Hooked on Fishing

On the 26th May, At and I launched “ABF” out of Cape Vidal. The launch was one of the easiest that I have seen in a while. Once on the backline, we sounded around looking for some live bait. There were a lot around, but most were tiny. We struggled for over an hour to get a decent supply of bait before we headed north. We put out a few lures and trolled along the ledge hoping for a wahoo, but we only managed to catch a big bonito and a small yellowfin tuna.

When we arrived at vegetation, I rigged up 3 livies and At tacked us between 24 and 30m. There seemed to be some life on the 28m depth. We saw several big manta rays, a few shoals of bonnies and what looked like a big shark. We had worked the area for about an hour when the surface bait went away. At took the strike while the fish took a fast run on the surface. I turned the boat to follow the fish and saw a bunch of dolphin heading towards the fish. We were 100% convinced that they would eat the fish, but by some miracle, they swam straight past it and left us alone to fight it. Soon At had a nice 9kg cuda on the boat. We were pretty chuffed and went about resetting the lines.

About an hour later, At was busy throwing a stickbait when we saw a big dark shape behind it. It faded off before we could get a good look at it, but it looked to be a billfish. On the next throw, the fish rushed up and grabbed the stickbait but didn’t hook up. We now knew it was indeed a sailfish, not only that, but there were three of them in the water. I ran to the back, retrieved the mid water line and removed the sinker, just as a fish came in and grabbed the bait. I gave it a bit of line then tightened up. There was a bit of tension, but then the hook pulled. I cleared the line and retrieved the deep line to try the same move, but on closer inspection, the bait was missing… I still had a far surface line out, so I brought it closer, but nothing came up to it. The fish had faded off so At turned the boat back to the area. He threw the stickbait again and again the fish followed it. 

A movement behind the boat caught my eye. There was a fish on the surface bait. I held the reel in freespool anticipating the strike, which came almost immediately. I fed the fish then tightened up. It hung in the water just shaking its head a bit before slowly moving off. It was almost as if it did not know It was hooked. A few minutes later, the reel smoked off and the sea erupted as the sailfish made a series of jumps. It was beautiful to see especially at such a close range. After the excessive jumping, the fish had tire itself out, so it behaved next to the boat. I passed At the rod and took hold of the bill. The one hook was a bit deep, so I opted to cut the wire and leave it in. After a quick pic, I revived the fish and sent it on its way. Very cool!

I'm hooked on fishing!

We regrouped and put out fresh baits. I was busy attaching a sinker when the line was ripped out of my hand. I was on with something… After a strong fight, I had a big bonnie on the leader. I didn’t want to take the fish out the water and tried to pop the hooks out with the long nose pliers. I had one hook loose and was busy with the other when the bonnie shook its head and the treble went into my hand. Luckily, I could get the fish off the hooks before it shook some more. A quick snip with the sidecutter and we were back in business.

In the next two hours, we had 3 cuda pulls, but they just chopped the bait in half. We worked the area and soon had a proper smoker but unfortunately it bit the wire off. At that stage, it was getting late, so we opted to up lines and head home after a great day on the water.