I'll have another Double!

Chuck and his 1st Sailfish

On Tuesday 6^th of December, Chuck, Kyla and Tash launched “Drifter” off of Vidal. It was the first time the girls had launched through the surf and first time fishing for gamefish. There was a light NE wind and almost zero surf, so it was an uneventful launch. I didn’t even stop on the point and headed straight to where I got bait the previous day. After a bit of a run to Bighill, we managed to catch a hatch full of bait and set about slow trolling. There was a current line on 23m with some bait shoals on it, so I focussed my efforts there. We had trolled for about an hour when both far surface baits went away. Tash and Kyla took the strike and both caught their first dorado. I continued along the line and had another dorado eat a dead bait close to the boat. Chuck made quick work of it before trolling further. One of the boats next to us went tight on a sailfish so I tacked deeper to get out their way. When we were clear, I turned back to the current line and saw the far surface rod starting to load up. I fed it a bit then tightened up to a heavy fish. It bumped its head a few times and the line angled to the surface. I was pretty sure I knew what was about to happen and like a dejavu moment, a sailfish stuck its head out and tore up the surface giving us a great show. Chuck took the rod and had a good tussle with his first sailie before tagging it. Two sailies in 2 days… not bad.

Things went a bit quiet for an hour or so I moved a bit further south to get away from the other boats. This move seemed to work and we went away with a really nice bull dorado that gave Kyla a hard time before it was boated.

Chuck with his 2nd Marlin

With the lull in the action, a few boats left the area. The NE picked up a bit and the dorado went quiet. I decided to let one of the lines out further and a few minutes later, the reel went away. Chuck fought the fish which turned out to be a cuda of about 8kg. I repeated the exercise and again we hooked a cuda that Tash boated. One of the other boats also had two cuda pulls, so it seemed like they were in the area. I was busy setting another bait when the line pulled out my hand. I put up the drag, but the hooks missed the fish. I quickly rerigged and just as I got the rod in the holder, it keeled over and we were onto another cuda that Kyla caught. We fished for a bit longer without another pull so I suggested we head closer to the launch so that the increasing wind did not catch us far south. I stopped off the point and put out 4 lines. I was busy heading out to sea when the far rod keeled over and the reel took off. Looking back, I saw a marlin launch itself full length out the water and start greyhounding away from us. The lines were retrieved double time while I chased after it. Chuck had the rod and survived the first run. We managed to get on top of the fish after about 10 minutes and got a quick tip on the leader. The fish took off and made countless close range jumps, almost ending up in the boat a few times. After about 40 minutes, the fish made a last jump and lay quiet on the surface close to the boat. I swung the stern next to the fish and managed to grab the bill of a 70ish kg black and pop a tag into it. Chuck posed for a quick pic before reviving the fish and releasing it. What an awesome end to the day. Two doubles in as many days! That’s great fishing in anyone’s book.