Long Lost Sails
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 10:55 pm
Hi All,
Well, it's finally happened, after countless hours of either trolling, talking and obsessing about landing a billfish I actually nailed not one but two! The story started as a vague idea sometime last week when the long range weather reports were looking promising for the weekend along with the tail end of a set of neap tides that would have the water nice and clear for a crack at a sail. Due to other stuff going on Monday was locked down as the day and whole galaxy of line, leaders,teaser making and gar rigging ensued in preparation for the big day.
After an eternity Monday arrived and we made good time to Dundee with the road being in reasonable shape apart from a few wet patches towards the end. A quick chat with one of the local guides revealed that Long Lost might produce so by 7 o'clock we were on our way. As we approached the Long Lost grounds the area came alive with schools of small tuna being worked by terns and booby birds, it was looking promising but after a solid couple of hours working the area hard with the teasers there was nothing doing so the call was made to go to the city.
Well, that was a waste of time! Three quarters of the way there and the water was dead, no birds, no bait, no nothing.... By this time I'm kicking myself for breaking the golden rule, you don't leave fish to find fish, and so the decision was made to back track to the tuna schools and have a cast to them to break the monotony and then get back into some trolling.
We spot the tuna schools pretty much where we left them and decide the closest one is as good as any and do the usual thing and get upwind of them on the leading edge of the school when my mate Matt starts screaming at me that there's a sail cruising off the port bow, sure enough I look over and there's one of the most beautiful sights you will ever see, a slender sickle tail cutting a trail through the glare offf the water.
Thankfully the pitch bait rod is ready and waiting and I lob a circle rigged gar ahead of the fish and wind it quickly back, no dice... Another cast and at the last moment jackpot! Two sails materialise behind the bait, I pause for a second and twitch the bait in front of the lead fish and without the fish seeming to move my bait just disappears! Oh baby, Come on! Come on! I drop the rod tip and flip the bail arm open and wait for something to happen. with my heart pounding out of my chest, the Sail then goes nose down in the water and does this weird little shimmy then starts slowly moving away from the boat (all this took place maybe five meters from us) so I give it a slow five count, snap the bail arm closed and mentally cross all my fingers, the rod slowly loaded up and then the fish must have felt the hook turn into its jaw because at that moment all hell broke loose! Before I could blink the Sail had done four hot laps of the boat and then peeled a cool hundred meters of line off the spool in seconds finishing the run with the first of its jumps. It made three more runs after this getting shorter and slower each time and maybe the same in jumps before we had it boatside with a hand around its' bill, a couple of happy snaps on the bow of the boat, pop the circle out and a quick swim later, that's my first sail swimming away to fight another day. Hell Yeah! That was fun! Let's do it again!
We caught three more for the day using bait and switch techniques. I scored another and deckie Matt busted his cherry with two as well so all in all a fantastic day. I will follow up this post with the GPS marks and tackle/rigs/techniques we used at a later date but for the record the score for the day was 10 raised 4 hooked 4 boated and subsequently released.
Cheers,
John.
Well, it's finally happened, after countless hours of either trolling, talking and obsessing about landing a billfish I actually nailed not one but two! The story started as a vague idea sometime last week when the long range weather reports were looking promising for the weekend along with the tail end of a set of neap tides that would have the water nice and clear for a crack at a sail. Due to other stuff going on Monday was locked down as the day and whole galaxy of line, leaders,teaser making and gar rigging ensued in preparation for the big day.
After an eternity Monday arrived and we made good time to Dundee with the road being in reasonable shape apart from a few wet patches towards the end. A quick chat with one of the local guides revealed that Long Lost might produce so by 7 o'clock we were on our way. As we approached the Long Lost grounds the area came alive with schools of small tuna being worked by terns and booby birds, it was looking promising but after a solid couple of hours working the area hard with the teasers there was nothing doing so the call was made to go to the city.
Well, that was a waste of time! Three quarters of the way there and the water was dead, no birds, no bait, no nothing.... By this time I'm kicking myself for breaking the golden rule, you don't leave fish to find fish, and so the decision was made to back track to the tuna schools and have a cast to them to break the monotony and then get back into some trolling.
We spot the tuna schools pretty much where we left them and decide the closest one is as good as any and do the usual thing and get upwind of them on the leading edge of the school when my mate Matt starts screaming at me that there's a sail cruising off the port bow, sure enough I look over and there's one of the most beautiful sights you will ever see, a slender sickle tail cutting a trail through the glare offf the water.
Thankfully the pitch bait rod is ready and waiting and I lob a circle rigged gar ahead of the fish and wind it quickly back, no dice... Another cast and at the last moment jackpot! Two sails materialise behind the bait, I pause for a second and twitch the bait in front of the lead fish and without the fish seeming to move my bait just disappears! Oh baby, Come on! Come on! I drop the rod tip and flip the bail arm open and wait for something to happen. with my heart pounding out of my chest, the Sail then goes nose down in the water and does this weird little shimmy then starts slowly moving away from the boat (all this took place maybe five meters from us) so I give it a slow five count, snap the bail arm closed and mentally cross all my fingers, the rod slowly loaded up and then the fish must have felt the hook turn into its jaw because at that moment all hell broke loose! Before I could blink the Sail had done four hot laps of the boat and then peeled a cool hundred meters of line off the spool in seconds finishing the run with the first of its jumps. It made three more runs after this getting shorter and slower each time and maybe the same in jumps before we had it boatside with a hand around its' bill, a couple of happy snaps on the bow of the boat, pop the circle out and a quick swim later, that's my first sail swimming away to fight another day. Hell Yeah! That was fun! Let's do it again!
We caught three more for the day using bait and switch techniques. I scored another and deckie Matt busted his cherry with two as well so all in all a fantastic day. I will follow up this post with the GPS marks and tackle/rigs/techniques we used at a later date but for the record the score for the day was 10 raised 4 hooked 4 boated and subsequently released.
Cheers,
John.