Fresh Fish

[Lighthouse]

This email from friends who are currently on a circumnavigation. They are now on Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. True story I thought was worth sharing here:

This morn, D and I were below having breakfast. Suddenly, we heard a hell of a thump and racket on deck - much thrashing around etc. Upon investigating we found a metre long, 10 Kilo Wahoo flailing around on deck, between the cockpit coaming and the wind curtains on the port side - making a hell of a mess!! I got a line around its tail and secured it to the lifelines where it succumbed.

We discovered later that it had in fact boarded the yacht on the starboard side and after hitting the dodger, narrowly missing coming down below, whilst flying past the open dodger window and landing where we found it!

We have been anchored in the same idyllic place, Maribe Bay, Mitsio Island, Madagascar for a week and we have had a large school of small (20 cm.) herring type fish, constantly under and around the yacht's hull. We can only surmise that the Wahoo came up from the deep, mouth wide open trying to catch his breakfast of small fish and inadvertently leapt clear out of the water, and landed on the deck, a height of approx. 1.5 mtrs. from the water.

Sooooo..... everybody in the anchorage is having fresh wahoo for supper!

Anyone else have any (true) fishing stories?

[Trim50]

That's a good one! Did they get any pictures?

[Lighthouse]

Yes, they got pics but are on Winlink so cannot send them yet.

[Gallivanters]

When I lived in Guam, there was an account in the Pacific Daily News of some Fish & Wildlife Officials who were checking an uninhabited atol in the Marshal Islands, who came upon the skeletal remains of a man and a marlin intertwined with one-another on a beach inside the lagoon.

Upon closer examination, they traced a length of monofiliment line leading from the man's wrist into the mouth of the marlin... and a lure.

They concluded that the man must have been fishing in the shallows of the lagoon and hooked the marlin. The marlin took a desperate run at the man, skewered him right in the chest and they both died together, flopping on the beach.

To Life!

Kirk

PS - during my dawn foredeck walkarounds, I always collected and gave the little flying fish to the cat. Now I eat 'em myself. Yum!

[Trim50]

This morning's blog entry from Rancho Deluxe on Transpac 07 tells about a flying fish hitting the helmsman in the chest lastnight.

[daytrader]

Nothing deep sea type.

I paid for the wife and I to go out deep sea fishing the week before we got married.

As I set on the boat eatting macoroni salad the skipper said the fish will like that.

About two hours latter. No one on the boat was catching anything. I was getting sick on the other side of the boat. About 10 mins latter they were all hitting. I was laying down.

The wife had the biggest catch of the night. 2nd place for Florida in King fish in 2000 or so.

I was sich and never even got a bite.

Also, fresh water. I have set for a two day spell with a buddy and pulled out 208, 8 pound plus channel cats. The largest one was 96 pounds and snaged so we could not turn him in for a state record as they have to be mouth catched. We had fish fryed for about 3 days.