12/09/14

About as perfect an outcome as one and all could ever hope for. We arrived at our first destination to find a spot or two of eager wahoo ready to get down and bite. We arrived at our second destination and encountered a mother lode volume of wahoo that I have not seen in very many years. And while the first round had a few spicy moments, round two defined everything one has ever heard about complete fishing insanity associated with wahoo. Even the veterans today were treated to something special and rare. This caliber of wahoo fishing just doesn't happen that often.

I have detailed the tragic humor of the characteristic wahoo "train wrecks" before. Usually tragic because they result in missed opportunities that can not be replaced today it did not matter. When four or five hooked fish would get wiped out by a heathen liberator ripping down the side or under the boat turning the unfortunate, helpless, trailing angler's line into a hundred yard long streaming razor blade, anglers on the losing end of the exchange simply re-rigged and hooked another. While a little costly in the tackle department those occasional mishaps after the first few stops today elicited nothing more than whoops and laughs.

Perhaps the best example, among the multitude of crazy events that occurred today, is when another of the Canuck contingent, first time long range angler Roy Kirby, was grinding in his first "skin" of the afternoon hooked on the troll. Line trailing out perfectly behind the boat roughly twenty yards with the fish gradually giving way another wahoo, chasing a lure being retrieved by angler Rich Ellis off the stern corner, takes to the air in a champion, at least twenty foot long leap, maybe longer. Right in front of God and everybody the leaping bastard, jaws agape in route to the rapidly moving lure, intersects perfectly with Roy's line about fifty feet ahead of the hooked fish. And that was the end of Roy's fish, and marauder; instantaneously gone. At least in this exchange Rich administered some justice; the jail breaker was hooked and apprehended and is now on his way at 30 degrees Fahrenheit to San Diego; but not before justifying his sacrifice.

I could write a volume about the sights and experiences of today alone, and perhaps someday I will, but for now suffice it to say that we departed our final long range destination ebullient, sated, and satisfied. It's a very special occasion these day's when anglers get the chance to pull up a chair at the wahoo table and eat 'till they're full. Sweet dreams were made today, and relived tonight; a day to remember in all respects.

Photo number one today features another of the Northern Contingent Blair Barr who valiantly battled through heavy casualties to triumph over this dandy forty five pound class skin. Photo number two features long time Royal Star master angler Jeff Cox with one of his many beauties landed during the adventure. Jeff had a vision frozen in time today when a jumbo wahoo flew about fifteen feet out of the water chasing a surface iron that I was retrieving. The big skinny was coming straight at Jeff but fortunately crashed into the side of the hull rather than castrate him by clearing the rail. Had I not stopped winding the jig about fifteen feet away from the boat, a standard wahoo fishing precaution, the tale told might have been different. But it wasn't, and we got a good laugh out of it. For certain it's a sight Jeff will forever remember.

Tim Ekstrom

Photo Here...
Photo Here...