| Nyati Offshore Billfish Report
Port Aransas,
TX
June 3rd-4th, 2006
Report by Oz |
Scott, Matt, Moose, and I headed early to Port A to load aboard
the Nyati with Capt. YT and his wife Lea. Joining us for this adventure would
be Matt's friend David and former Marine... Gordon. The water was calming
quick but would it be too calm to produce any fish. Our plan was to head
out far to troll and stay overnight somewhere in 'deep water' in hopes of
finding some decent rips and weedlines. We begin the trip out around 5am
Saturday morning.
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On our way out we see miles of Bonita working bait... one of
the benefits of glass like conditions on the open sea. As we get further
out we decide to stop close to Baker and troll some baits. After a few minutes
a rod gets hammered and fish on! Moose starts the trip off for us.
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Hitting like a train it screams line off the reel for a few seconds
but becomes no match for Moose. He shortly after lands a nice Wahoo. Game
On!
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Action quickly died down and what we thought might have been
Tuna turned out to be Bonita. We decide to continue on course and head out
to the promised lands...err waters.
We hear on the radio one of our locations was quickly getting piled
up with boats so we head towards the deep water shelf and find a lot of broken
up patches of sargassum. The grassy mess proved hard to keep baits out but
we didn't come this far for nothing. YT jumps down and I take the Capt. seat
while Matt, Moose, and Scott take care of business downstairs. After about
an hour we get signs of life as a 30 gets blasted. Matt grabs the rod and
we see the fish explode on the surface. He is hooked up on an aerial Bull
Dolphin. After a couple minutes we get the beautiful Mahi to the boat.
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The water was becoming calmer if it was even possible. We troll
aimlessly looking for any more signs of life as the mid-day heat pounded
the water. After a slow late-morning we decide to go to the nearest rig and
drop baits deep. Moose and I began jigging spoons and jigs down deep. My
first attempt rewarded us with a nice delicious Scamp Grouper.
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Moose quickly begun to get in the action also pulling up a Scamp.
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Gordon and David quickly get in it as well hooking into weird
freak fish such as Longtail Bass and various Jacks, Chubs, Snapper, and Rainbow
Runners. After bagging a few Grouper, Moose and I begin hammering the Amberjack
on light tackle.
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While most AJ's were barely undersized, Moose did get one keeper
in the mess. After a short 2 hour harvest we decide to pack it up and head
to better waters to troll for the evening bite.
We start trolling around busting bait on the surface and pick
up some more Dorado. We also lose a nice fish that bit a lure off a trolling
lure which likely was a nice Wahoo. The sun sets and darkness falls on the
calm sea. Matt and Scott wanted to try their luck for deep drifting Swordfishing.
With a perfectly executed squid rig, they begin dropping baits at 1300 feet.
Moose starts the chumming slaughter and we hope to get some action in the
lights.
After a few hours of continuous hard work no fish arrive and
one hit on the sword rig is to show for it. The guys later crash out. Around
1am Lea and I continue the chum process. A short while we finally see action
in the lights. A massive Dorado charges in and out after something I could
not recognize. I knew the only way to get whatever was in close zooming in
was with live bait. A throw with the castnet and I am rewarded with a nice
fatty flying fish. I get her rigged on a med action spinning reel to cast
and thrown on the edge the lights and within seconds get smoked before forcing
the breakoff. The culprit being either that mega Dorado or a Tuna. A tough
loss but at least something is showing up.
I couldn't find any more flying fish for a while and when I
think I finally do see one, I end up netting this guy.
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While not a flying fish nor the Dorado I had previously seen,
this little Dolphin is still brilliantly beautiful and ended up being released.
Moose woke up for a bit and the chumming continued and still
little action. The drifting is going slow with no wind or current, but we
are moving and moving slightly shallower every hour. Having the urge for
a new Tile fish record, I start to drop baits down to the bottom at about
700 feet. The chumming continued and after about an hour of the Tile fish
mega-bait drop, it gets hit at a depth of about 500 feet. I didn't know if
it were a Tile fish or a Grouper at the depth it hit but did know something
was on. I get the fish in just under the boat and keep thinking.. 'tile
fish...tile fish'. I finally get the fish up on the surface after a lot of
cranking and it was... not a tile fish. However, it ended up being a cool
looking deep-water Smooth Dogfish Shark, a shark I haven't caught before.
