SKUNKED!!!

I got SKUNKED yesterday - not one fish on the offshore rod or the flyrod - an extremely rare event indeed. I am okay with this - 3 of the 4 fish landed on the boat yesterday (one yellowfin and two bonito) took the lures I offered, I just didn't get to reel them in. Everyone needs a little humility every now and then to keep them humble - Saturday was my humble pie eating day.

Heavy Price for Fishing

I paid up today - two lures lost to big fish. They have to win sometimes too huh? Well it didn't stop there - in total we lost another two hookups. I felt like a complete loser today. So here we go - "SHAKE-IT-OFF" - and with that, we started catching and you can see the total for the boat in the picture. Not a bad day (for us - for the one yellowfin, it was a really bad day - bitten in half by a shark is not enviable), but not as good as last weekend.

Offshore Trifecta!!!

I caught a rather large Mahi, a decent sized Wahoo and a Yellowfin Tuna on my trolling rod today. Mark White Squid Head lures - fish catching mojo!!! As a boat, we landed 3 Mahi, 3 Yellowfin, 3 Wahoo and 2 Bonitos - it doesn't get much better than this -

Another Tres Amigos

Last time I printed Yellowfin, I did three of them. I don't know why, but this time as I printed Yellowfin, I also did three of them... Steve-O asked me if "the next time I (meaning him) catch a fish, could I (meaning me) make a print for him". Of course I said 'yes'. So on Sunday I get a call in the afternoon - "Hey man - I caught a tuna - can you make a print?" Tuna being round and fat are about the hardest fish to make gyotaku out of. But hey, I'm always up for a challenge. I go over and eat lunch (sashimi and seared tuna burritos) and as I'm eating away, a couple of guys come up to me and start thanking me for the prints that I was going to make them... Mind you I've just barely met the guys. I guess what Steve-O meant to say was "can you make me and a couple other guys I'm entertaining (since they are inspecting my operation) some prints of this fish one of them caught". "Slightly" different story - SO here are the three prints I just finished - one for Steve-O and two for two guys I don't even know. Steve - I DON'T CARE WHAT ALL THE OTHER DUDES SAY - YOU'RE AWESOME!!! Dude - just kidding - no sweat on the prints. These were done in order - first was first, last was last. Short learning curve.

Yellowfin

The afternoon was spent offshore trolling.

Here's the score that the fish got on me -

On the way out I rigged three swimming lures and two squid skirts (outer positions). I then rigged another squid skirt on my heavier spinning rod. Well, that rod got a hit and I couldn't stop the run with the drag. After a minute of listening to the drag peel off braid, the fish doubled back and cut the line above the leader. I just got the lure too -

Much later in the trip, the captain saw a flock feeding - we motored over and got two simultaneous hits. Both were from the squid skirts and both were long fights. A 40+ pounder and a 25 pounder were boated and that was that. I got the smaller one with my rod/reel (which is rigged lighter that the rest of the gear on the boat).

I am happy with the way I setup the lines and build the lures - I am convinced I have a degree of OCD, but that is more to keep my mind busy and keep the learning continuous. Saturday was a good day!

Squid Skirt Magic

The lure I rigged after I got back from Hawaii 'killed' it today!!!

I took my trolling rod out in the ocean today - we trolled for a while before hooking up.

First was a 30+ pound wahoo on the subject lure.

Joe brought in another wahoo (on a Yozuri).

And Dan brought in a nice sized Yellowfin (on the mojo skirt - yeah baby!)

Another boat trip where I - yes me - brought in the biggest fish - it's the magic mojo lures!

Good weekend for fishing!!!!

Christmas Gyotaku

I made three of each yesterday - the big Wahoo and the football Yellowfin.

The Yellowfin prints are done. Two are going to friends and the other one (the one singled out in the pictures) I'm keeping for myself.

The Wahoo is raw - no improvements whatsoever.

After touching up the Yellowfin prints that were done on the shoji paper, I am going to take a different approach with the Wahoo print. I used watercolor and acrylic highlights. The watercolor was fine on the craft paper, but in the quantities needed to provide proper coverage in solid color areas, the watercolor was soaking through the rice paper. For the Wahoo, I am going to use acrylic dots to give the image of solid color.

Do not hold your breath for this - I don't think it'll be done for a few weeks. I don't want to screw this one up.

Grazing = Snacks; ? = Slabs of Tuna

If you are "grazing", you are just eating simple foods several times a day instead of eating larger meals.

So what is it called if you are eating seared tuna in the same manner (smaller chunks, spread throughout the day)?

I propose we call it "gnawing"

Three slices of the seared ahi in addition to two lightly scrambled eggs was my breakfast. I'll "gnaw" on it before and after lunch until it is gone.

For dinner tonight, I might actually cook chicken (just so I don't grow gills from eating too much fish).

Fishing Trip (Thursday)

Took a break on Thursday morning -

Dolphins (a type of spinner)

Humpbacks breeching

Wahoo - Yellowfin - Bonito

and

the Booby Crew

More Fishing Trip Pictures and the Rest of the Day

The rest of the catch -

After we got back and got the fish in the freezer, it was back to the Marina.

They had a regatta pushed back from last weekend when the weather
was a bit rough.

13 boats sailed in the race - I took first. I didn't shred my shin this time either. Right after the regatta, they held a pedal boat race - and I got pulled into that (they needed more people to even out the teams). Pedal boats are a lot of work....