There are time when you catch Blue marlin with ease.... This last week was not one of those times. Blighting is a sport of patience. But when you drag lures for days and see nothing but the blazing sun, its easy to get frustrated With nothing but a sunburn to show for our efforts in two days of trolling We were getting frustrated. We could keep pounding away at it, but with calm weather predicted, we decided to change location for 2 days. We left out of San Sal Saturday morning and ran 70 miles SE to Samana island. Samana is a small island about 6 miles long with no inhabitants. We hoped to find some billfish around the island that were hungry. That afternoon we did indeed catch a white Marlin and saw a blue. Not exactly the results we were looking for but it was better than the luck we had over the past two days.
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| Sunset at Atwood Harbor |
That evening, we made our way into Attwood Harbor. Tatted harbor is a well protected little bay surrounded by shallow reefs. The entrance to the bay is aptly named Propeller cut. Once you have been thru the narrow mine field of coral heads you will understand that more than a few boats have damaged Propellers there. After your sphincter relaxes and you turn left into the deep water you will find a pretty little bay. The depths are between 3 and 25 feet and the bottom in the bay is all good for holding anchor.
By the time we had dropped anchor and got the paddle boards down off the hard top. Polly the boss's dog was beside herself. Im not sure if she was more excited to go paddle boarding or if she REALLY just had nature calling. the guys made their way to the beach and let Polly run for nearly an hour. When they returned, Matt got on his mask and fins and checked the anchor and swam around a bit while I prepared some wahoo for dinner and a wahoo sushi appetizer. Matt and I had seen a small buoy attached to something on a previous visit here. So, Matt swam to check it out. As it turns out, it is an old giant classic sailing ship anchor. I have looked around on the internet but can not find any tellings of how that old anchor got there. As the sun began to get a bit lower the doves... Yes Doves. Begin flying from the island out to a rocky cay in the bay to roost for the night. Its only about a 500 yard flight, but they make the flight quick. The reason is that there are hawks that swoop down and snatch them out of the air. Last time we were there, Matt and I witnessed a hawk come streaming from above and snatch a dove with an explosion of feathers. Sad but cool to see. I wonder how many times a year that flight plays out.
We had a great meal and relaxed with a sunset that looked like the sky was on fire. Anchoring out is one thing that we love to do while down island. Its so peaceful. There is no Sat TV, No Radio, no lights. Its just very nice to get out there and chill out.
The Next morning, We headed out and tried to find a blue marlin. We got a few tuna bites and got cut up by some wahoo but we never saw a Blue.
Yesterday we were going to take a lay day. But the fact that we were going on 4 day with out a blue marlin was eating at all of us. By noon, we were all getting pretty " mule lipped" . You start overthinking everything you are doing. You wonder what we are doing wrong. But just when It just does not look like you will ever see a blue marlin again.... Left Teaser!!!!!!!!! We had a feisty blue pile on to the bridge teaser and fade quickly back to the Left short lure. \It batted it a few times but would not eat. The boss was working a mackerel pitch bait back to him so I told Matt to Pop the Left short lure out of the clip and start reeling like crazy. It worked. Well... the marlin came rushing up and ate the lure but spit it. not once but three times. All this entire time, the boss had a mackerel bait swimming right next to the blues head. All this excitement and laughing and screaming is why we troll for four days with out a bite. Just when we thought we had blown our opportunity, The Blue came full body out of the water on the other side of the spread with the right short lure in his mouth It was a crazy fish. Matt got the boss into the stand up harness and cleared all the lines and teasers. I saw our Big giant teaser lure hanging clear of the water on the right and the dredge hanging on the left. We were all set to fight the fish. Suddenly I heard Matt yell oh crap as I heard a clunk cluck clunk from the left side of the boat. Somehow the teaser reel allowed the 4 pound lure to take line back off the reel. It dipped back into the water and got sucked into the propeller. With only one engine I could not maneuver the boat to help Steve to catch the fish. Our first Blue in Days and we were dead in the water. Steve did a great job of fighting the fish dead boat and we got the release. We were only 500 yards off the beach so I idled in on one engine into the shallows and Matt jumped in and cleared the wheel.
We have another 10 days here. Fishing has been really good or really slow. We will make the best of it though.
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