Big Bend Sportsman Guide Fishing Stories

"Stories from the Caribbean"
From a Series of Short Stories

By: Capt. "Tato"  Reyes

 "It Topped the Scale"

 I lived just a few houses away from the water. I would wake up early, pick up my cast net and check the shore line for bait.  I was always looking for the real mullet, we called it “Jarea Margaritena”, the one with the yellow ring around the eye that would stay in the ocean and would never come into the mangroves. This is a bright silvery mullet with a big black eye and a yellow ring around it. It grows up to two pounds only and when you clean it has no mud in the stomach.  It’s flesh is firm and strong, and the scales will not come off easily.  This type of Mullet lasted better as a bait. I think that it is the prettiest of all the mullets!  I have yet to see one here in Florida.  While at the Keys last year, I saw a mullet school that looked like it but I never had the chance to verify. Catching, preparing, freezing, thawing and rigging this kind of almost sacred mullet is a ritual that belongs to a story by itself.  It is a liturgy, that I will share as another story. 

When my Blue Marlin fishing got serious, my dad built a weigh-in tower for me.  He had it installed in my boat driveway on the North side of the house. Now I could pull the boat out of the water, bring it to my driveway and pull the fish out of the boat with the block and tackle he had installed. He also bought me a scale that weighted up to 400 pounds.

 

Don Jimmy and I wanted to go fishing badly, it was the end of July and the moon was perfect for a good size fish. We loaded two 80 pound test rods and four freshly caught mullet, about a pound and a half each, carefully over ice.  On our way out, we saw some schooling fish through which we trolled yellow feathers on spinning gear, producing two Mackerels in the three pound class. As Don Jimmy steered the boat to the fishing grounds, I rigged one Mullet and one Mackerel . I set the Mackerel in the middle outrigger and the mullet in the transom clip just behind the teasers. Both rods were placed into the chair rod holders, so that I could have quick access to them.  I regained command of the vessel and change the course to a true North, heading into the beautiful blue water that was right ahead of me. 

I normally make my baits swim and skip so I can always have eye contact with them. The thing, that I hated the most, was to miss the strike. I kept my baits close to the boat and at the surface.  I wanted to have a good look at the strike, plus I almost never took my eyes off the baits. You guys that fish top water lures, know what I am talking about. It is all about the strike!!  It is amazing the number of hits I missed. That alone is another topic for a whole discussion. 

I reached the blue water and looked forward.  I wanted to see, if there was a weed line nearby.  Suddenly,  I head the unmistakable snap of the outrigger clip. There was line coming out of the reel but nothing was running with it. At the same time, Don Jimmy said; “that is a big bait you better tighten the clip or it will be falling all the time”.  I responded that I had checked it before I released it and was adamant about it.  “My clips don’t fall, unless something pulls on them”.   I barely finished speaking when the transom clip snaped and the line pulled out but with no intensity.  I knew there was something messing with my baits and sure enough, she jumped on one of the teasers as I yelled, “Marlin, Marlin, forward, forward!!!!!”  The fish had hit the mackerel, which had the rearmost position in the spread.  It then came onto the mullet, attacked it and then attacked the teaser.  All of this, while moving forward and never showing her presence.  She remained a few feet underwater until she reached the teaser and hit it.  It was then that she came out of the water and revealed her presence. 

Don Jimmy leaned on the throttle and launched the boat forward.  I saw the mullet line get tight.  I got the rod, set the hook and we were in business.  Don Jimmy let the boat idle while he recovered the teaser lines and got the other rod in.  I climbed into the chair and gained some line on the fish. 

She was gut hooked and was hurting bad. Her forward movement allowed her to swallow the bait completely and the hook was set deep in her. She pulled her face out of the water and shook it.  She was spilling blood left and right with her stomach hanging out of her mouth.  I knew then, that I needed to keep a tight leash on this fish, since she was going to die.  I could not allow that to happen with too much line out or I would never stop her dead weight from sinking to the bottom.

Don Jimmy understood that and attacked the fish with the boat. We needed to be careful because she was hurting but still had most of her energy. We could not just gaff her because she would trash the boat and might even hurt us. That is why we fought her with the double line at full drag just a few feet from the starboard side at a 45 degrees angle.  We watched her turned sideways an show her beautiful colors.

 Don Jimmy set the first gaff and she pulled on him just enough to make it both exciting and wet. I jumped out of the chair and set the second gaff.  We then secured the fish to the starboard cleat. She was ours, I reached for the bill and clubbed her twice between the eyes.  The fight was over. We now had a huge fish hanging from the side of our boat. 

There was no way, that we could bring her on board.  We prepared a side towing set-up and headed home at half speed.  We then sat back and enjoyed a few beers on our way home. Every now and then, I would steal a look at the fish and think “It must be close to 500lbs”. 

As we got to the dock, we had lots of company.  The bets started, like usual, on how much the fish would weight.  Some of us, were really good at estimating the weight, while others would not even come close.  Yet they would still bet over and over again.

We called our dock master to find out that the club scale was being used by a neighboring marina and they have not gotten it back.  We decided to tie the fish along the side of the boat and trailer the boat and fish back to the scale my dad had just given me.

 All bets were called off, since the fish immediately topped the scale at 400 pounds (it’s maximum).  I was not going to cut this fish in half, to weight the pieces, as we had done so many previous times.  I had a customer on his way to pick the fish up. I got $450 for the fish (one dollar per pound) and the customer did not protest the estimated weight. I am sure, the fish was closer to 500, than some of my friends believed.

 Not a bad day, great fishing, great weather, great company and $450 that would buy gas and the like for a while. I did find a picture of the fish… you tell me how big it was.   I say 475 pounds… at least!