Three Fish Tails

Off on Wednesday, leaving Staniel Cay and the Exuma chain to cross the Exuma Sound to Rock Sound, Eluthera.  Determined to catch fish, we put the line in early, with our “special” lure.  Boy, was it special!

First, in about 2000 feet of water, a mahi-mahi!  Smaller than our first, this one is a bull male (note the bull forehead).  Still, this guy was about 36 inches and exciting to bring in.  You can imagine our thrill at seeing the bright green flashes under the water as we reeled him in, letting us know that we had a mahi.  As he neared the boat, he began the characteristic jumping out of the water that mahi do.  Beautiful to see as they clear the water!

Even at a mere 36 inches, we have a lot of meals from this fellow.

Cleaned up from bringing him aboard, the cutting table washed, and the finishing filleting in the galley, we settled down with the lure in about 5000 feet of water.  Not for long!  Boom, here comes a beautiful Big Eye Tuna!  Luke reeled this fellow in.  He is shorter than the mahi-mahi, but a fat boy, full of meals.  Smokey is nonchalant about fresh fish – she will nibble at mahi-mahi, eventually eating the 3 or so tidbits of raw fish that we always offer her.  But TUNA!  OMG!  What a cat she became!  Not only did she gobble up all we offered her, but she begged for more. No, I don’t want cat food.  No, I don’t want nibbles.  No, I DEFINITELY don’t want to be petted. TUNA!  I WANT TUNA!  We have a monster…

Tunas are red meat fish when you catch them (they cook up white) and tend to bleed a lot.  It was a big chore to clean up after this fellow.  But we did and of course, and back into the water went our favorite lure.

 WOW!  Something large that gave a good fight at first.  Luke reeled for a while and then I finished.  A mahi-mahi that we couldn't believe. When we landed the fellow on board, we realized that he was easily 5 – 5 ½ feet long!  Huge! As we always do with flopping fish,  Luke left the gaff in him for good measure, I covered him with a towel, and put vodka in his gills (our best fish killing technique).  Still for a few moments, then the big fellow gave a big mahi jump, threw off the towel, slipped out of the gaff hold, bit the metal lure lead in half, bit the lure into 3 pieces, launched himself madly about the deck, and, despite our best and frantic efforts, and slid back into the water, shaking blood everywhere!  Aaagghhh!!!! He would have fed us for weeks!  And the worst part is that he will die anyway.  We were disappointed but not nearly as disappointed as we were amazed at the amount of blood flung everywhere on the stern and sides of the boat.  We put the boat in neutral and scrubbed for about ½ hour.  Still needs some remedial scrubbing.  I did NOT take a picture of the mess!  He demolished my favorite lure, but left the 3 pieces on the line.  I spent time today putting the darn thing back together in some similar form so I can use it again.

We invited our accompanying boat with friends Conny and Alvin for dinner, then had dinner and dominoes at their boat last night.  Today we rented a car and drove the entire length of Eluthera, including taking the ferry over to Harbor Island.  Pictures, etc, tomorrow while we still have internet.