I think Bucktail will be doing an article after some interviews with the anglers but here is a little view through my eyes.
I received message from Capt. Mike saying he'd be at my door at 2:45am and with all the excitement and getting home from work late any sleep was not in the cards. We were all on the boat and ready to roll at 4am. After a brief meeting with Capt. Mark regarding safety and rules we were underway.
I ran right for a bunk and caught a few hours of sleep.
Once at the location the 2 mates had a 12 rod spread in the watr in no time and the troll was underway. We had steady action all day and into the night with all the Yellowfin and Skipjacks we could ever want.
Once the sun had set the Captain moved us out to an area to try for some Mako. Again the mates were on top of their game having everything prepared in advance and lines were in the water. We had one small Mako within an hour and that was leadered and released with hopes of a bigger one but only thing that came around after that was some blue sharks that were also released. I did manage to reel in a very nice Mahi that was caught on a whole makeral!
Just before sunrise the crew was getting up from a nap and at 5:45am Capt. Mike was hooked up with a really big fish. After a 1 hour and 15 minute fight a 260# Big Eye Tuna was on deck!! Capt. Mike did an amazing job along with the mates and Captain. Hats off to them and a big congrats to Capt. Mike!!
Right away the mates had the spread out again and tended to the Big Eye by putting it in a body bag with plenty of ice. Meanwhile it was all the Yellow Fin and Skipjack you could ask for. I guess it was around 11:30 when we called it quits and the big viking was underway.
All in all it was a great trip with one of the top crews in the biz and I really can't wait to do it again. Great job guys and a big thanks to Hotrod for sacrificing alot of his time on the rod to shot all the photos and video to document the trip...Thanks buddy! because of you we will always have these things to look back on.
