REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Tales AND Heads

Blue Heaven at the Fuel dock at Turtle cove Turks and Caicos

Lots of Pics below the Blog

Great surf breaking at Sellars cut T&C

Wow what a great time. My son has some great stories that we will able to share and will for a long time to come.
We left Turks and Caicos on Friday morning. The swell from the north was still prominent and apparent on the reef. but after clearing the reef the swell was long and drawn out. the "period of the swells was as much as 8 to 10 seconds". You could sit a bottled water on the back of the boat and it would not slide off. The ocean surface was slick. We deployed the lines right away and trolled for 4 hours with no sign of life. Then out of no where, a blue marlin piled on the left short lure, It peeled line off the reel with no stop in sight. But as we cleared the lines, the line went slack and my hopes of catching my son a Blue were dashed. So we trolled and trolled for hours more with nothing in sight. Then as we neared the bar on the east side of East Caicos, We started a two hour battle with some big wahoo in the area. Each pass close to the edge of the reef saw a big wahoo bite. One by one our teasers started to be wittled down. The wahoo were biting thru 350 and 400 lb test. Then a real big one got a hook in its face. Patrick fought it hard but it just shook the hook. Wahoo are know to be some of the fastest fish in the ocean. They can swim in spurts up to 70 mph. No matter how fast you reel the line, When a wahoo decides to swim back at the boat, there WILL be slack line. When that happens, the hooks are easily shaken from their mouths.

Kyle wanted to jump in sooooo bad on these pretty waves

We made a few more passes and caught numerous Barracuda 3-5 feet in length. Then Patrick hooked and landed about a 60 lb fish. He was sooooo happy. and tired. We made a few more passes on the edge and got destoryed by big wahoo . All our teasers were shreaded. Then the big one hit. It stripped the line off of the 50 Tiagra reel like it was nothing. We had about 35 lbs of drag set as well. Patrick put on the Harness and the belt and knuckeled down like a pro. But about 15 minutes into the fight the fish made a blistering run. Then it stopped abruptly. I knew what had happened. Parick soon saw what had happened. A shark had clipped the wahoo off about 12 inches behind its gills in a clean bite. That was on big ass shark. The head that we got back weighed in at 40 lbs. We guestimate that the whole fish would have been 120-130 lb. I know guys that fish hard trying to break the 100 lb mark on wahoo. this fish would have shattered that. How frustrating. But it actually makes a better fish tale. ( or does it). Take a good look at the pics I have included of that Wahoo head. My son is a tall man ( 6' 5") and the head still looks big. We marveled at that fish all night long.
After fishing, we ran 15 more miles to Gran Turk Island. It is the eastern most island of the T&C. It is about 12 miles long and has no real marina. You can get fuel at a comercial dock there but there is no marina. We anchored down in 40 feet of water and took lots of pics of Patricks wahoo head and nice wahoo. After washing down the boat, we had seared wahoo sushi and got a suset that is one for the record books. About 20 minutes after the sun set, the full moon peaked over Grand Turk and iluminated the sky like a yellow torch. it was increadible. The seas were slick calm and the moon light bathed everything in a strangely romantic glow. No Kyle and I did not hold hands!!!!
Around 4 am Kyle and I pulled anchor and I steered the Blue heaven for the Mouchior bank. The bank is a shallow area south east of Grand Turk that many years ago was the hunting grounds for many whaling ships. From January till April, the wright whales come to the Mouchior ban and the Silver bank near by to calve. ( give birth and nurture their babies before heading north. Around 5:30 I happened to be looking west at the now setting full moons glow illuminating the water. I big wright whale surfased and spouted right along side of the boat. Scared the shit out of me. At sunrise I had 10 knoted to the edge of the bank. it was game on. We ended up catching a 76 lb whaoo and a 45 lb wahoo. We lost lots more and wore Patrick out on catching 4937 Barracuda. We trolled the entire rest of the way to the Dominican Rupublic all day. we saw nothing. Finally about 10 miles out, We saw some debries and caught some nice tripple tails and one mahi.
The Dominican Republic loomed up on the horizon

Giant wahoo head

Kyle struggles to lift the 40 lb head

ahead of us as we tolled south. The mountains here are enormous. I really like watching Kyle and Patrick marvel as they had never seen anything like it before. The mountains gave way to green rolling jungle on the coast as we got closer. The mountain tops we all covered in clouds that soon gave way to a tropical afternoon down pour.
The Marina we are at is pretty nice. There is a casino and restaurant or two nere as well as a pool and pool bar. They were all packed today with Dominicans celebrating the easter holiday. I tried to find a resturant that would serve me rabbit tonight but failed.
I have had such a great time having my son along on this trip. He is no longer a kid. It is weird having a rum an coke with him but he is an adult now and has grown into such a respectable young man. BUT...... I did still enjoy watching him wash the boat.
Ya know in retrospect, I wanted so bad to catch a blue marlin for my son that I actually told him this afternoon that I was sorry we did not catch him one. He turned to me and said" Are you kidding me?" "I caught more big fish than I ever expected. " And I had some great times with my little boy.