Big Bend Sportsman Guide Fishing Stories
"Stories from the Caribbean"
From a Series of Short Stories
By: Capt. "Tato" Reyes
"Someone Just Hooked a Huge One"
The last two weeks of October and the first two
weeks of November contain our entire Sailfish season in the North
Coast of Puerto Rico. It has nothing to do with the moon phase, the
tides or anything else. These fish have a calendar and when they see
its Sunday the week before the last in October, they show up in our
waters; in the same way they disappear the second Friday in November.
In late October the hurricane season is over and
we start getting these erratic weather patterns with winds from the
South and swells from the North. Our typical 10-15 knots winds from
the NE and our typical 2-4 or 3-5 is replaced by these huge swells and
virtually no wind. Yes, it is surfing season galore!!! Our reefs are
decorated with the white foam from the 12 to 15 foot swells turned
into breakers when they meet the shallow reef and emerge into huge sea
walls that cover our entrance through the reef into the safety of the
lagoon or bay.
This is the only time of the year when you really
need power behind you as you cross the entrance between these huge
walls of water with extreme precision. Too fast and you climb the one
in front of you, to find a terrible fall at the other side. Too slow
and the one behind you will fill up your cockpit and pushed you around
like nothing, normally causing boats to breach and roll over, not a
nice scene to witness. Oh, yes, I have seen it happen several times as
we waited on people to come in through the breakers in alert and ready
to go and pick up the survivors.
It was the Saturday before the Sailfish season
started but Chuito, Rafa and myself were ready to prove the theory
wrong. We were going to catch Sailfish, actually we were going into a
mano a mano, three of us, three baits in the water, one hour turns at
the helm. He who is at the helm decides direction, speed and area to
be trolled. He who would follow the Captain with the next turn at the
helm would become Captain if the one at the helm gets the strike.
We were fishing ballyhoos on monofilament leaders
in 20 pound test line out of two lateral outriggers just behind the
teaser and a center outrigger in the middle behind them.
That was it, three of us and three baits in the
water. We were hoping for a multiple strike. Sailfish are known to
travel in packs and it is not unusual to have simultaneous multiple
strikes that can be messy when you are not ready or you are fishing
with inexperienced people with multiple lines in the water.
The day went by and no Sailfish showed up, we
trolled in every direction, at various speed, we tried close and away
from shore. We were about to give up when we had a taste of action.
One hundred yards behind our baits six or seven torpedoes approached
our lures in perfect formation. It was like fighter planes cutting
through the surface of the water, following a leader and in a straight
line toward our baits. All we could do was watch them hit and prepared
ourselves for some fishing. “Dorados”! Someone shouted, and they are
big!” In no time we were all engaged with a fish as they ran into
each other and we had to dance around the cockpit rods in hand just to
keep lines from getting tangled. In the middle of such a commotion A
huge Bull Dolphin jumped out of the water as Chuito said “one of us
just hooked a huge one, let’s take it easy, there is a lot of meat at
the end of these lines”.
So we did, we enjoyed our fights in 20 pound test
line. For a while we were all wondering who had the “big one” but it
did not take long to be clear I had the Bull.
It took me good 40 minutes to bring him to gaff,
the ladies were not as big so they gaff them and rigged again catching
another pair of cows in the 40 pounds range.
When we got home, my Bull hit the scale at 67
pounds and the average cow (we brought home four of them) was 44
pounds. I don’t remember ever catching a bigger Dolphin, I don’t
remember ever seeing one bigger although I heard of them being caught.
It is still the biggest dolphin I have ever seen.
We took a picture of me holding the fish and he
was as tall as I am, five feet five inches tall. The fork of the tail
touched my chin while the head bent at my feet.
Don Jimmy had the privilege of making fillets out
of him as he was waiting for us at the dock. I don’t think I
exaggerate when I say we must have brought back at least 100 pounds of
Mahi-Mahi fillets as thick as they get.
Lately I have done a different Dorado fishing, we
have been catching “peanuts” on spinning gear. Once aboard the
“Carolitz” (Clint’s boat) and another time aboard “Surface Interval”
(Capt. K’s vessel) off Carrabelle. I am going to be honest and I must
say I had a great time catching the “peanuts”, I think it had to do
with the company,\. Great friends like Clint, Wayne, Coach, Mel and
Kamen makes the difference.
From a series of fishing
stories submitted by Capt Tato Reyes
copyright Capt Tato Reyes
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