Dad's wish comes true in Jamaica

[jerry]

Went out with my son Andy tonight. On the way to the marina and after his unsuccesful battle with a huge sword last week, I make the comment that I hope he gets a shot at a sword tonight and that it turns out to be something more manageable for a 13year old. His answer to that was, no way dad, I want to tackle that big one again. Such is the way of fishermen.
We set up at sunset, our typical 3 rod drift. 180ft, 240ft and 400ft. I remember reading on the forum that on dark nights to try fishing shallower. For the first time I set a fourth rod at 90ft and fish this rod from the tip. Not 10 minutes later bump, bump. I pick up the rod and that pressure starts, I crank down and fish on. Andy gets strapped in and 20 minutes later a nice 70lber on board. I was ready to bust with pride and excitement.
Set back out and did not get another bite, fished till 11pm and called it quits.
Well maybe the big one tonight.

[RiskTaker]

Hey Jerry:

Congratulations on letting your son catch another fine swordfish. The addiction seems to be infecting the entire family.

Hey, we just got back from Bimini a few hours ago and I got to try Yellow-eye snapper. Wow, I think that must be the best scale fish I recall having eaten ever. The texture of the fish was quite firm and it easily separated by the muscle layers.

Besides that, I have no exciting fishing tales of my own to tell from the Islands. I did not even get a chance to drop a bait in the water. We did have windy weather so it changed our execution plan. We were with the family so it was just not a high priority to be fishing although it could have happened if the Capitan were better organized. But while we were at dock, I got to chat with the crew from Bimini Twist out of Coral Gables. Wow, what a sweet boat! I was droolling over such a beautiful sportfish. It was a late model 54' Viking. They had two LP electric reels set up on the fighting chair. My dreams were alive. They were the ones that actually caught the deep water fish. I was not offered any numbers but they did indicate that they were caught in 1100 FSW. Thank goodness we had some conch to whip up a large batch of conch salad (ceviche style), from a dozen . I offered a portion of conch salad in exchange for some fish, cleaned or uncleaned. (I definitely behave in resourceful ways while wearing salty shoes.) Low and behold I am presented with 3 filets of fish, 2 of which were the yellow eye and the other was bigger: likely queen snapper. That fillet was very soft and delicious too, but not quite as good as the other 2.

So that's it. I need to unpack my bait cooler and save the stuff for another time out. But I was prepared to soak a few squids at night since I packed all the needed swordfihing stuff along with all the stuff to do some deep dropping. But I was able to set-up a couple of hi-speed Wahoo lures when we got to be within 18 miles of Hillsboro. My suggestion was to run along the drop-off up towards Great Isaac area then make the crossing. But like a long laundry list of other helpful suggestions/comments, few, if any were actually heeded (or even acknowledged then conscientiously dismissed, ignored is the best word) except for the one where I was actually screaming to NOT drive over the 2 ft. rocky shoal as we prepared to anchor in Honeymoon Harbor.

P.S. - That anchorage is a great place to stay with almost all winds except a Northerly. And I bet you will never guess what the wind direction was at that time. ](*,) You got it and I even said so before leaving the marina! I will not say any more: I need to save my strength for my laundry list of grievances. I will chalk this one up to a lesson learned: I just hope the boat captain will do the same since I am not really the one that needs to learn these lessons. I set my sights eagerly for a nice cruise through the Abacos in June with a well seasoned and easy going captain.

[jerry]

RT, thats what you get for not coming to Jamaica. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[RiskTaker]

Yes sir, I hear you. But this was intended to get the famililies over to the Bahamas to become familiarized with the trip and to have some family fun.

But I will hope that the following year, I can come down to visit you for a little bit of fishing adventure from Kingston.

I think the wife was a bit traumatized and will probably not go with multiple families again unless I am Captaining on our own vessel, ie. the sloop. The only fishing we did was the hi-speed trolling at 15 mph and even that had thoroughly convinced her that she does not want to be a part of fishing. So it looks like any type of fishing activities is for the men only. My son Alex is 9 this year and I am hoping that if I cannot get him on a swordfish at least I can get him to tug on a snapper.

[PURPLE FEVER]

Way to go Jerry!congrats