Here's a short report on our trip to the deep on Thursday. Was busy with a sea burial and lot's of work to sort out on Friday, so here it is...
Anyway.... we had a late launch (7:00), as the tide would change at 10:30... The sea was absolutely flat and water temp was 26.4o C at the dock.It fluctuated out on the from 27 to 29.4o C!!!! Cooking!!!!
It took us about 1 hour and a half to get to the 350 m contour and we set our spread of 5 rods: 2x 80 Lbs in the short positions and 3x50 Lbs in the riggers.
The big guns had big konas and on the riggers I had a bonito smoker, iland express and a smaller iland mistress with a bird on the center rigger. Two teasers completed the spread, which quite honestly, looked like a lot to deal with as there were only two of us on the boat.
We spent the day between the lighthouse and Baixo Santa Maria out in the 250-400 m and the sea was lifeless the whole day; ie. no birds, flyingfish, turtles, etc.
At about 12:30 I decided to change the shotgun lure and started reeling it in. Sitting on the chair I told Miguel I might as well practice my chair technique... that's when all hell broke loose!
The long rigger rod with the Iland express was hit and with the reel screaming like mad, no pauses or signs of slowing down, it felt like we had hooked up to a nuclear sub!!!!!
I buckled up into the new rod and couldn't do anything really, apart from watching the Okuma Makaira 50W ii peel line like it had no drag whatsoever... the lever was on strike at 25 Lbs of drag!!!
This lasted for about 2 min or so and suddenly, with the line going straight down (close to the boat) and Miguel still clearing the deck, the line broke! A clean, sharp cut!!! This was the most aggrevasive strike I've ever seen live or on TV!!!!
That was pretty much it. We got back and heard that 4play who went north (out of Poco), went 3-2-1 on a nice marlin which they estimated at 400 lbs. They said the sea was full of life their side with dorries, skipjacks, you name it!!!! Eish talk about being in the wrong place... sort of....
All in all, it was a nice day out in the deep. We did 98 nm and used 110 L. Pity about the fish. But it will come...
Till then, I'll keep my hooks sticky sharp!
