Date: August 26, 2014
Time: 8:00 am
Weather: winds 0
Location: FI Inlet
Bait/Lure: squid/trolling gear/
Fish: mahi (10)/green bonito (1)
Largest:: 16.5lbs
There aren't too many people that leave the dock and say they are going mahi fishing. The reason for that is you need to find something floating. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. You can also catch them trolling.
When I pushed off yesterday I had known of one place where they might be. It was an old buoy marking in about 85' of water. I found them, however they were way too small. I ended up releasing those that I caught. With a flat ocean I decided to pick up and move deeper. Right before I left I was greeted by a huge turtle.
My game plan at this point was to head out about 20 miles and start trolling. After an hour I started to see some signs of life. I had a small shark buzz by me and I started to see a lot of tinker mackerel.
I finally hooked up. It ended up being the first green bonito (tuna family) that I have ever caught. After a quick picture I released it.
At 12:30 I decided to troll back inshore. With the ocean being so flat I was able to see everything that looked out of place.
Way in the distance I saw something very strange floating. It looked like the Loch Ness Monster. As I got closer I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a huge tree branch. With my trolling spread still out I passed the branch. Like a bat out of hell a mahi came flying from underneath. I get a knock down but I don't hook up. I turn the boat around for another pass. This time the spreader bar gets whacked. The fish quickly puts on an awesome aerial display. I'm all alone hooked up to a nice mahi and I still need to keep the boat straight and somehow get this fish to the boat with 5 other lines still out. The good news... I landed the fish. The bad news...one of the other lines got wrapped around the prop. Not good! At this point my adrenaline is pumping so fast, I felt as if I was having a heat stroke. The big mahi is still in the net making a mess. Besides the line wrapped around the prop, all of the other lines are a tangled mess. At this point I'm starting to lose sight of the branch. Chaos would be an understatement. I pulled in all of the lines and raised the engines. I had to lay on one of the engines to untangle the prop. I'm very aware of what might happen if I fall in so I take my time. As you can see I had my vest on all day. As I'm freeing up the prop I look down and can't believe what I see. A bunch of mahi just waiting to be caught. I free up the prop and I spot the branch again. Before I head back to the branch I dropped down a squid head on a hook and landed one of those mahi. They were on the small side so I decide to head back to the branch. Once again I need to get all 6 lines out.
Every time I drove bye I landed a really nice mahi. This went on for about an hour. The most amazing part was the fact that not once after the first mess did any of my lines get tangled again. I learned a lot in a very short period.
It was now 2:30 and I was wiped out. As I started to head back home another shark did a drive by. This time it was a huge thresher shark. I tried to pitch a bait to him however all that did was spoke him and he took off. What a way to end an awesome day on the water.
As great as it was to catch all of these fish it sucked not having someone out there to share it with. As grateful as I am that Gina brings home the bacon, I wish she was out there with me. I got home at 4:30 and cleaned the boat for another 2 hours. Smalls came home and filleted all the fish. Yes I know I'm lucky. Like they saying goes... Happy husband, happy life!
