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Not all reports can be glowing epic recounts of great catches and this certainly one won't be... Such is the way of big game fishing...
After swatting a good solo sword a few nights ago my crew was hoping for the best. There was to be a practice night with Deep Deckhand and his friend Dave, just to iron out how I wanted the spread to be deployed and worked. We got it out and were doing our thing, dirfting anddreamin and waitin for the bite... It came on our high bait at about 9:00. Not too different than the night before... The 50w screamed in protest as the fish bolted for the horizon. About a half spool later I was staring in the dark and spotted our lightstick go airborne... Couldn't see the fish but a pretty impressive sounding splash followed... Then in typical sword fashion the stick went straight and it was score one for them and none for us...
We reset three times ducking thunderstorms and watched some wild light shows for the next few hours... Unfortunately the one bite we missed would be the only bite of the night.
Charlie joined us with his guests the next night. Conditions were ideal but we couldn't buy a bite. I heard of only two missed fish near us and three caught fish way down by Miami. It was appearant that the fish we had up on this end had really spread out if not almost disappeared... The night ended with an 0-0 but the company was delightful and the night pretty.
Last night the forecast 15 + knots arrived about the time we checked out for the tourney. It was turn up the heat time and 43 miles down the road had some structure that held more promise than the local grounds had showed the night before... We arrived with enough daylight to try a day drop... 40 minutes of soak time in the deep deep did nothing but crush our light and cost us a sash weight... It was kind of neat "jigging" by letting the boat drift down and raise the bait then drive back up the line and let her sink. The sun began to set so we made our move.
Arriving at the"spot" hopes were high. Weeds drifting by posed some issues keeping the lines clean but there was good amounts of bait in it... I expected to see more life in the lights but really nothing more than dinky bait was to be seen... T
he east wind had the bottom comming back up at us fast and it wasn't long befire we were forced to reset eight miles to the east... Right at midnight we crossed 1500 feet and were in 1492 when the deep jug bait began running off... We locked it up and wound all the slack out of the set up quick. The 80w tiagra shrieked as what evidently a good fish, the right fish, shot toward the Bahamas... 24 lbs on the heavy stick may as well have been freespool as the premium Sufix evaporated into the abyss... The rin slowed and eventually stopped. A few cranks though had our hearts sink... The fish just wasn't there...
We reset again to counter the ferocious east wind and building seas... The crew was game despite deteriorating conditions and stuck it out til quit time around 3AM ... Two more baits came up mauled but I think it was squid doing the mauling. The night had covered 32 miles of north south drift and 16 of east west with only the one shot. We missed our shot at glory last night but we'll have other shots down the line. Again great crew and great time despite no score...
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