Battle of the Triggerfish

I had a gut feeling that the fishing would not be good, but we wanted to go out anyway. 

The weather was very calm and the sea followed suit. The air was thick with humidity and no breeze to speak of. 

We set out, Rosie, Brendan, Paul and myself, in hopes of catching something.

Things started out really slow. Not even the bait fish were biting, but persistence paid off and a few small fish were landed. They were to be used as bait (poor buggers). 

We continued fishing with little success and much sweatiness. 

As the day progressed our catch did not.

At one point I was jigging a soft plastic when I felt what appeared to be a bite, I set the hook and prepared for a fight. Alas I was hooked to the fishes house, snagged, caught the bottom. During my zealousness to free my lure there was an unmistakable cracking sound. Yep I broke my favorite jigging rod. For those of you who have never broken a graphite rod, the crack is memorable not to mention gut wrenching. 

As the top half of my rod slipped away down the line and into the blue abyss, my heart sank with it. 

After many expletive's, I realized my line was loose. Go figure, after all that it could have had the decency to stay snagged. 

As  I reeled it up I noticed that it was a bit heavy, too heavy for my jig. Low and behold there was a fish on the end and it was...........a Leather Jacket, aka Clown Triggerfish.

Well, you have to laugh at times like this, of course that is after you cry. Nothing I can do about it now and there was still some fishing to do.

We fished on for another couple of hours to no real avail. 

I new it was not going to be a great day of fishing, but still better than work.

The start of the day.

Intense rigging going on here.

Before the brake.

The Brake

The Clown.

Little bastard.

Consolation prize, Bluefin Trevally.

Beautiful but hot.

Paul getting it done.

Until next time.

Tight Lines

Storm Island

I am a little behind again in my posting and I apologize for that.

A while back, Brendan, who you all have met, asked if I would shuttle his crew to an island to shoot a commercial. Of course I would and since I'd have a few hours to kill I would take a fishing rod to kill time.

On the appointed morning we left the jetty with ok weather that looked like it might turn ugly. Never mind, we had an entire camera crew and talent on board and needed to get the shots. As luck would have it, when we dropped them off at the island the weather turned glorious for them. 

With those guys happily on the island doing their video thing we were free to do some fishing.

This is the island we dropped them on.

First drop with a soft plastic and a nice GT.

Rosie with a nice grouper caught with a Lucanus jig.

Paul with a Leather Jacket or Unicorn fish.

Soft plastics are working well. A nice grouper.

Another grouper.

They are coming fast now.

Two for one.

A Lyre tail on soft plastic.

By 1 o'clock the weather that was threatening in the morning decided to make an appearance. We loaded the crew on the boat and raced back to shore. We arrived just in time before the rain came. 

I told Brendan that we would take them anytime as the fishing was good while they worked.

He was jealous to say the least.

Tight Lines

Doggies Take 5

This is our last trip before we left for Japan.
We went searching for Dogtooth Tuna again. But before we could go for Doggies, we had to chase a few GT's.
Now in this post you will notice that the images are not as good as before. Rosie's G10 finally gave up the ghost for the third time and it is time to get a new one. Only problem, they do not sell Canon G series in Fiji, so she will have to wait until we get to Japan.
Meanwhile we shoot with my phone.
We just get into position and Rosie is out on the bow starting to cast and get warmed up when her popper gets destroyed by a giant, fat and definitely healthy GT. What a hell of a fight. After a bit of coaxing it is boat side and it takes two of us to get it out of the water. Rosie, needless to say, has had her ass kicked, but she prevailed.
Here's the proof

Well you can imagine how the rest of us felt, energized and ready to land monsters.
Ahhh, but alas it was not meant to be. In fact not another GT was landed. I heard Wayne say that Rosie set the bar to high for us mere mortals.

The following fish were caught while we looked for Doggies.

First a Rusty Jobfish

Rainbow Runner

Blue Trevally

Leather Jacket

Lyre Tail Grouper

Finally a Doggie, well a doggies head anyways. Damn sharks.

More good tasting aquarium colored fish.

When you start jigging deep you never know what you will catch. Here I am holding a true Black Trevally. Caranx lugubris (also known as the black trevally, black kingfish, coal fish and black ulua). This is the first one we have caught.

This is a Rusty Jobfish.

A finally Wayne hooks and boats a Dogtooth Tuna. I think we are getting this down now. We are catching them where we think they should be. Not big ones yet but we are still catching them.

Until next time

Tight Lines

A great morning fishing.

The weather has been outstanding finally. Dead calm in the mornings and a little breeze come noon time. This can only mean one thing, time to fish. As we head out on to the water the anticipation of a good day fishing is all we can think of.

Things start out a bit slow, a few looks but nothing in the boat. As we drift over water so clear you feel as though you are floating on air. We can see myriads of small reef fishes and colorful coral.

The first fish comes to the boat in a flurry of splashes and short but strong runs. It is a Bluefin Trevally. Trevally can fight no matter the size. The big ones can dictate the fight and the little one just wont stop, even when in the boat they just jump and thrash around.

The next fish to the boat is a little Mangrove Jack. They can pull like a freight train and never give up.

The next fish is a first for me. It’s a parrot fish and I watched it take the lure right below the boat. Check out that protruding mouth.

Sometimes I wonder what fish are thinking especially the little ones. The lure was almost as big as the fish. The leather jacket has eyes bigger than its stomach.

Finally I pull a nice little Giant Trevally. They are called Giant Trevally because they grow to 50+kg, that’s over 100lb. Let me tell you these fish fight with no holds barred. If you don’t get the upper hand right away then you never will.
Various other fish were caught throughout the morning, including a large Long Tom that ended up with a little bling for his efforts. If the weather holds then we will be back at it. Fingers are crossed.

Tight lines and screaming drags