Then we hopped aboard Sealegs and drove off to Kai-Aura. It was just like I remembered from my deckhand experience. We climbed onboard and got the safety briefing. Then we received the game plan for the day. My brain only really woke up when Cameron told us that our first stop was the Mackerel grounds. With that Cameron disappeared into the upstairs wheelhouse and started the engine. I went into the wheelhouse as well because the view from there is better than the ground floor. After we were out of the mooring area Cameron opened the throttles and we sped along to the Mackerel grounds.
After an hour we reached the Mackerel grounds. Cameron put some lures on a rod for me and a rod for Alan. Then we set off trolling through the grounds. After 5 minutes Alan hooked up and I wound in my lure. 3 minutes later Alan had a nice 1 metre Spanish Mackerel on the boat. Then we started trolling again. Again Alan hooked a 1 metre Spanish Mackerel. After it was landed it was killed and bled as well. On the third run I received a big strike. I yelled out and Cameron stopped the boat. I fought the fish for about 2 minutes. Then I had the biggest Mackerel of the lot on the boat. It was about 1.1 metres long and snapped violently at everything around it. As Alan was winding in his lure, a small, 50 cm Mackerel got his lure and he wound it in fast. Then a shark came and took it. Alan snapped it off and wound in his line.
Then we drove to the bottom bouncing grounds. Once we arrived at the bottom bouncing grounds we baited up and dropped our lines down. I felt some nibbles but had to leave them. You have to lift your rod and if the rod bends you've got a fish on. Then you reel it in as fast as possible so that the sharks don't get it. We lost all the bigger fish because they fight and we couldn't get them up fast enough. I was onto a good fish at one point and I just couldn't beat the sharks. Suddenly my rod bent right over and the reel screamed as the shark swallowed my fish whole and took off. After a minute Cameron saw the Shark was showing no sign of slowing down and snapped it off by tightening the drag. We also had to be careful because the sharks were swimming under the surface and had a habit of eating our 20 ounce sinkers. After 3 drifts we had enough fish and we headed north to the Sailfish grounds.
Sailfishing is the most interesting and exciting form of fishing in the world. Two, 3 metre long fibre glass rods that are about 3 cm thick and have rope through the runners are held out over the water in big rod holders. Attached to the rope is a wire trace with things called Teasers on the wire trace. These are plastic things like plastic squid and attractor floats and other stuff with tentacles. These are let out on both sides of the boat. The last teaser is actually a real Queenfish tied on and it swims in the water with a lifelike action. The Queenfish is dead because it's gutted and stitched back up again. Cameron steered form the top of the flybridge and kept a close eye on the teasers.
After about half an hour Cameron saw a big Sailfish move in and yelled out "Sail on the left!" Alan and Dad didn't move quickly enough so Cameron flicked his bait to the Sailfish. It moved in and stunned the already dead bait with it's bill. Then Cameron dumped the bait and the Sailfish ate it. Then he flicked the bail arm on the reel over and the Sailfish hooked itself. It turned and swam in the opposite direction to the boat while the line peeled off the reel. Cameron put the boat in reverse and gave the rod to me. The Sailfish was still running strong. Then Cameron rushed to the bottom deck and I passed the rod down to him. Then I rushed down and put on my gimbal. When you hook a fish and it's big you tend to jam the rod into your waist and after several fish you get a big bruise, so people have invented a gimbal. It's a triangular shaped pad that goes over your waist and you clip the rod into the gimbal. Then I took the rod and started fighting the Sailfish.
I was fighting a 25 kilo Sailfish on 10 kilo line. The only way to land it was to reverse the boat and I took up the line. That didn't stop the Sailfish from fighting hard though. The Sailfish performed a few spectacular leaps for us but Mum didn't get a photo. My left arm was getting sore from pulling the rod up and whenever the Sailfish ran I gave my left arm a rest. After a good 10 minutes I had the Sailfish close to the boat. Then Cameron told me that I had to fight it by myself for the last 20 metres. He stopped the boat and I fought the fish for a further 2 minutes. Then Cameron grabbed the Sailfish by the bill and lifted it onboard.
It jumped around for a few seconds and then lay still. Dad put on a glove and grabbed its bill and I grabbed the tail. Then we lifted it up for a photo. The Sailfish was very heavy. I told Mum to take the pictures quickly. Then we put the Sailfish down and Cameron 'swam' it. When you swim a Sailfish you grab it by the bill and and drag it in the water behind the moving boat. When the Sailfish starts biting your hand you let it go and it swims away. The reason you let them regain their oxygen is so that the sharks don't get them. Then we put out the teasers again and motored for another hour. We didn't see any Sailfish or Marlin so we pulled in the teasers and motored at top speed closer to shore. Then we put out the teasers again. No Sailfish was seen so we pulled in the teasers and motored back to Ganthium Point. When we arrived we jumped aboard Sealegs and motored back to shore.
Today wasn't really a surprise because when I was out as a trainee deckhand Cameron told me that Dad had booked a private charter. Then he remembered that he wasn't supposed to tell me and told me to act surprised when Dad told me. Once we arrived back at the shore I put some Mackerel fillets in the fridge and then we drove back to the caravan. Once we arrived I started writing the blog. Then we had dinner. Fro dinner we had some Mackerel filets with potatoes. It tasted great. After dinner we had dessert. For dessert we some more mangoes and ice cream. After that I went to bed.
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