3-9-17, 3-10-17  Fish Stories

We knew nothing about salt water fishing.  Over time we have picked up a few pieces of information. Just enough to give us some pure dumb luck. We had been catching Spanish Mackerel regularly with a silver Clark spoon. Since being in the Bahamas I have dreamed about catching a Mahi Mahi (Dolphinfish- not flipper) We heard they like what is called a Ballyhoo rig.  It is a baitfish that has two large hooks wired into it. We were traveling the Sea of Abaco for several hours so we thought we would give it a try.  The Ballyhoo rigged fish were 3 for $17.50. We better catch something.

 

We drop a Ballyhoo rig with a pink skirt on it and a Clarks spoon off the back of the boat to troll while we traveled the Sea of Abaco.

I was sitting on the back of the boat waiting and praying for the beautiful sound of the reel whizzing as line gets peeled off when a fish hits.  Instead the Whzz was from a boat cuts in right behind our boat stripping off both our baits and all the line off of one of the reels.  Luckily I was able to retrieve the line on that reel. For Pete’s sake! I had 200 feet of line out and he had the entire Sea of Abaco, but he had to cut that close.  I was upset! I normally don’t wish ill on people, but I was hoping all the line was wound around his prop with big hooks sticking out and that he didn’t find it for a few days when the fish was rotting before he tried to get it off. I was pouting like a child. Scott, being the great husband that he is, re-rigged my pole.  I was still pouting when that beautiful sound Wzzzzz goes off. “Fish ON” I yell. Scott slows the boat down.  This was no Spanish Mackerel. It fought more and was much harder to reel in. As it got closer we could see it was a nice fish but we didn’t know what kind yet.  Scott grabs the net and scoops out the most beautiful Red Snapper you have ever seen. It was about weighed 5.2 pounds. Pouting and ill-wishing on the other boat abruptly stopped. We were so excited.  This was a prize fish in our eyes.  Needless to say, dinner was delicious!

The next morning, we were listening to the Cruisers net on the VHF radio where they give weather, events etc. They also give a fishing report.  That day was going to be prime fishing between 11 and 1:30 and the Mahi Mahi are running.  We braved the Atlantic. We tried different depths and cruised around dragging our one and only Ballyhoo behind. When we were in about 200 feet of water….Wzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Oh my! FISH ON!!!! Scott slowed the boat and came down to help. It was fighting so hard, I couldn’t get the rod out of the make-shift rod holder.   The fight began. This was something big!  I pulled up and reeled down more times than I could count battling his fight. My whole body was getting tired but I refused to give up.  I was so hopeful but doubts lingered that this could be a shark or some other unwanted species. I fought fish for about 20 or 25 minutes before we got a glimpse of a yellow tail.  At least it’s not a shark.  When it got closer to the boat it really started to fight. That is when I saw the beautiful green head and blue fins… I had my dream fish a Mahi Mahi! Scott originally had the net out until he saw it then he got the gaff hook out.  I got it up to the boat and Scott gaffed it but it spazzed and got off the gaff but was still on my line. I am full of adrenaline and start yelling, “just flip it in the boat don’t worry about the cooler, we can’t lose this fish!” One more swipe and he had it and flung it on board.  We landed it!  It was huge 49” long.  It was so big we had nothing to weigh it with. We put it in the cooler, but that was feudal.  Our one and only Ballyhoo rig paid off this day. Now how to clean it? It was way too big for our cleaning board.  Scott had to clean it on the back deck. We got 9 meals out of this one fish.  Once again dinner was amazing!

One last crazy fish story. We were at anchor and a boat comes by in the morning with three guys with snorkel gear.  They are diving down and coming up with lobster (they call them crawfish because they don’t have the claws)They pulled up a ton of them. Sometimes 5 at a time on their spears.  They moved close to our boat and I yelled off the back of the boat “are those Lobster you are catching?” The guy who obviously is in charge said yes.  We bring you a treat.  Next thing we know the boat is next to ours and he starts handing Scott Lobsters. They are spiney buggers and he didn’t really know how to handle them. Good thing there was a bucket right there to drop them into. We gave them 3 cold beers and they were very happy. We found out they were getting them out of traps. Crazy stuff like this continues to happen to us.  We love it!  AND once again had a fabulous dinner.

Thanks for listening to our fish tales.

Scott and Karen

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