TWO PIRATES LOOK AT SEVENTY: Mahi, Ahi and Billy Bad Ass

Sunday, May 9th is the last day of the first leg of our cruise. We pulled out of Fresh Creek about 9 AM heading for Nassau :( Fresh Creek was quite an experience. Will definitely want to go back there again. The Tuna are said to be really biting next month. We decided to run towards the North Buoy one last time before heading east to Nassau. Just before the buoy we spotted some birds about 3:00 that CJM and I thought looked a whole like they were on Dolphin. For you land lubbers 3:00 on a boat means 90 degrees from the bow of the boat off the starboard side. When birds are on Dolphin they act different than on Tuna. On Dolphin the best way to describe it is the scene in Top Gun near the end when Iceman was in a dogfight with 5 Migs and Maverick was on the way to help. It's usually a small swarm of birds moving fairly slow and fluttering up and down. On Tuna it is most often a large flock of birds moving very fast. These definitely were Dolphin birds. We sprang into action deploying our spread. We chose blue/white and blue/fuscia Billy Baits on 30# spinners on the riggers and a rigged Ballyhoo on 40# conventional on the corner. As soon as we reached the birds, we had a monster hit on the blue/fuscia. Don grabbed the pole. All I can say is he will not need a stress test in his next physical. After a fight that seemed like hours to him and one miss with the gaff by CTM we gaffed and boated a Dolphin over 30 pounds.

From 2010-05-10

After high fives around and beers for all we made a couple passes by the North Buoy and with no hits we decided to reel up and head east toward Nassau. With New Providence on the horizon and almost to a very interesting spot on the charts, a long point jutting out into the ocean that we felt had to hold fish, we saw some more Dolphin birds and "FISH ON!" Dave was up and he made fairly short work of a 20#+ Dolphin. By the way this time Dave had just suggested we change out the blue/white Billy for another blue/fuscia Billy. That is what the fish hit.

From 2010-05-10

There were more high fives and more celebratory beers and we headed on towards Nassau and the shallow water and that interesting shoreline I had had my eye on. We noticed a large boat approaching from the West. It was a large ferry boat. After a little maneuvering to get out of his way we saw more birds not really in any pattern so we trolled by them. Once again the blue/fuscia was called upon and this time the fight was really on. The line peeled off the reel like Dems jumping ship on BHO! Jeannie was up. This fish did not jump but just went deep. Thinking it was probably another pesky Barracuda it was pretty casual around the fishing deck for 15 minutes or so until we saw the fish. HOLY SHIT....it was a Yellowfin Tuna and it was BIG! Jeannie stood her ground with a little last minute assistance from Dave as her hands were about to fall off and it was now up to CTM to gaff it. When the gaff landed in the belly of this monster it was now time to get him in the boat. Without help from either Don or Dave (in all of the excitement I can't remember which one helped) I couldn't have lifted that monster over the side. Sushi on board! A 42# beautiful Yellowfin Tuna. This time there were many high fives and I think maybe 2 beers each until we could relax.

From 2010-05-10

By the way on all three fish CJM did some masterful handling of the boat, keeping the fish always behind the boat and out of the props. The total experience was incredible. It was truly a group effort. What team work!! As you can tell from this post I have a tendency to ramble on sometimes. I rambled on to the Kinscherffs and Loopers about some of our experiences while boating and fishing on the ocean. Leann kept asking if there would be a test at the end that they would have to pass to be able to come back. Well.........they all passed it today!

We enjoyed some yellowfin sushi with soy and wasabi on the boat before everyone headed off to freshen up for our "last supper." We took 7 pounds of the 40 pounds of filets to the famous Poop Deck for a "cook your catch" dinner. Here is the finished product....