"Fish On"

OK, let's back up to the sailboat race. There was a prize for the biggest fish caught in the race so when I got time, Merrick's majic lure went off the back. Funny thing was when we were in a couple of miles from the finish line and sewing up the victory, I mentioned the only thing we need now is a fi.... It actually happened like that. "Fish On" I caught a nice Mutton snapper and the prize was mine, until the last boat crossed the line with a bigger Albcore. The race crew feasted on delicious fresh snapper that night.
On to Hog key cut on our way to the Jamentos, when we followed Liberty through. As Godspeed entered this narrow shallow cut "Fish On". Only problem I was already over my head navigating with no room for error. The rod was bent and a little drag pulled out so we left it in the rod holder and proceeded with plans to deal with this "not so big fish' when we could. Suddenly I thought of a "Grey Suit" beating us to lunch on the line that was being tow behind us and I said "Lorrie why don't you reel in that fish before the "Man in the Grey Suit visits". She went to reeling and I kept on truckin when she said "the rod is bending really bad and the line is going out", well there he was the lunch stealer...Snap the "Grey Suit" swam away with our lunch and Merrick's lucky lure-sorry Merrick! No worries, I had a really cheap piece of junk bought at Kmart to replace it with and we did. 15 miles to water key "Fish On" and a nice yellow tail snapper came to Godspeed. Wow maybe Kmart isn't so bad. We anchored in Water key by early afternoom and Dwayne on SeaVeyor said "Get your spear and let's go". We took two dinghys for safety, remember there is no one to save you here, and were underwater chasing fish and lobsters in no time. In juist a few minutes I found a nice lobster under some coral and the hunt was on. It took some doing but he was on my spear and the in the bucket in Dwayne's dinghy in no time. I swam over to Dwayne and he was on his way to the bucket with and identical lobster. We had a fabulous meal of Lobster, yellowtail Snapper, and Grouper that evening on SeaVeayor. Dwayne Could not belive that my rod and reel was still alive because it was about my age and way too small for some of the fish that have been caught so at this time he affectionately named it "Mr. Lucky". The next day we dived and explored and found an "Ocean Blue Hole" There were actually three of them nearby, That evening we invited all four boats in the anchorage over to SeaVeyor for Conch Fritters. After the feast, we dreamed up an assault on the blue hole. By mid morning we had SeaVeayor anchored over this 600 feet wide, circular, vertical walled hole, that who knows how deep it is. It was really spooky because the water is as clear as the air and you can see every detail of the bottom and then it goes to dark, dark, blue in an easily seen 600' circle. No one was up for swimming and I just knew there had to be a sea monster or lock ness monster in this hideout. It started out slow but Tom, Rick and John Wayne caught a few pan sized reef fish that we hooked on Dwayne's "big boy reels" and sent them into the asbiss as bait. "Fish On" I hooked several groupers that beat me to their hole and escaped but not all got away ,and had one monster on that got away as well. Now Dwayne is a Carolina sport fisher and so is his wife Linda and he has all of the toys right there on SeaVeyor. It was Dwayne's day, "Fish On" and his massive Penn International rod and reel were smokin'. Yelling and sceaming all over the boat, Get the lines in, move that dinghy, no move it back, get the gaff... Snap, and their he was...Gone! no worries, Dwayne went into killer mode and reached into his bag of tricks and built a super duper shark leader and Rick supplied him with a three pound yellowtail snapper that went from his hook to Dwayne's and he sent him down the wall of the Blue Hole for Mr. Big."Fish On", I know you are getting sick of hearing that but I like it and it's my blog! Wait till you have to gag though the pictures. Anyway, Screaming and yelling as usual, but this time he was not going to get through the leader. It was more fun watching Dwayne catch this than if I was in the drivers seat. He really knows how to handle big fish and big fishing equipment. "The Man in the Grey Suit" was back. I got the first gaff in him and Tom the second, It was a nice Bull Shark like the one I caught a few weeks earlier but mine was just a little bigger (sorry Dwayne this is my blog and after all, this is a fish story!). The anchorage feasted on clean white shark that night and we went south in the morninig.
After the "rescue of Our Freedom" we left Gorgetown with the compass reading North. With the Kmart special in tow just skipping across the surface "Fish On". Mahi Mahi shot from the water like Brett Favre was throwing a "hail Mary". It was a sight to see! Mr. Lucky was in the rod holder, bent over double, drag spooling out and handling things just fine for now. All hands on deck ( Short for "hey Lorrie can you come up please"). We Turned Godspeed into the wind and slowed her to a couple of knots while we furled in the head sail in and held her too close the wind while Otto was allowed to drive towards Spain very slowly until this was over. A half hour later Lorrie scooped up a nice Mahi in our big net. There were several more fish caught and some not like the five foot Baracuda that hung out behind Godspeed in Staniel cay and let me feed him for two days but would not touch the bait with a hook in it- he won! Spanish Wells was my favorite island and when we left Godspeed led the way with Slow Dancing brave enough to follow us through the "Devils Backbone" and out to sea for a 45NM ocean sail to the Abacos. "Land Ho" that is so much fun to say after land has been out of sight for a long time. "Fish On" was the next shout. Mr. Lucky was doing his thang and working overtime. The usual big fish drill of slowing the boat takes a minute or two and this was no different headed for Spain I Grabbed Mr. Lucky and this was a big fish! We saw him do the football jump and I thought "gee wis he looks small". Still taking line out I looked at the reel and there was the other end of the line. That's 700' stripped off and that's why he looked so small, he was more than 2 football fields away. This was a tough cookie and a real bruiser, I would gain some line then he would take it back. Slowly I gained on him a foot at time and this had turned into a "Bar room Brawl". With him still a couple of hundred feet out and full of fight Mr. Lucky locked up, no more today he said. "lorrie, can You get my leather gloves please" and we went "hand to hand". This had turned into a real "Slug Fest" Mr. Mahi had no intentions of boarding Godspeed and I no quit so we just slugged it out, I was standing ankle deep in stipped mono filament and he would run and I would feed the line back at times in a snarled mess. There was a moment when we were both in our corners just holding on when I took a moment to "Smell the Roses". The simplicity and satisfaction were immense, A fish with a hook in his mouth, a man with the line in his hand, on a vessel powered by wind, with a pretty girl at my side, with land now in sight! Well we got the fish to Godspeed and he was finally tired out so I tied the line to the rod and traded it to Lorrie for the Gaff. Missed the first shot but the second could not have been better and he was on board. Lorrie had to measure it because she always says I lie and she asked how big do you think it was and I responded 25 inches or so and she then measured 51 inches, women!