Week Number 3

We have just finished week number three on our cruise. Our odometer reading is up to 659 NM. We are currently at Treasure Cay but will be leaving here Saturday morning and our cruising companions Loopers and Kinscherffs will be flying home as well. The wind has not cooperated with us very well on this trip. We have found plenty to occupy our time though. We did get offshore this week for some incredible reef fishing one day and we ran and trolled 80 miles one day offshore for a little action in the deep water. We have caught just about enough fish to eat our fresh catch every night and now that our bait freezer is beginning to empty out we have frozen a few bags of fish to take home.

Offshore our wire line reel has been the most consistent. We troll it with a ballyhoo on a big feather and have caught several nice Wahoo. We have been practicing catch and release (unintentionally) with a couple of them. I now know I must find a way to get the Feeding Frenzy across the gulf Stream in the winter for some Wahoo fishing. Freddie tells us that it is not uncommon to catch 20 or 30 per day that time of year. After knocking off a couple really nice ones at the back of the boat, I need more experience at handling the fish once we get them to that point. Old Billy has also been pretty consistent for Blackfin Tunas on the riggers. Looper was catching them so fast the other day, Dave and I could not even get our wire lines out in the spread. We did have a couple "big fish" thrills. CJM spotted a Blue Marlin very close to the boat but no bite and we had the "shotgun" rig start peeling line like it was hooked to a boat but it dropped the bait before we could see what it was. By the way, we do now know what it is like to have your line hooked to a boat heading the other direction, thanks to a rental boat who cut too close behind us.

As it often happens, the wind is going to lay starting tonight when our friends are about to head home. We will be moving to Marsh Harbor in anticipation of Caldwell & Kate's arrival on Tuesday. We will need to do a little provisioning and will be a little closer to what seems to be the "hot fishing grounds" so hopefully will get to go out and practice handling fish a little before the newlyweds get on board.

CTM