When we got out to our first spot to fish, we were immediately welcomed by quite a large pod of dolphins!!! What a great way to start off the day. They swam around the boat for a bit and then went on there way although they did return a couple of times.
Baby dolphin in between two adults- highlight of Roberta's day
We started jigging at around 40 meters and I brought up the first fish of the day within a couple of minutes, a kahawai.
Within no time the rest of the crew started to pull up some fish. Mostly kahawai but also some baby school sharks with the odd snapper as well. After about half an hour at this spot I noticed a large blue fish a few meters under the water that didn't look like a dolphin. It was a blue shark!! It was about 5 feet in length. It started biting at the fish we were catching and at our bait. It seemed within minutes there was about 4 more sharks and they soon became a nuisance. We started to hook them left and right. Most times ended with them breaking our lines and taking all our lures. We were able to bring some in though and brought them onto the boat to be untangled since they really seemed to roll when they were caught getting line wrapped all around them.
After untangling a few lines and losing a bunch of tackle, the skipper decided it was time for us to move since the sharks were not going to move anytime soon. We pulled up the anchor and moved to a second spot.
At this spot, we continued to catch kahawai along with some gurnets. They were quite a cool looking fish with colorful front fins and were great eating.
A Gurnet
Rex with a Snapper
We also started to catch some mackerel which we cut up and used as bait as snapper often like them. We started catching fish but the sharks moved in again circling the boat for bait and fish we caught. After going through another load of tackle we moved once again and once again at the third spot the sharks showed up a half an hour later. They must have just been following the boat.
Small School Shark
While moving from the third to the fourth spot, the skipper noticed some tuna in the water. We put on some squid like tackle and started trolling for tuna with the drag set really light so we could tell when we caught one. It was quite exciting. Within minutes one of the rods started to zing. After a 5 minute fight, Trevor was able to get around a 3 kg tuna in the boat. Next up was Adam and I. We both caught one at the same time. We had to maneuver under each other quite a few times. Adam was able to bring his in quicker than I could. After about a 15 minute fight, my arms were starting to burn a bit but I had gotten the fish right close to the boat. Rex went to net the fish and it broke right through the net and dove down hard below the boat. I was able to get the rod through the net without losing the fish. While the guys fixed the net, I brought the tuna back in and we finally got it aboard. It was about a 10 kg tuna!! The biggest the skipper had seen on the boat of this kind of tuna.
Tuna
Everyone got a turn and everyone caught one. Roberta's first one was only about 1 kg, but she had quite the fight with the second one.
After about 15 mins of fighting, she had finally got the fish close to the boat and felt no more fight on the line. Just then we saw the biggest shark of the day surface right near the boat. When Roberta brought the fish into the boat it had been bitten in half by the shark!
It was an awesome day, full of action. I managed to catch at least one of each of every species of fish brought onto the boat which included school shark, spotted dogfish, blue shark, kahawai, snapper, gurnet, mackerel, and tuna. Roberta caught quite a few fish herself even though the waves made her a bit queazy at times. We headed into shore at around 3:30 pm and had a load of fish with us. Since we didn't have a freezer to put the fish into, we just took one of each of the smaller fish we caught for a taste.
Mullet
It was an exciting day to say the least. Looking forward to more as our journey continues!!! Until next time...
Nice snapper Rex!!
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