tigIt’s been a productive few weeks on the fishing front.
We caught a great barracuda going from Blackpoint to Emerald Bay, Exumas. We decided not to risk getting ciguatera (fish poisoning from reef fish) so we let it go. Unfortunately, Serena drugged it with a little bit of rum on the gills before we ID’d it. Sorry dude.
Right after that, we scored three king mackerel. We shared a great sushi dinner with sv Night Music at Emerald Bay. We hadn’t seen them for a long time, so the reunion was a happy one. After that, it was mackerel ceviche and breaded and fried mackerel…
We caught this mahi-mahi on one of our worst passages from Georgetown to Blackpoint. We had gone through worse conditions before, but for some reason the crew just wasn’t doing well that day. The kids puked, and Serena did, too (the very first time). She joked that she was so nauseous that when she saw the mahi-mahi hooked she debated whether to tell me. Here are her words:
Wow, that’s a big one.
oh, that’s kinda…big
It’s green. It’s a mahi-mahi!
oh, it’s…green
It’s gonna be so good.
Oh boy, it’s going to be a bloody mess
That mahi-mahi was the best tasting fish. Ever. It fed us and a buddy boat for three days.
And there was also that time in Georgetown when Serena said, “I’d really like to try wahoo and see what it tastes like.”
Within an hour, a knock on our boat. “We heard you had kids. We caught a wahoo and have some extra fillets.” Thank you sv Viento, wherever you are. They were yummy.
Our trolling rig is a simple hand reel with 100lb line attached to some bungee/shock cord (for some give on the initial strike) and a couple pieces of rope. One piece of rope doubles where the bungee cord is (in case it breaks), and the other is attached to the boat (tied to a cleat). A cedar plug has been our most successful lure. This has been an easy set up & deployment. I’m certainly no expert on fishing, but when you make it easier to fish, you fish more and get more opportunities to catch fish.