Captain’s Log: Entry
140, December 1, 2007
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Today was the final day of the Flor De Caña
Billfish Tournament. After a tough day of fishing
yesterday, we had our fingers crossed that the wind would
lay down. The forecast showed that it would, but at first
light this morning you could feel it starting to blow. At
our debriefing last night, we decided that we would start
fishing a little bit closer inshore and try to keep our
lines wet as long as possible. The idea was to fish our
way offshore with the wind and hopefully get a shot at a
billfish. There was no way I was going to beat up our team
like I did yesterday. With so few fish caught yesterday
(and no marlin), all you would need was one good shot and
you could be in the money. At the 6am start, we cruised
out to around 25 miles and dropped our spread. It started
to get windy, but we were able to zig-zag our way down
wind and fish effectively. The water color was not the
best, but we got a few Dorado bites and got a decent one
in the box. With the amount of time we had, and the speed
we were trolling, I estimated we would get out to the
“zone” and still have a few hours to fish. On the radio,
it seemed everyone was having about the same luck as us, a
couple of fish, but nobody was stroking them. A little
before 1:00pm at about 49 miles offshore, we spotted a
large group of birds working small baits that bonita were
pushing to the surface. It felt really “lurking” and we
trolled the zone until the bite settled down.
Unfortunately we did not raise anything except a couple of
Dorado, but you could sense the presence of some sea
monsters! A mile and a half offshore of us, I noticed two
large boats circling in one general area. It looked like
the Rum Runner, but we were too far away to tell for sure.
We worked our way over there, and sure enough it was the
Rum Runner. Our good buddy Captain Joey Crawford runs the
Rum Runner for Carlos Pellas (owner of Flor de Caña).
Carlos just got the new Rum Runner, a 68 foot, fresh off
the line Viking. Anyway, when Joey saw us, he signaled to
stay with him because he just marked some bait that he was
sure was holding some billfish. The Rum Runner is equipped
with a state-of-the-art side scanning sonar that is
ridiculously expensive, so I knew this is where it was
going to go down. Don Carlos and his boys got a kick out
of seeing the little Va Pue hanging tough 55 miles
offshore circling a bait pod alongside his massive Viking.
We could see him and his boys throwing back cold Flor De
Caña rum drinks and dancing around in the cockpit. I could
just feel the presence of some serious fish nearby. At
this point it was well after 2:00pm and we were running
out of time if we were going to make the 5:00pm deadline.
The wind had laid down, but there was still going to be a
head wind with some nice chop the whole way back. The Va
Pue could only cruise at a little over 20mph in these
conditions. I was just wishing we had a faster boat that
would let us fish out there a little bit longer. I
reluctantly made the call to the team, and we pulled up
our spread and headed in. As we left, I knew Joey would be
able to fish another 45 minutes and still make it back in
time. I was just dreaming of being in a 31 foot Contender
and hanging tough until the last possible minute and then
flying in at 40 knots. We cruised back and about a mile
from the Marina, we could see the Rum Runner flying up
behind us. It was a crazy site seeing a 68 foot boat come
roaring up your stern! We made it back to the Marina and
went and weighed in our massive 17 pound dolphin (hee, hee)!
Then we realized how close we came to having a shot at
winning the tournament. After talking to Joey, it turns
out that 10 minutes after we picked up and left they got a
Sailfish hookup and then lost it. Instinctively, Joey
swung around on the spot again and then got a huge
surprise. A 200+ lb Marlin ate one of their baits and then
charged into the spread to try and eat another bait.
Carlos hooked the fish, and after a 15 minute battle they
got the leader for the official release and the tournament
win! Joey said that he could still see us on the horizon
when they hooked the fish! Well, that’s fishing! We were
super amped that our buddies on the Rum Runner nailed down
the win and kept the Toyota Cup in Nicaragua! This meant
that it was going to be a big night of partying! Top
honors went to the Rum Runner with one Marlin, one
Sailfish, and three Dorado. Second went to Paco Saca on
the Sandy-ita from El Salvador, and our good buddy Gabriel
Fernandez on the Super Fly was able to nail down third
place. The awards ceremony was insane. Carlos had Flor De
Caña girls, belly dancers, bands, singers, tournament
video, an insane buffet, and all the rum you could drink!
It was an awesome night and a great tournament. We all got
loaded and woke up with some sweet hangovers! We had to
throw in a shot of Brodie and Jeff, because they got so
wasted, neither one of them wanted to sleep on the floor,
and both of them ended up crashing on the fold out bed!
Sorry guys, I had to throw that picture in there!!! We
would like to thank Carlos Pellas and all of the other
sponsors for a great tournament and we can’t wait to get
back next year!!!
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