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I don’t think Bill Broyle and his crew from Starkville, MS, ever saw this one coming, nor did I for that matter. After a long lecture about how slow the Lump had been and how I had a good lead on some wahoo, we ventured out of South Pass. We caught a few wahoo early and even lucked into a yellowfin tuna with the diving baits. When we saw a blue fin that was too big to a be from a shark, our afternoon was about to take an unexpected change.
After a lot of coaxing, we finally got a little interest from the huge shark and eventually got a bite way out of sight in the open green water. Instead of a blistering run, we got just a little “click click click” of a bite. We got a close look at the shark early on in the fight and I knew my estimate of 300 pounds was way off. After another 2 and a half hours and several close encounters, we acquired a more appropriate form of anesthesia (thanks Hunter!) and finally got the shark under control and wrapped up. Rolling her up on the back of the boat and then running in Flat Boat Pass on low tide were both memorable experiences, as were Inga and Kevin’s attempts to get a weight on the shark in Venice, LA, where neither world-class marina has a big working scale. Nevertheless, the KRAKEN has a new boat record for mako shark, just barely edging out the 496# we got back in 2002. What a fish, what a fight, and what a memorable trip.
Louis Todd brought some clients with us last week and ended up with a nice Lump mixed bag of blackfin tuna, wahoo, and beeliner snappers. This crew will have some white and red meat for the grill and some solid snapper for the fryer. Anyone can catch a wahoo hooked in the mouth, but Louis tried a rather unconventional technique of hooking his wahoo right in the tail. A tail hooked 50# wahoo can make a pretty impressive first run, so even though we did catch the fish, I’m not sure I’m sold on his approach.
When the tuna fishing is slow on the Lump, you can usually find something interesting down below. This one is a first for us: a spotfin hogfish. Ken Jennings from Gary, Indiana brought this little freak up from the bottom. While we didn’t catch any tunas on this particular day, we also set a new boat record for the most beeliners caught in a day at 49. Thank goodness I found my electric knife.