Fishing Day 1
Location
We did not travel so far today. Perhaps the fishing crew wanted to get a feel for our equipment and capabilities. In fact, this was the only day that involved fishing close to shore. For the popping we were taken to a small rock that protruded above the surface. We spent an hour or so, casting poppers around the rock.
Catches
Popping
I was the first to hook up to a GT but it only stayed on for a few seconds. As it was my first experience of this, I probably failed to set the hook correctly.
This was followed soon after by Garry hooking a GT that immediately took line and ended up getting around the back-side of the rock and cutting his line on the rocks.
So, 2 - 0 to the fish so far!
Jigging
We then moved into deeper water and began jigging. It wasn't long before Kevin caught a nice GT: -
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| Our first fish - a GT jigging |
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| Nice one Kev |
This was closely followed by a Spanish Mackerel that I caught jigging: -
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| Carpaccio here we come |
Garry also caught a Spanish Mackerel but he had caught bigger and didn't bother with a photo. As these were all "firsts" for me, you'll have to forgive me having photos of most of my catches!
On that topic, the next fish that I caught was a small Jack: -
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Jack for Steve |
I then caught another GT jigging: -
Garry finished off the photos/videos of the day with the following Jack: -
Added to the above, we also caught: -
Garry
- She-sha (or something like that)
- Grouper
Kev
- Barracuda
Steve
- Grouper
Trolling Torpor
After lunch we spent the afternoon trolling. This is a very lazy form of fishing if they aren't biting (as was the case today). In fact, it was so boring that Garry and I managed forty (or fifty) winks - I am sure that wasn't the objective for the day.
Summary
The day started well but got progessively worse as it went on. The trolling was a complete waste of time today.
From my perspective there were a few good points: -
- Although I have scuba dived all over the world, I had never seen flying fish. I thought they basically left the water at high speed and then just glided to escape predators. I had no idea they were very maneuverable in the air. We saw many of these during the week.
- I do get sea-sick. When diving I was able to manage this through the use of Scopoderm patches and by the fact that I spent a lot of time below water and not bobbing around in small boats. I was a little apprehensive that I would suffer due to spending many hours out in a small boat. Thankfully, today I was fine.
- Being my first time, it was great to catch fish using these techniques and I had great expectations for the days ahead.