Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/5601/-1/140/
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Exceptional Seas, Exceptional Catch And An Exceptional Sighting
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Tuesday: Fisherman Patrick had a good day fishing and landed 38 Dolphinfish, a beautiful 35-pound Wahoo, and several small striped tuna fish. The total catch weight nearly 300 pounds and forced an early return to the dock and Island Harbour. He simply maximized his ultra-cold storage containers and ice supply and was obliged to head home shortly after lunch time.
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Exceptional Catch
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The Dolphinfish were frenzied, as they swarmed the boat. That left no time to unhook the hooks, so Patrick had to cut the nylon lines and rapidly tie and bait more hooks again. Working as many as six hand lines simultaneously, the hook, fight and catch acrobatics were a combination of endurance and athleticism. Upon his return and while organizing the catch, Patrick was overheard saying, with a bright smile (thanks to Doctor Connor), “Some days are just fishing, and some days are fishing and catching.” Good work for a Tuesday, Patrick.
On Saturday: A very late 8:30 am start (Patrick overslept) began another fantastic and more interesting day with better preparation for catching. Patrick had doubled the quantity of ice and storage containers, making sure that his prior limitations would not be duplicated. After heading out in the glassy waters, several fishing locations were explored for Dolphinfish without success outside and around the Anguilla Bank. In the North near Little Bank, a fabulous Wahoo strike sent one of the larger reels screaming, but the fish was never properly hooked. However, it looked as if the moon, sun, stars and tides had aligned for a great Wahoo day, when the sun glinted on something to the North and caught Patrick’s attention. His seafaring instincts took over to explore “whatever” it was that he saw. He wrapped up the large, 12-naught reel, followed by the smaller, yet heavily rigged rod and reel sets, quickly before the object fell from the horizon to the North. There was a large super tanker steaming eastward proximal to the “glint” on the horizon that was proving to be a perception/deception between the ship and the “glint.”
Motoring north at a quick pace, the object’s reflection steadied, and it soon became clear and distinct. On inspection, the object appeared to be a Japanese long-line float with a tall aluminum pole attached to a small floatation apparatus. Atop the aluminum pole was a multifaceted radar reflector affixed so that a mother vessel or fish factory ship could track the device with ordinary radar. The “glint” source had been the radar reflector and could easily be spotted with the naked eye at seven or eight miles. It bears mentioning that anything drifting in the ocean tends to attract fish and often, a large menagerie of fish will colonize drifting flotsam, such as this float. In this instance, the apparatus may have been drifting for a few months, as evidenced by the submerged portion and the minimal amount of barnacle growth. The location might very well have placed foreign commercial fishing activities in or near protected Anguilla territory.
Additionally, there was a lone Frigate bird, known hereabouts as a Man O’ War, which was apparently following something close to the water, as the boat approached the floatation pole. Then, near the bird was a colorful swarm of blue and green fish flashing in the water, a big bed of rather large Dolphinfish darting about. All fishing activities ensued, as the larger fish readily attacked the baited hand-lines, and fish after fish was systematically caught and boated. This frenetic activity lasted until about 15 Dolphinfish had been caught, but ultimately the nuisance fish, Old Wives, were likewise attracted to the frenzy and began to compete for the bait. Old Wives fish have very small mouths and can snatch the bait from a hook without harm or consequence to the fish. Regrettably, there were hundreds and hundreds of hungry Old Wives, and it became a targeting challenge to toss the bait to the circling Dolphinfish before the Old Wives overwhelmed the bait.
Patrick made the decision to check another fishing spot and allow the frenetic activity to subside in hopes that the Old Wives would move back toward the floatation apparatus, so he could return later when the fish might be more settled and easier to catch. After wasting an hour or so, he returned to the drifting floatation device, hopeful for better luck. Upon returning, the nuisance fish quickly swarmed the boat, necessitating a different fishing tactic to continue to catch the many Dolphinfish that were likewise ready and willing to bite. Patrick therein invented a new fishing method (now his secret intellectual property!) that proved successful by catching another 15 large fish.
Remarkably, throughout this spate of luck, there was a giant fish gliding around and under the boat. Unidentified by Patrick at the moment, it appeared to be a rare Whale Shark. These fish are less common in the Eastern Caribbean than the Western Caribbean. Although it was the same size as a whale, the creature never came to the surface to breathe. Thus, Patrick concluded that the Buick-sized monster was a fish and not a mammal. Strangely, the massive fish did not appear to be in the least fearful of the boat, nor was the large congregation of fish fearful of the massive creature, as they mingled and swam in a rather tight pod around the boat. The monster had none of the typical darting, sharklike characteristics. Instead, it lumbered along slowly and smoothly, as if it was only mildly drawn toward the fishing activities.
Confirmed later the next day with further research, the Whale Shark is reported to be curious, slow, and basically, a filter-feeder that eats fish roe when other fish spawn (as in this instance hanging around very large populations of fish); they also dine on some very small fish, and certainly plankton. Whale Sharks are believed to be the world’s largest living fish that evolved about sixty millions years ago. Reports of Whale Sharks up to 50 feet and 80,000 pounds have been made, but this critter was more the size of a Buick sedan, closer to 18 feet long and 12,000 pounds as an estimate.
Later, another try for Wahoo proved successful at the exact same spot where the first fish fired on the bait, another big Wahoo was hooked. The icing on the cake for this spectacular fishing day was that this beauty was landed and weighed in at about 30 pounds. In addition, on the way back to Anguilla, Patrick spotted a school of small Blue fin tuna churning the water, and two were quickly and simultaneously caught.
A Wahoo and some Dolphinfish were taken by Veya Restaurant, as Chef Carrie is exceptionally knowledgeable and skilled in preparing sashimi-grade fish as a gourmet treat for her patrons. Ultra fresh, highly prized sashimi-grade fish can be distinguished easily from ordinary fish and are esteemed throughout the world. As many fish buying patrons and readers know, Patrick uses sashimi-grade catch and preservation techniques with the ultra-strong fighting game fish: Wahoo, as well as large Blue fin and Yellow fin tuna.
Thus, Patrick’s Tuesday catch was around 300 pounds, and his Saturday catch was closer to 400 pounds (due to much larger fish than were caught on Tuesday), nearly 700 pounds of fish; but Saturday, was a rare day, having not only caught a mess of fish, but also having shared the waters with a magnificent specimen of the largest fish in the sea, proved delightfully memorable.