As all good fishing stories go, it was huge, epically huge! And is pretty on par with the rest of our fishing adventures. Significantly more lost than brought in. Thank goodness so far we aren’t dependent on fish for nourishment!
We often leave a long line out (about 250 feet of line) and listen for the line spooling out or watch the rod on the stern camera from the pilot house. Claire, Andrew and I were on the rainbow couch out back and see a marlin jumping through the air (if you read the last blog, this time it really was a marlin). It continues to jump and I see a bright lure trailing behind it; we caught a fish! (Okay; I have mixed emotions – I eat it, but don’t want to be the one killing it…). Paul slows the boat and then goes to reel the sucker in. He announces it will take about an hour to pull in. 10 minutes later, he comes back up announcing Mr. Fishy got away. We don’t really like marlin anyhow. At least he didn’t take our line or lure…
Paul was drifting off in the pilot house and began to dream that our fishing rod was spooling out. Oh crap! Too late, he realized that it wasn’t a dream; our fishing rod was spooling out. He was heading downstairs when he heard a loud pop; our 800 feet of line had snapped off the rod. Our fish and our line got away.
And the time before that, we caught a pelican, and the sucker was not cooperative when Paul tried to remove the hook and line. Ouch! He was successfully freed and flew off though. And we were redeemed when we got an actual fish on the line!
Not our fish…but theirs. While underway, a panga (small boat driven by locals) maneuvered in front of us and would not let us continue forward. Paul slowed down the boat, and I went to check what was going on. I see the two guys in the panga, and Paul told me that they were blocking our path. We had no idea what was going on and were a bit scared. We locked all of the doors and Andrew crawled under the table, lol. Paul stepped out of the pilot house and they pulled to the port side and informed us that they had a long line out for fishing (in Spanish but meaning was conveyed). There were black buoys that blend in with the water, but we could have easily missed them and become tangled in the line – no bueno- if they hadn’t stopped us. We actually got another fishing line caught under the bottom and in the anchor that day; however, we were able to remove that line easily. Since the first time, we have encountered more pangas, long lines, and blocked routes. Both sea state and the large number of fishing boats often lead us to cruise at least 12 miles offshore.
I think we are at a total of 2 fish that we have caught and eaten; two since June! Here’s to hoping our fishing luck turns around!