39.7 pound Bull Dolphin
This 39.7 pound bull dolphin being held by Chris Hartley of
“Hartley’s Undersea Walk” won first prize in the
6th annual Billabong’s fishing tournament. Actually, this
was the second year in a row that we won this local fishing contest.
Last year we won it with one 75 pound yellowfin tuna aboard my
boat - “the Taxman”.
This year we fished the one day Billabong’s fishing tournament
out of Hartley’s 38 foot “Dream Machine”. This
day, we landed a total of 28 dolphin + one 8# pound kingfish
- fishing between the hours of 7:30 AM and 1:15 PM on a Saturday.
We also won the grand prize for most total boat weight - all
boats - for the second year in a row! For the “boat prize”
you were allowed to weigh-in the 4 biggest fish of any species
only, but barracudas don't count.
About midday, I actually gaffed a 29 pound dolphin that I thought
Chris was fighting, but it turned out it wasn't even hooked.
That's how crazy the fishing can be down in the Exuma Sound,
40 miles from Nassau. Just another sunny, hot day in May, in
the beautiful tax free Bahamas.
8 foot Sailfish
This 8 foot sailfish was not what we were hunting for, but
he put up a great fight anyway.
While trolling our lines into a bunch of working sea birds, I
shut our engines down to try some “drift and chunk fishing”
for yellowfin tuna.
With the boat slowing down to a crawl, the starboard line went
off, and this sailfish began doing “tail walks” across
the sea. I was amazed that a sail would take a trolled bait at
this speed - as we were hardly moving more than 2 knots.
We had to quickly pull in all the other lines, and motor up again,
and chase the “sail” down, as he was about to spool
the Penn 30 International reel he was hooked up on. Afterward,
we took a few pictures and let him go.
The sail was not hooked in the mouth, but actually got the ballyhoo,
wire line and lure wrapped around his big tail. If you look closely,
you can see the red lure around his tail.
8 foot Sailfish
Alberto holding the sailfish - which we pulled out for a quick snapshot, and than released him back into the deep blue sea.
50 pound plus Bull Dolphin
Alberto is about 6 feet tall, but the big bull dolphin (also
known as “Dorado” in Hawaiian and Pacific waters) he
is holding in this picture went over 5 feet long, and a bit over
50#s (a good guess). This “Dorado” was caught this
year on June 11, 2000.
I was actually fighting another big bull dolphin for at least
10 minutes before Alberto’s huge bull dolphin picked up
a drifted squid on the surface - about thirty yards out. Both
fish performed tremendous leaps, but his “bull dolphin”
came to the boat real easy, whereas mine “sounded”
deep, and I couldn't budge him up. I later lost mine, after another
twenty minutes of struggle.
Alberto’s big bull was caught on 50# test Trilene - without
any leader. Throughout the action, I proclaimed we would never
get his fish to the boat, but the big fish swam lazily right
to the boat, and I stuck him with a long gaff.
Because there was only two of us on the boat, I had to put my
pole back in a rod holder to gaff Alberto’s fish - then
went back to try and bring mine to the surface.
Unfortunately for me, my bull dolphin ultimately spit or pulled
the hook free, and got away.
If there is a moral to be learned here; its don’t leave
your fish on the line in the water too long, as he’s able
to figure a way to get away!
We landed a total of 4 Dorado this day - but none were as big
as the one shown in the picture, or the one that got away.
Author of "Tax Havens of the World" with 75 pound Yellow Fin Tuna (YFT).
YFT are one of the toughest fighting fishes in the ocean,
and can grow to a maximum of about 320 pounds.the one in the
picture is probably only about 3 to 4 years old.
We don't see giant 200 pound YFT around Nassau, even though the
water depth where this one was caught was around 6,000 feet.
YFT almost always head straight down when you hook one up, and
trying to stop a 75 pounder (by pushing the drag lever up) on
his first run is foolish, and a surefire way of losing him. Drags
on reels should be set just tight enough to hook him, or the
YFT will pull your hook or break your line.
The one in the picture took about 50 minutes to land on 50 or
80 pound Berkley Trilene Big Game test line.
Adventure story - true... click on below
