We had a gorgeous day!
Capt Fred was missing a man this weekend so I bummed a ride on his vessel, and what a ride! Real snotty on the way out, there was many a time when I wanted to crawl down into the cabin and wait till we got there.
We got to the rock pile and picked up a borderline gaffer right off the get go. We tried some deeper water, and there was plenty of life, but just no bite.
Headed back to the rockpile, and picked up the wahoo. It looks pretty good cooked up, there's a picture below. That fish came in really green, and we had some trouble getting him to the boat, as Ken said.
We moved off the structure, got some pictures of Headhunt's boat trolling around, and watched his crew get wacked right beside us. We circled around and had a knockdown right in the area.
About 30 minutes later, we were trolling the same area, and I was rigging some lighter colors, just finished rigging a pink/blue/white seawitch to throw on the long rigger, threw it out and the planer went off. Nice bull Mahi, Ken saw it jump and it was a nice fish, maybe a 25-30 lb'er. No sooner than I had the rod out of the holder than the port flatline went off on the pink/white seawitch with another 13 lb gaffer hooked up.
I pumped maybe tooo hard, and I dunno what happened, but that mahi either spit my hook, or the planer dug in and it ripped it right off the hook. But damn, that was nice fish, and it earned it's freedom.
Switched to pit duty and we got Ken's fish in. But I still curse that Bull, he got the best of me.
Ken (wisely) called it at 2pm, that SW wind was nasty all day, and we had envisioned a 14kt ride home, plus the nasty inlet. We made it in at 24 kt's, but, like he said, better to err on the side of caution, and thank God we were fishing on a WA with full curtains, the spray was about downright nasty.
Anyways,
Thanks to Gary and Ken for inviting me out, and showing me a few tricks. As much as I think I know, I love fishing with other guys, because everytime I go out with a new crew I learn so much in one day, that I think I don't know anything at all.
The day ended up so great, I thought I'd add just one picture of dinner tonight. This is grilled Wahoo, with rice, black beans, bread, salsa, and Old Bay covered French Fries. Wahoo was coated in a cilantro/butter/olive oil/garlic sauce. I gave some of my catch to
AllBowedUp, and he came up with this recipe, right off the top of his head. Man, this is straight gourmet!
Ken, whenever you guys are down fishing, gimme a call, cause I wanna go again! Thanks for a great day!