We fished the Clube Maritimo 2nd Comp of the year on 11 Feb. The weather was predicted to be excellent and indeed it WAS. A great day out there. Full moon, 4-5 knots of SE breeze and 1.1 m swell at 10 sec!
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The water was absolutely crystal and still very warm. We started with 27.4o C inside the bay at 05.30 am which climbed up to 28.6o C out in the deep.
Our team (myself, my brother Junior and my son Matheo), focused on gamefish species (the comp has a prize for the top gamefish team), as we knew most boats were going to the deep to chase bills, that was our game plan. I also had a big family lunch on Sunday so needed some fresh fish for the table.
Went straight to my couta grounds and by 08:30 we had our fair share of good couta (7-9 kg). Good consistent bites (we lost at least 3 good fish when my son was fighting them!), and then disaster! A double strike of good couta (9 and 12 kg) and as they were gaffed and splashing on the deck… well, let's say I got hooked up! Literally! A treble got stuck on my right leg whilst the single was still attach to the couta's mouth. A a bit of chaos, shouting and kicking followed but within 30 min all was under control. Broke the treble from the lure using bold cutters and struggled a bit to remove the remaining point with the barb. A big ball of cotton and savlon onto it and then plenty of bactroban. Took painkillers to get me through the day.
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Suppose there are two types of offshore anglers: those that GOT hooked, and those that WILL get hooked! The bite was on so we fished a bit more and by 9 am decided to move a bit deeper in search of other species and maybe a bill.
Our main targets were wahoo and dorado but would also welcome a sailie or maybe a small black marlin. Lot's of jub-jub bait balls around but no action for us.
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The sea was flatish all day long! Magic!
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All this time my crew worked very hard to get fish as per the below
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We didn't get any more fish and ended up with 7 couta (53 kg).
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The action out in the deep was hectic. Yolanda got 4 marlin (2 blues, 1 black and 1 stripy), Gabri got 2 blues, and other boats also got bills. Plenty of gamefish around and certainly proving to be a great offshore season.
In the end we did 99.7 nm and used 112 L of juice.
11 March is the next one. Till then, I'll be keeping my hooks sharp!!!!
