Day 1 Marathon Report

[Skolmann]

Originally we were to hit the reef for snappers & grouper but once we arrived at the boat the captain informed us that the tuna bite out on the Marathon Hump was on fire. He informed us that even though it was a 30 mile ride he would give us the same rate he quoted us for fishing the reef.

Left at first light to make bait. After a few throws of a cast net in a mangrove lined cove that provided us with close to a 1000 pilchards we headed offshore. Seas were bumpy and it took us a little over a hour. Once at the Hump we deployed a pair of spinning rods with Rapala Xraps and quickly put to a pair of #5s black fins in the box while losing another 2. By now we saw tuna blowing up and switched over to free lining pilchards while tossing handfuls of live bait chum.We were still using 7' medium/heavy Shimano Terez rods with Sargussm reels. Didn't take long and we were in .The live bait brought out the big boys as were were putting #20s in the boat. I hooked into a real nice one that used every trick in the book to free itself but after a 20+ minute fight I put a 30# class fish in the boat. Every drift produced a double header and we even had 3 triple headers. Once we burned through all the bait we headed home with 15 tuna on ice (along with several releases). On the way in we spotted a pair of mahi under some weeds. Jason grabbed a rod rigged with a Rapala shad rap and after 3 cranks was in and boats a nice #10

Tomorrow were fishing with the same charter and targeting snapper, grouper and permit.