We skirted the storm for the first four days, then had awesome weather. Fished almost entirely bait. Captain Drew was his normal, tireless, unbelievable hunter-self. Crew was awesome. The boat did great--everyone caught fin (to 160), tail (to 45) and dodo (to 25), and the tireless dudes caught hoo (to 60). Boat hooked and released 8 marlin. Had a three-bagger on hoo while trolling on my shift, but only landed one (not mine)--it was exciting, tho. I bagged 25, gave some away: tuna to 60 (lost a 100+ after fighting for 45 mins, it was gaffed, on the deck, a wave sucked it back into the drink, and the hook let go 30 minutes later), yellowtail to 40, dodo to 25, and wahoo to 60. Let a lot more go, mostly tail and dodo. Stayed behind for 2 days to fillet and smoke (elder wood) fish of a bud, including 30 lbs of my own fillets. TSA alarms went off, they escorted me to bomb swath machine, and put a swath on every piece (was in food saver plastic). I realized the machine was picking up nitrates, so I told the giant TSA dude that the fish was fresh smoked. He let me go with the fish. Already packing for next year.
Plenty of fish on some days, a real hunt on the others. The PS just came back from another 10-day. They had a tough time finding big tuna, tons of footballs, big dodos, giant hoo and lots of them, and lots of tail. Their best day is one for the books, though--220 marlin hooked and released. In one day... Wish I'd been there!
