Second Spot - Second Chance

I picked up and went back to the spot I was casting at yesterday. I tied on a bread fly and on the first cast, I brought up this feisty big eyed trevally. I focused on getting my timing down on my double haul and also tried more to feel the rod loading. Some of my best and longest casting to date! I saw a few needlefish too, but they weren't interested in the bread fly or the green scud I later tied on (although darts, snapper and some small BFTs certainly were). Over six hours flyfishing today -

Saturday Morning Flyfishing

Well - the flies I tied all caught. I pinched the barbs down and releasing the fish was simple as can be. I caught the typical hawkfish, snapper, and small darts, but then found a spot that I saw a bunch of mullet swimming on the surface. I cast various flies over the school and then pulled in a few Big Eyed Trevally and a huge Dart - the biggest one I've caught. I saw a couple of bigger Blue Fin Trevally, changed out to a gummy minnow, but I wasn't stripping the line fast enough for them to take.

Post Work Fishing

The fellas (Rod and Steve) and I left work regular time today (for once right???!!!!).

We headed straight for the marina and took out a Mako. We headed south for the normal trolling spot and dragged squid skirts around for a bit. We only had an hour total so we had to be picky where we went.

We didn't get one bite.

That is until we were headed back in.

We drove over this school of Big Eyed Trevally. None of them hit the lures. The picture shows them pretty clearly, but the school was really big - just weren't hungry.

Then we said "heck - do another pass"

The middle line (medium heavy spinning rod that lost the other squid lure this weekend) started singing as line peeled off the reel.

The fish just kept taking line and made a beeline for the shore. I was finally able to stop it with the drag. It jumped and showed a long silhouette and dark shading. After five or so minutes of fighting, it jumped again - I thought it was a tarpon.

I finally reeled it in to the boat - five foot barracuda - as thick around as my upper thigh.

The three of us stood there wondering how we were going to get the hook out of its mouth. I definitely wanted my lure back...

The big guy solved the problem for us by finally biting through the leaders aft of the lure head.

This was one that got away - but to everyone's benefit!!!

Awesome pre-dinner fight!