DORADO DAZE..............
Sat Jul 9 was way to rough to do any boating, so we went Jeepin".
But Sunday Jul 10 was RATHER eventful.....
We loaded up and hit the water around 11 AM, at the harbor mouth we put a 210 heading into the autopilot and did a twenty mile run with 88.9 degree water temp, 99 degree air temp and 99% humidity. Once we hit the 100 foot depth zone we started looking for a good current line. In a short time we found one, did a left turn, deployed the Rupp Top Guns, tipped them off with one green and one red feather jig and started chuggin'. Our current line was spectacular, a greasy slick band 100 feet to the right and a solid line of Sargasso to the left. After an hour and a half of absolute zero action we started seeing groups of tuna birds: Bonaparte's Gulls, Petrels and Shearwaters following splashers in the rougher water to the left of the Sargasso. We pulled in the jigs and geared up a spinning outfit with a silver Castmaster with a white bucktail on the end and a Gamakatsu stinger on the nose.
The birds were following small groups of two foot Dorado that were chasing dragonfly sized Flying Fish. We did a "run-n-gun" on a dozen groups but didn't get a single taker other than a Shearwater that did a dive, came up with the spoon in his mouth and took off. I yanked it out of his mouth and when it hit the water another one picked it and took off with it. We played this game for a few minutes when my capitan yells to me that there is a big gull sitting on a Sargasso paddy a half mile out. So we do a stealthy run over to it and see a big Herring Gull sitting in the middle of a ten foot wide paddy with a Brown Boobie at each end with their heads in the water.
So, I toss the Castmaster at the paddy and let it drop. I get an instant hookup on the drop and can hardly get the bail flipped by the time I've spooled off at least 100 feet of 20 pound mono. I play the fish for ten minutes or so until the rod is bent over directly below the boat. I look over the side and see what looks like a swirling ball of seven or eight blue and silver sardines down below. Just then I realize that it's a group of DoDo's at least fifty or sixty feet down below beating the shit out of the one with my Castmaster in his mouth. I finally get him in the boat, just a peanut-sized 18 incher but my dinner date for later that evening. I get ready to pitch the lure back to the paddie but take a look over the side to see a dozen or more fish circling the boat. Talk about "shooting fish in a barrel", this is just too easy. The fish seemed to be putting on a show for us. One would grab the lure and do a dive then go airborne a hundred feet away. It would toss the lure and the instant it hit the water another one would grab it and dive, twenty seconds later that one would go airborne, toss the lure and another one would grab it.
Now, I must admit that I have a well proven trick applied to the hull of my boat, it is an artificial "bait ball" that consists of around a hundred or so five inch long very lifelike blue and black vinyl sardines that keep DoDo's up close to the boat. We finally pulled up to the paddie and could see few hundred small fish, mostly juvenile Sergeant Majors, Pilot Fish, some bronze colored Triggers and a lot of bronze colored swimming crabs huggin' the safety of the paddie which is why the gull was sitting on top and the boobies were on the sides. The school would move from the paddy to my boat and then rush back to it when we drifted away.
I don't even remember how many hook-ups I had, but in an hour or so my hands and arms were cramping up from the heat, dehydration and strain. We kept our fair share of fish a headed back to Pelican Point for a grouper or two. Fishing along the rocks was almost impossible due to the amount of Sargasso in the water so we quit and headed back to RP.
All in all I must say that the waters off of RP are just teaming with Dorado and there is more Sargasso than I've seen in years.
Tight lines...................
JJ
