Biomass of Beauty (8/10)

[Latimeria]

Once again had some things happening at the household and needed to clear my mind.  I was planning on running a solo mission to the 9, but the thought occurred to me to call up Roger as our last few attempts to get out failed due to weather.

Shirt's on!



Weather was spectacular!  Only issue is my bait tank only holds a 1/2 scoop and with the 6 sec bump and being in front of the center console, it tossed the bait a bit.



We found a paddy and it looked spectacular!  My first bait in the water and I hooked up to a really nice mahi!  I was using a circle hook, so I let him jump about 20 times and was having fun while Roger pulled the gaff out....  I should have just tried to get him in the boat since he made a huge leap next to the boat and threw the hook.

I hooked up again and this one was a nice yellowtail.  Roger saw one swimming around a mola that was hanging out and UI got him... well until he ran right into the kelp and eventually pulled my circle hook....  f@ck these circles, so I tied on a tried and true J hook.

One thing that kept scaring us was all these loud bellows!  we had probably a dozen Blue whales just lazily hanging around the boat in pairs.  They were so close, but I should have taken video as the were pretty close to us.  It was weird just watching them bob and float at the surface for so long as well as make an occasional dive with their flukes straight up into the air!



I should have taken better photos, but I was too busy trying to get the first fish on the boat.  I hooked up with two more that quickly escaped and Roger missed one before I finally got the skunk off the boat with a bigger neck tie.



Roger followed up with one of his own...



We decided to start trolling for tuna with the spreader bars.  We trolled about 45 minutes before seeing jumping fish, just to realize they were mahi mahi... Then came the foamers, that were also all mahi!  It took a while to reel in the spreaders since they were so far back, but it brought the dolphin to us and my first bait in the water was slammed!



The problem was our baits were really in bad shape so it was hard to get them to commit.  We know this because there was a bigger boat that showed up and their baits were getting hammered instantly!  We managed 6 before we ran out of live baits.





I started throwing a popper and the mahi loved to follow it.  Every cast there were at least 20+ following it like puppy dogs following a rope toy.

Time was up as I needed to work in the afternoon, so not a bad morning run and so close to home!  Man Tim, I hope you ran outside to find them, but good luck at LJ!

I'm not sure if you can see them from this picture, but there are hundreds of them in the water right here!



They all turned out yummy as Mahi Sandwiches and future mahi tacos!

[jrodda]

Ayayay!! Awesome you got into em! Good to see them start to open their mouths. Live bait though, I don't got no live bait! Sick to hear there are so many of them. Was thinking of launching out of DP sunday but now you have me thinking Mission Bay. Probably either or will work...

[vdisney]

Awesome write up and great read Tom.  We eat YFT, really enjoy Wahoo, but love Mahi.  Glad you got some................

[Tim524]

 Nice trip, them Dorado are a pretty fish We hit the big bay this trip, you make it look easy