"THAT MAGICAL PIECE OF DEBRIS"

I guess I should say "magical pieces of debris," quoting Captain Skip Bradeen. We had some classic finds on this trip. Depending on how much time we had, we liked to start trolling in 300 feet of water and head for the humps, sea mounts, pinnacles, whatever you like to call them. It is amazing to me that you can be in 800 feet of water with a mountain that stands 400 feet or so and still have an affect on the fishing at the surface, but it does. There was a mass migration of sardines through our area on this trip which brought in birds from all over. We saw the largest presence of frigates or war birds that we have ever seen. Usually if you see one you get cold chills all over because he is usually on a big fish. This time we ran all over chasing large groups of birds, mostly frigates.

Most of the fish CJM and I caught before GP & CP got there were blackfin tuna and were pretty scattered. We had a few thin weed lines and lots of birds, but nothing magical. When the P's got there, our luck changed. Our first day we found an old tire floating with lots of barnacles and bait fish on it. We were fairly shallow, maybe 400 feet or so, and with each pass by (at least 19 by CJM's count) we caught something. Not always something we wanted, but something. We ended up with 4 Hoos, 4 Mahi, a Trippletail and a BF tuna. The best bait of the day was blue & white Billy Baits as when Kate & Cal were with us.

The next day was the best. We left a little earlier and didn't start fishing until we were almost at the hump and then trolled on out to about 24 miles off shore. We saw something just a little farther out from where we were and checked it out. It was a bucket in a pretty nice weed line. We immediately caught a nice Dolphin. A little past the bucket we found a blue barrel that was loaded with bait fish. The fight/bite was on. Every pass by we would catch from one to three fish. It was truly a "feeding frenzy". They were hitting everything we had out, but the best was probably a blue & mauve Billy and a rigged ballyhoo with orange skirt. The coolest catch of the day was next. We decided we had plenty of fish so thought we would back up to the barrel and try deep dropping some spoons. I have tried this a time or two before, but CJM had no confidence so we never did it very long and had not caught anything in the past. With GP by my side, CJM showed a little more tolerance for my theory and let us try it a little longer. Low and behold, we caught two very nice Wahoo. Along with reeling up the Hoos came a whole school of Mahi. We had a blast. We ended up keeping 2 or 3 Mahi off the barrel but caught several others. We also had something bite the hooks off GP's spoon. What a day!! (See CJM's picures in the previous post....the sink full of filets was from this day!)

After all the action we took the next day off. We then fished the next two days. We had very good luck those days also keeping all we could eat plus some. The baits and the routine were similar with similar results. Even dropped spoons another time or two, but no luck this time. By the way, if you are ever unsure about how sharp a Wahoo's teeth are and how hard they can bite, you need to check out the spoons we were using. There were gouges in these metal spoons as though you used a chisel on them. I never fail to be amazed at what I see out on the ocean. Besides all the fish, birds, etc., we were entertained and surprised by a couple fighter jets on a training mission. They were flying really low. After the first sonic boom CJM sent me below to make sure our engines hadn't exploded. Afer CP suggested we were hearing sonic booms we were relieved to know it wasn't pirates shooting at us. We had another real surprise.

Our last day out we had pretty rough seas. Had caught a few fish but had decided not to go out too far when a boat approached us. We steered away but it kept coming toward us. Thinking "pirates" again they pulled along side and stopped. The captain told us there was a weedline about 3 miles out. I about fell out of my chair. Usually when other captains get that close they are trying to steal a school of fish from us. I guess all captains aren't a#$h&%es!

Another great trip. Can't wait until the next.

CTM