.I

Date:          September 18th, 2015

 

Time:          6:00 am

 

Wind:         calm

 

Location:   Coimbra Wreck

 

Bait/Lure:   Mullet and peanut bunker

 

Fish:          20 Mahi

           

Believe it or not, we found the dead whale again. This time I was on my buddy's boat.

 

I will get back to the whale in a minute. We started the day off by picking up a few small mahi we found under a floating buoy. After that we moved behind a dragger. I was able to jig up a skipjack tuna, however he got inhaled by what looked to be a large brown shark. After a 10 minute fight I lost the shark along with a $15 jig..!(@(@&(.

 

We then moved to another dragger. As we pulled up a boat was already hooked up. They also lost their tuna to a shark.

 

It was time to start trolling. The boat that we were on is owned by my buddy Roger. He owns CMI Electronics. His company installed all of my new electronics that I love. Roger is new to the offshore game so a big part of this trip was a hands on tutorial on fishing for tuna. Tony took charge and showed Roger how and where to place his trolling spread. I was busy digging through the cooler looking for the muffins Tony brought. We set up the spread in about 223 feet of water 15 miles SE of the Coimbra wreck. The water was 75 degrees and very warm. After 3 hours we pulled the spread in. Not a touch.

 

As we planned to head for a dragger off in the distance I spotted the dead whale carcass. We pulled up and once again it was better than being at SeaWorld. Several tiger, blue, and brown sharks and... a great white. This white was smaller than the one from Wednesday. Once again the place was loaded with small mahi. 

 

I had the GoPro however I couldn't use the pole to put it under the water. So I rigged it up to the end of my fishing line and casted into the water. As the camera sank a huge tiger swam right underneath it. What a great shot, so I thought. It turns out the battery had died. That sucks. No video!

 

After about an hour of hanging around the whale we went back to jigging. 

 

Roger hooked into a big fish as soon as we drooped our jigs down. Of course the fish hits on gear on the lighter side. After a 10 minute fight the line snapped. After that tuna, Tony  lost a big fish due to a slipped knot. That was my fault. We ended the day without boating any tuna. However all three of us headed home learning how to fish these draggers. That alone was worth the 14 hours that we put in.

 

It was another great day on the water. As you can see from the picture of me on the bottom right, 14 hours takes it toll.

 

This upcoming week's weather looks terrible. With big seas offshore and fluke season ending, it may be awhile before I head out again. At least the house will be clean..LOL