish. He hooks up tight and we're on to the first white marlin for us this year. Lines clear I begin backing down still think'n to get the release fairly quickly. I got some great Video which my man Don is editing and hope to have it up tonight. but anyways, we get the bill and this fish is very green as Otter is trying to control him. We ended up cutting the line as he was just too fired up to get control of him to get the hook out. He ended up jumping away happily.
about 20 minutes later I'm looking ahead and I hear all kinds of commotion in the back, and about this time I hear the rod start screaming...we're tight to a Blue Marlin, fish jumps and lands on the Get Reel Tiki bar and breaks the leader on the stinger bait. Apprenlty from the way the crew described it, the fish came up like jaws and just destroyed the Tiki Spreader bar, he looked like a good solid 350 - 400 pounder.
We ended up picking at Mahi for the rest of the day before we get to the 500 fathom tip of the Norfolk Canyon. Little birds picking everywhere, squid all lit up on the screen..I'm thinking this is it...as I'm thinking this Bam, Bam two rods go down..definately not Mahi this time...then a huge crash on the Get Reel Tiki Bar and we're tight to 3 nice YFT...we unweave the tangle the YFT can sometimes make when you have multiple fish on and everybody did a great job landing all three.
it's now 3 and the winds are starting to pick up so we pull lines in, call in the rest of the fleet to enjoy the apparent schools of YFT that are biting and head home....Great day for sure....
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