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After the release of the near state record Dogfish, I begin
to feel the wear and tear of the approaching of 24 hours of straight fishing
madness. Just as I thought I couldn't do it any longer, fish began to show
up in the lights. Hours of chumming and we begin to see underwater rockets
buzzing the tower. I launch a chunk of cutbait a few yards and let it slowly
sink and within seconds get hooked up. Hoping it was Blackfin Tuna, we are
tripped to find out they are large Bonita. Moose and I begin to slaughter
one after another while Lea would gaff. While we normally wouldn't throw
them in the fishbox, rockstars need bait and we get close to filling the
box with future beach-shark and snapper baits. We were the only ones awake
so we thought it was a good idea and no one was awake to tell us otherwise.
Lea was also having a blast especially sticking our Bonita. Moose wanted
to reward her and hooked her up on a mini torpedo on light tackle.
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The madness continued til sunrise. YT gets up along with rest
of the crew. I need rest and crash hour for about two hours before I hear
things going nuts on the deck. Scott grabs hold of the smoking rod and lays
into what he thinks is a billfish.
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After a few minute tug-of-war battle, Scott gets the fish in close
and find out his predictions are right. Matt gets the gloves and leaders
Scott a nice healthy Sailfish.
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A beautiful Sail and gets a release to fight and jump another day!
Scott had just landed a Sailfish, so how could I even think
about going back to sleep now? But this was just the beginning. Moose had
taken over Capt. just prior to the hookup so we felt obligated to keep
him at the wheel. Within a few minutes of getting baits back out Moose's
driving rewards us again as Matt grabs hold of a smoking reel. As we begin
clearing the lines we see a Marlin tail walk... and tail walk.. and tail
walk on the surface. This perhaps being one of the coolest offshore visions
you can see. After a mega hook set Matt gets clipped down ready for battle.
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Several minutes have passed and Matt is gaining on him one crank at a time
on the 30.
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After a relatively short 15-20 minute fight we get the Marlin
within several yards of the boat. I grab the gloves and wait for the fish
to get close enough to leader it. After about 20 minutes the fight is over
and I grab the leader... just months after landing his first Bluefin Tuna,
Matt lands his first Blue Marlin.
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A successful release and we see the beautiful blue swim off to the deep.
With insanely calm glass-like conditions, the fishing seemed in question.
But in just over an hour the Nyati has landed 2 billfish. The day is
not through yet though. We troll around for an hour or so and Matt has a
Wahoo take a lure he is letting out and flys viciously out of the water quickly
releasing the hook. Action all around and adrenaline is flowing thick. We
continue for a while then see fish busting at the surface in a distance.
Not long and Gordon finally get the first Wahoo of the day.
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We get baits back in the water and continue to hit the same
area which seems to be holding the fish. On the next pass there is one or
more fish tearing up the spread on the surface. Finally after the explosions
on the surface I grab the screaming reel and get a solid hookset as we see
another billfish in the distance slicing the water. Game on again baby!
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The guys get ready for anything and I get busy.
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After a while the fish had us fooled and begun swimming in with
each crank. Within no time we had a still green lit up Sailfish close to
the boat however we decide to leader it right away. After a short fight I
land a gorgeous Sail, and the boats 3rd billfish of the morning.
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A couple quick pictures and we release another awesome Sail.
The boats blood pressure has just blown a gasket and everyone is stoked.
But being the crazy pirates we are we want more. And more action we will
get as David hooks up. Not long and we have another nice Wahoo at the boat.
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We troll around for another hour or two and finally decide to
take the long haul back in. Everyone had a chance to lay in to something
and a bit of meat in the box to boot. We sit back for a victory brew and
admire the incredible day as we are heading back in.
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We start cleaning the boat as we are heading back in. Back at
the dock as the sun is setting we get a group photo with some of the fish
we boxed.
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The Nyati once again proved to be a fish catching machine and the
maniacs on board endured the hot calm conditions duking it out with Amberjack,
Grouper, Snapper, Wahoo, Dorado, Marlin, Shark and various 'bait'. All
in all another mind-blowing trip. To get one billfish in Texas waters
is outstanding, to get 3 in a couple hours is exponentially incredible to
a speechless degree. Thanks once again to a great crew and thanks to the
Capt, YT and his fish slaying girl - Lea for letting us have another trip
of a lifetime aboard the Nyati. Great trip guys!
Good luck and see you on the sand (err water).
- Oz
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