How much is that fishy in the window 6 Oct 19

11º 04.997s 139º 23.009w

Mon Oct 07 2019

Most lures you see in a big fishing gear and tackle shop are probably better at catching fishermen than fish. It’s easy to get carried away at a place like Squidco in San Diego, and pretty soon a few hundred bucks worth of lures and other goodies are in the car, awaiting an uncertain future. At least the folks that work there do their best to steer the punters in the right direction with their knowledge of which fish are interested in what lures, and the more we tell them about where we’ll be fishing and what we want to eat, the better the odds we walk out with useful gear. Still, I generally find myself purchasing a few shiny things that are likely not the least bit interesting to Mr. Fish.

Today one of those very useful pieces of gear, a large colorful tuna plug, gave us the chance to land a nice size wahoo. At 1 meter it was manageable, butchering; anything bigger is difficult to manage. We do have a heavy rod and reel setup but we don’t even think about getting it out unless we’re motoring without any sails deployed. Big fish can spool a rig rapidly and getting an underway sailboat stopped and perhaps even backing down on a big fish just isn’t in our list of fun things to do. We tow what we affectionately refer to as “meat lines”. Five-hundred pound test lines about 100 feet long, attached the stern cleats on the boat and with a heavy monofilament or wire leader lure at the business end. We bungee the line to the cleat so there’s a good bit of spring, otherwise the hook may rip out of the fish’s mouth. This setup worked great in Mexico where we generally hooked up a yellow fin tuna or mahi-mahi. Out here we’ve had limited success but have landed a 1 meter skipjack tuna (yummy) and now this nice wahoo. Oink.

We were so inspired (i.e. greedy) that once we had dispatched with Senior Wahoo we redeployed a similar lure to see what else might be lurking out there. The colorful tuna plug’s heavy monofilament leader had taken a bit of a beating, so we swapped to a plain Jane looking tuna plug of the same size (about 6-7” long with a lead nose) and waited to see what else we might attract.

Isabel just happened to be watching when the bungee stretched to the breaking point, then the entire 100’ of line took off leaving the bungee and yoyo with a shred of line behind. Must have been something massive – I’m betting a big tuna or a shark, but we’ll never know. Goodbye $12 tuna plug. I’ve been trying to tally up how much fishing gear we’ve lost in the last year or two, and it’s definitely in the hundreds of bucks. Given the number of fish we have (or have not) caught in the last 12 months or so, if we used the metric “cost of each pound of fish” we’d be looking at some serious shopping at Whole Foods or AJ’s Fine Foods. What’s really funny to me is that once we get to the Marquesas (tomorrow) the going price for fresh ahi tuna, and I’m talking about watching the fisherman actually butcher the freshly caught bugger right there by the dinghy dock – well, we’ll be paying around $2.25 per pound. I’m going to visit Whole Foods and AJ’s in Phoenix to see just what they would whack us for a pound of sushi grade tuna, but the truth is it still wouldn’t be anywhere near as fresh as what we’ll buy in the next few days. That stuff is still quivering.

Anyway we’re now a bit short on fishing lures what with the ones we’ve lost combined with the ones that have been beaten up and need repair. Good thing we’re traveling to the US and UK soon; an opportunity to procure some replacement lures and repair parts. Fishing is just too much fun to pass up, and catching is really a satisfying pastime.