Chasing Pelagics

The thing about offshore trips is that you might not catch any fish, but you are guaranteed to spend a lot of money on fuel.  But what is cool about going offshore is seeing different species of fish and hunting blue water. 

There is something unnerving about jumping into the water when you know it is 700+ ft deep.  But the fact that the water is clear, blue and warm definitely helps.  We had about 50+ ft of visibility and the water temperature was 80 degrees F.  It's not very often that you get to wear a 2mm wetsuit in New England.

We had been watching the weather since the beginning of the week and it looked like there would be a 48 hour window of nearly flat seas.  Early on the first day we starting getting everything together for an overnight trip offshore.  The boat was heavily loaded once we had everything onboard.  Fill gas tanks, portable gas tanks and fresh water tank.  Load on two coolers with ice, bait and food for two days. A few pillows and a blanket for the odd nap.

The trip out was uneventful, with a glassy ocean we were able to run at 30kts.  

We ended up stopping about half way out when a whale surfaced directly in front of the boat and blew its spout.  As the captain pulled the throttles back we realized we were entering an area with lots of marine life.  There were whales, dolphins and birds all feeding at the surface.   The marine mammals and birds usually feed on the same bait as tuna.  So we decided to have a look around and see if any fish were present.  After a while of not seeing any fish, we decided to head for greener pastures and continued offshore.

The second stop was two weather buoys that happened to be on our course offshore.  We decided to suit up to try spear a couple Mahi mahi.  The buoys were covered in juvenile barrel fish, pilot fish and a few triggers.   Barrel fish are supposed to be very good eating, but we did not take any.  There were a few smart Mahi cruising around that did not want to cooperate and kept their distance.  We speared a few triggers and moved on. 

We finally made it to our planned destination.  There were high-flyers running down the edge of the continental shelf.  The plan was to jump in at each high-flyer and look for fish until daylight ran out.  We would drop in up current of the high-flyers and drift down past them looking for Mahi.   

We were in luck because almost every high-flyer was holding a small group of mahi mahi.  Some were just pairs of fish others had a dozen.  It was usually pretty easy to shoot the first fish out of the school but after that they became a bit weary.  It is different shooting fish from just below the surface.  You have to contend with and compensate for the waves pushing you around when you line up the shot.  I would not say spearing mahi was difficult, but they are great table fare.  We took turns shooting fish and driving the boat until the water became dark and hazy with the dropping sun. 

Unfortunately we did not run into any larger fish species.  We spent the night chunking with butterfish, which did not pull anything from the depths.  The only entertainment was watching a few guys puke when the boat starting pitching heavily with the wind and waves.  Once the sun rose we checked a few more spots then headed in.  

We brought 130cm and 120cm double banded euro guns.  Some guns were set up with float line and float.  Other guns were set up with reels.  These guns were sufficient for shooting mahi mahi but it would have been nice to have a bit more range.  Next time we will be bringing 150cm euro guns, at minimum, in case we run into some larger species.  I will also be making throw-able flashers for the next excursion.