Going to bore you all with every detail! :@
Got out yesterday to the wahoo grounds finally!
Night before i was on charter till almost 8pm, got home and started rigging both for fishing and spearing, using multiple techniques means multiplying the work exponentially!! Finished around midnight :(. Up at three AM to get going, got crew out to boat, and by the time we set up it it was after 5AM.
It was not a calm day, but sailboats like wind, and waves are no problem. Thing about sailboats is though, when you take the sails down and try fishing not so goooood in rough water.
Thank you Carlos and Vaughan, my faithful crew from work who have never been offshore fishing much less offshore fishing in a sailboat, followed me into the breach :thumbsup2: ...7 knot sailing to fishing grounds nearly 20 miles offshore :laughing:
Trolled the weed line and picked up several dolphin fish which i used for bait :@ , got a bouy line going but wahoo keept cutting the mono leader and would not touch the wire leader, tried chunking but no good on a 40 ft 20 ton boat :laughing:
So after a long morning of showing the boys different fishing methods and trying to keep my feet on a violently pitching deck I said "see ya" to the crew and jumped in!
We still had a buoy line in and i just hung around that while the guys chummed, 40'ish fellah turned up but he was shy and stayed deep. reset the buoy line and myself, on that drop they started showing up.
Series of firsts... first time on my own ticket at the wahoo grounds, first time trying to fish off of a mono hull in indecent seas with 18k blowing, first time in the water with my koah 160 bluewater euro. BUT most importantly to the story, first time trying to fish decent sized fish with my reel, I was using a ulusub 100 meter reel which i rigged myself with over 350 ft of 1000lb 1.8 mm spectra. I am always nervous firing a big untried gun for the first time, but was especially nervous and what would happen if i got a big wahoo on my reel! All this doubt made me miss fish, or in some way hesitate on my first 3 shots... but cool breeze, I settled down and got comfortable with gun and my set up. Just in time for the biggest pair of wahoo i have been in the water with to date to show up!!
Well in the 60's for sure but probably 70's... I stalked the pair well and got a great shot on one from very close(the video of this happening is from the front gun camera and the mask camera, awesome!), decent shot on the hoo even though i blew the kill shot, and although i was in the spine area i had strung the fish so no pressure on its spine. All hell breaks lose! I am almost 50 ft down according to my watch and pumping for the surface while my frigging reel line disappears like you would not believe!! forget holding the line to the gun to slow it down! It spools me almost before i surface, fighting it to get some air, then it has me down a few inches before I kick back to get a good breath, i had a ureka moment and decided to put the bands through my arm and fight the fish with the bands acting as a shock absorber... fish wasnt having any of it, pulling hard all the time. Finally it calmed just a bit and I managed to get some line but then it ran hard again and that was it! fish gone :frustrated1: AND FYI, reeling in 350 ft of bloody line from straight down isnt fun! When i got to my terminal gear, it turns out my 900lb snap swivel was as straight as an arrow, the only thing keeping my spear on was the hook on the end of the snap.
So my giant is gone but shit happens :frustrated2:
After that I missed another ho, have no idea how, and my camera gets blown off the gun... the wahoo swims back and tries to eat it!! :laughing3: I have to chase it off and recover my camera :laughing:
Now comes the squad of dolphins all in the 10lb range, i ignore them waiting for the hoos to show up, well mister bull dolphin was clearly unhappy with not getting shot and charges my gun :wtf4: so hard he knocks my spear tip off :poke:
Now all the fish are gone so i redeploy, and this time for the first time ever, put into the water with me, two flasher rigs i designed and built myself, man i should patent that wahoo crack! In minutes i am swarmed by 50lb'ers behaving aggressive and flashing me, so i took out the biggest one with a great shot from above damaging the spine :fanwave: heheheeheheheh... I yell fish on and the guys come over to see whats going on, green, didnt know better, the fish immediately tries to go under the boat, i start yelling and cussing and the lads get the message pretty quickly and shove off :troll1::angry4:
First fish landed and its a beaut! back in the water but all gone.
Redeploy and got a little 25lb'er to come in close and boom dinner for me and the crew :thumbsup2:
Cant remember the rest but went home with a few nice hoos and enough Dolphin for everyone THE END!
