Captain's Log: December 1, 2007
| December 2007 |
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| 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 |
| 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 |
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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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