Satellite Tagging: Stuart 10/21/07

[tunaman81]

Got out with Tim Palmer, Dennis, Matt, and Derke to do some tagging.

We had been trying to get out since Friday, but the storms kept us docked until Sunday night. The weather cleared and looked decent for Sunday night, so we decided to give tagging a shot. With the slow fishing the night before, we didn't know what to expect.

Got the buoys out just about sunset. Hooked the first fish about thirty minutes later. He put up a good fight but Dennis got him boatside pretty quick. He was a fat 68" fish that we estimated at about 150lbs. He swam away strongly and we resumed fishing.

Not long later we get another fish. we finally see her under the boat, and she was not hooked but tangled in the leader. It was a big fish that we estimated to be 300-400lbs. Unfortunately, she managed to unwrap herself with a few twists of her body about 10-15 feet under the boat and she swam away strongly. There were also two other fish in the 100lb class swimming around her as we were bringing her up.

We begin checking some of the other baits, and we have a 200lb class fish follow one of the baits up. We threw the bait back in the water immediately and Tim says he thinks he saw the fish follow the bait down. About 30 seconds later, the jug goes racing across the surface. We decide to let her swim around a bit before we try to deal with her.

As we are checking the other buoys, we find out that we have another fish on. Dennis gets her to the boat fairly quickly, and we can see is 200lbs+. As we get her boatside, we see she is billwrapped and we get in postion to get the snooter on and tag her. To say she was having none of this is an understatement. This fish was a level beyond green...green plus about 20 Red Bulls. Dennis wires her to the surface and she goes ballistic, thrashing and slashing at everything. Matt goes to grab her bill to put the snooter on and she quickly throws him off, slashing his arm in the process (luckily he was ok). In the resulting melee she slashed Dennis in the throat (luckily he was not injured), and slammed her bill into the transom sending a piece of it flying into the boat. She then managed to free her wrapped bill and swim away.

We get a few more buoys down and catch a 60-70lb fish. We stuck a tag in the fish and it swam off strongly. We then went back to the other big fish, and while leadering her, she launched into a series of jumps and managed to free herself (was wrapped as well).

While picking up the buoys to head home, we got one more 80lb fish which was sent on its way with a brand new, fashionable sat tag.

Tally for the night: 3 fish tagged (150lbs, 80lbs, 70lbs) and 3 others (300-400lbs, 200lbs, and another 200lbs) freed themselves before they were given the latest fashion item for swords in the Florida Straits.

Again, every fish we hooked/caught was in excellent condition. We did not get a single fish that wasn't green at or near the boat. every fish that was hooked was hooked in the corner of the mouth with the circle hooks.

Thanks again to Tim, Dennis, Matt and Derke for a great night and your exceptional dedication to the future of swordfish science. Here are some pics. I will post more later as derke got some real good ones.

[Finn-Fishin]

[quack quack]

Great job guys.I am glad you got your tags in for your study.I know you should have had them in sooner Can't wait to see your reports and study Thank you for all your efforts

[catching]

Sounds like an incredible night Justin too bad you could not get one in one of big girls

Also happy to hear the crew was not harmed and everyone made it home safe

[Thumper235]

Great work fellas..

[LIGHTS OUT]

WTG Justin and thanks again to Tim and crew for putting forth this great effort so that we may all one day better understand this fantastic creature. Sounds like you guys had a fun night.

[Jesslyn]

impressive very impressive

[blue chip 1]

[DIRTYFOOT2]

if that doesn't get your blood pumping ....your on the wrong site. Great work guys.

[JahMussa]

Almost brought a tear to my eye..... Congrats and thanks!

[WhItEoUt 23]

Great job guys

[ProfessorO]

All right 3 more tags!!! Nice work guys.

Tim, I really appreciate your effort and sacrificing thousands of dollars
worth of fish for Justin's research. You guys would have harpooned
the big ones in a heart beat. I know we all want to see a slob tagged
but it is not going to be easy; these are bad-to-the-bone, dangerous
fish. Two guys were slashed here and look at Capt Ken's arm after
dealing with a big, mean green fish. Getting a tag in anything 150 lbs
or above is a great night, plus getting two others tags in decent fish is
just awesome.

So there are at least 6 tagged fish swimming around S FL now. I
hope someone catches a tagged fish and gets the tag back to Dr.
Prince's lab; this data will really show us how remarkable these
fish truly are. The HHSSSC will throw a party in your honor; now
there is a challenge. cheers, arthur

[Colonel Klink]

Thanks Professor. Getting a sat tag deployed on these fish , especially the bigger ones, is harder than I could have imagined. Every one of the fish we had that night was as green as could be. Watching two very experienced crew members get worked the way they did made me start having second thoughts about what we were doing. Gaffing is so much easier. Well worth the effort ,however. As a matter of fact, I'm ready to try and get some more tags out. Thanks to everyone involved for their dedication on trying to learn more about these fish.

[Nick C]

Very Cool!!
Tim, can you please show ollie how catch these things?

[RiskTaker]

Thanks Colonel Klink , Justin,David K & team.

It's already 5 O'clock somewhere so may as well let Arthur's party begin.
BTW - How many sattellite tags are presently available for deployment?

Tunaman or Professor O:

Can you describe the best course of action should a Satellite tagged fish be caught? It sounds like you want the tag back as Priority One. Then what?

Would it be significantly better to then release that particular fish with a plastic tag for some possible further observation? Or Captain's choice?

I think you should host a deluxe party with dancing girls if the spagetti tag method is deployed subsequent to retrieving the PSAT tag.
(We've got some here from Latin Quarters to kick it up a notch, if needed.)

Thanks again guys for the effort and monetary donation.

[Disco Lady]

COÑO!!!!!!!

[Captain Ollie]

Very FUNNY Nick!! I think your just bad luck. Been doing WAAYYY better than average over my last 8 trips .......till you came along ......or MAYBE it was Paul. Either way I'm blaming it on one of you!!

Congrats to Tim and crew for stickin it to 'em with the tags. After hearing about both ordeals now, I'm convinced my gunnels are way to high to try and get enough control over the beasties to hit the bullseye with a $4000 tag. I've seen how hard it is for most people (I'm not naming anyone here) just to get a halfway decent dart shot into a fish.

[ProfessorO]

Originally Posted by Captain Ollie

Very FUNNY Nick!!
.... I've seen how hard it is for most people (I'm not naming anyone here) just to get a halfway decent dart shot into a fish.

Thank you.

[Captain Ollie]

You have my forgiveness on that shot Arthur. I had completely forgotten about that one. I have never even mentioned that shot to anyone.....So you just outed yourself. I do recall that at the time I was screaming at you like a possed madman to "STICK 'EM!!! STICK'EM!!!"

[Flatsfish B]

Originally Posted by Captain Ollie

You have my forgiveness on that shot Arthur. I had completely forgotten about that one. I have never even mentioned that shot to anyone.....So you just outed yourself. I do recall that at the time I was screaming at you like a possed madman to "STICK 'EM!!! STICK'EM!!!"

So you yell at everyone

And I think Nick is bad luck, My arms are still hurting from that night

Ollie you should share your harpoon secret, that thing is money i'm rigging mine that way