Gil's Best Catch Ever (Feb.11th)

Gil deserved it. He had it coming to him.  J

After losing lures, getting lines tangled, and catching only barracuda and remora, he finally caught a beauty – a mahi mahi or dorado (same fish)!

It happened on the day we left Little Farmers Cay to head south for Georgetown on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas. The weather forecast was for light winds, so we decided to sail on the Sound vs. Bank (ie. the deeper ocean water) side of the islands. The ocean floor drops off, forming a ridge, and Gil was trying to follow close to this feature. The depth sounder was reading near 200.’

He cast out a line with a 4” minnow lure with two treble hooks on it. This lure stays near the water’s surface, just like the flying fish that mahi mahi feed on.  It wasn’t too long before Gil had his first hit; but that’s all it was – a hit and miss L.  We continued to sail along the ocean ridge, while dragging the line behind us.

Our friends Dave & Rose on Cloud 9 were ahead of us, and were also trying their own luck at fishing. We received an excited VHF radio call from them, as Dave had caught and hauled in a mahi mahi!  Gil was envious.

After a while, Gil went down below to catch a few winks. Earlier in the day, we had gone out in search of coconuts, and brought better than a baker’s dozed back. Gil spent himself opening up several of them, before we left the anchorage.

We were motor-sailing close reached into the wind, and it was keeping me occupied. The sails were trimmed tight in, and even a small change in wind direction would cause them to luff …. it seemed I was constantly having to adjust our bearing to keep the sails filled. I had completely forgotten that we were trailing a line, when….

Zing….     Zing…..

“Gil!  You’ve got something!”   Zing…..

Roused from sleep, Gil jumped out into the cockpit to grab his rod and play the line. Zing…    It was big and putting up a fight. Gil directed me to slow our boat’s speed. The fish would swim down and then rise to the surface and breach. It did this several times. It’s bright yellow-green colour gave it away – Gil knew he had a dorado, and he didn’t want to lose him!. It took some time to reel it in closer to the boat, and tucker him out. While Gil was doing this, I was clearing out the cockpit (all cushions down below; lines out of the way; etc.), getting the ‘fish killer’ (alcohol in a spray bottle) to stun it once aboard, finding the gaff, and handling the boat. As it drew near, it would circle the boat. Gil didn’t want the line getting snagged on the rudder or the shaft, so he had me steering the boat to keep the line to stern or port …. in circles at times. Needless to say, the sails then had to be furled in. We were both consumed. Once Gil got him much closer to the boat, we shut down the engine. Gil directed me to get the gaff ready. Me? Oh no, if I lose this fish, my name will be mud for eternity. I couldn’t lose him.

There he is! A mahi mahi or dorado.

Anyway, Gil brought him in right alongside the boat, and I was able to gaff him. It was so tuckered out that it didn’t have any fight left in him. Good thing too, because he was heavy enough to lift over the life lines and into the cockpit.

We didn't lose him!

After the high fives, we hailed Dave & Rose on Cloud 9 to brag that our cockpit was bloody too! If Dave hadn’t have asked how long it was, we wouldn’t have thought to measure him. 4’4” long.  Great catch, and a real highlight for us.  

Thanks for that lure, Frank

Look at that smile!

Once filleted, we had 8  good meals, and enough room in the freezer to keep them all.

That's our fish story.