Wow! Thought we'd seen it all

[HIT N RUN]

Boat: Reel Fancy
Crew: Joey, Russ, Tony, Bert, Beck and Me

Fished a beautiful dead calm ocean at the 650 line this weekend. We all had visions of getting in on the big eye bite but you know the story, a day late and a dollar short.

The fishing was super slow, but the conditions are right and I think it was just one of those times when the fish weren't feeding well.

Saturday night between 7p and dark the tuna hole had more life than you could ever imagine. I did not get photos and wish I had brought my camera but try to imagine everything you've ever seen out there all in one place all the same time in mirror calm water. There were monster fin back whales that dwarfed the boat, pilot whales and all the other pourposes. Acres and acres of hammer heads everywhere. There were giant manarays swimming right at the surface with their mouths open filter feeding on what looked to be crill. So on and so on as you can imagine. Not to mention the two tuna birds that stoped in to hang out for a while.

The area has a huge concentration of what I beleive is crill. Which, varies in depth from 10f in low light conditions, to as much as 60f during the heat of the day. It is so thick that you can hardly see through it even when you tweek your sounder much like the bait schools we see during striper season.

We managed a fairly good catch for a single day however, we were out there for the overnight and Sunday morning. So, it was by no means a great catch, but I don't think it was becasue of any mistakes made, it was just slow tough fishing.

As for the night time chunk, the reason for the heading on the post. Believe it or not we hooked, leadered and cleanly released a monster pilot whale on a butterfish. It was absolutely the most sad, strange thing I've ever experienced out there. After taking the bait and running off much like a typical shark bite, we realized that something was odd. The fish was just coming to the boat in submission. Once we all saw what it was, we stood in amazement as it rose to the back of the transom. It's head breeched the water looking straight into our eyes and seemingly had the saddest face you could ever imagine and all 6 of us felt sick to our stomachs at the same time. At that exact moment 2 more pilot whales came in with the same look... All three staring at us. We tried to snap a photo but the glare from the large halogen lights killed the shot so we carefully clipped the leader as close as we could and off the whale swam.

We did have a few more pulls through the night. 1- mako shark that managed to get in the running gear after a failed gaffing attempt and then sea sawed it's way loose...

All fish that were caught trolling were single surface bites during low light conditions with the exception of a couple of gaffers during the day.

The crew was totally awesome and although the fishing was slow overall, I believe everyone enjoyed each others company and had a great weekend. Can't wait to try again for those elusive eyeballs.


Final Catch...



Bill

[surfperch1]

Good job guys and Gal!

[juggernaut]

NEVER HEARD OF A PILOT TAKING A BAIT. YOU DID THE RIGHT THING ON CLIPPING THE LEADER CLOSE. STRONG FISH IT WILL SURVIVE. GO GET YA BIGEYE. CALVIN

[TommyTuna]

Good going!

man, slick calm water, after the way this year is going 4 me i don't think i'll ever see that again!

what's the NC paper size on a Pilot? [tongue]

[Fishboy OV8]

That's a great story................... wish I was there too see it first hand.
Glad to hear ya'll had a good time and managed to bring some nice lookin' yft home too.
Those EYES will be around all summer, you'll get your shot soon!!

[Chumlord]

WOW Nice catch Our day was slow to say the least on Sunday.

[Tail Chaser]

Thanks for the trip Bill & enjoyed fishing w/ the crew !

Had a blast + just finished some crunch dynamite & sashimi that was out of this world. Mahi bites are on the menu for tomorrow night, grilled yft on Wed. so by Thurs. it will be time to start thinking about another grocery run @ 50 fa.

Oh yea, the spread we had for dinner Sat. night before setting up for the chunk was out of sight as well. Cheers to Becky ! Baked chicken breast in garlic onion sauce, fresh lima beans and potatoes along with our favorite beverages of choice.

Just to experience the acres of life in the area Sat. afternoon was worth the trip. Looking forward to doing it again.

A full grown pilot whale on 50 lb. flouro ......... that's a fish story.

Russ [excited]



Amazing what you see out there


Looking for tuna

[Regulator]

Hey Bill thanks for the adventure, it truly was a great time with great people. Saturday evening’s events will be unforgettable. First the National Geographic show, than the C&R Pilot whale. Not sure how to describe the Pilot whale scene, but it was almost cartoon like.
Kudos to Becky for pulling off another great off-shore feast to recharge the crew’s batteries.
Still get a chuckle out of the fast one that Joey pulled on Bert, “hey grab this rod you’re taller than me�, hell Bert hadn’t even had the chance to rub the sleep out of his eyes and he is forced into cranking duty.
Sashimi for lunch & dinner appetizer and then grilled mahi for dinner was Monday’s menu, not a bad way to start the week[grin]

[TerpHeels]

Bill I honestly feel seeing stuff like that is as important as the fishing itself. Seeing life in it's natural environment is a thing we should all cherish.

[lmontagnaj]

Bill:
Pretty work on what you did catch... Sounds like an awesome night.. Also glad you were able to release the whale safely, you never know what might happen...