Trawler Fishing

 As fall has arrived, we have been anxious to get some quiet weather for offshore fishing.  Fall tends to be better for fishing as the water cools off.  Fish appear to prefer slightly cooler temperatures (I agree with them).  This week we finally had the winds lay down for a few days, so we made a mad dash out to the Gulf Stream Tuesday October 6th.

Ocracoke Lighthouse at dawn as we headed out to fish

The seas were a little lumpy during the first part of the day, but bearable.  As usual, I drove the boat so Capt. Keith could fish.  Our starting spot was to be the "triple zeros" (an old Loran spot in the gulf stream about 30 miles out).  When we first arrived and started to fish, we did not see anyone else around.  Keith and I began to think maybe we needed to pick a different spot.  It was not long however until friend and professional fisherman Stevie Wilson on his boat "Dream Girl" showed up.  Now we knew we had  to be in the right place.

Stevie on " Dream Girl" with first mate Josh and their charter guests

Because we have been getting more and more into fishing, we purchased a fish bag just in case we hooked up with something to big to fit into our cooler.  Below is the fish bag we found on Amazon.  It was well worth it, as we put it to good use.  You can see how it compares in length to the cooler (much bigger fish can fit into the bag than the cooler).

Southern Style hooked up with a small blackfin tuna and a nice 25 lb wahoo.  Here they are in our fish bag on ice.

Keith with the wahoo

Close-up of the blackfin tuna.  He was small but tasty.

This was our first North Carolina wahoo.  We caught two in the Bahamas last winter, but this was the first one here in the states.  It was quite exciting to get one.  I have now got a ton of wahoo steaks in my freezer.  We had such as good time fishing Tuesday, that we went out again on Wednesday, October 7th.  No wahoo that day but several skip jacks ( a type of tuna), one blackfin tuna, and the highlight; a sailfish.

Leaving again at the crack of dawn.

Lighthouse and Ocracoke Island

Other early-birds on the point at Ocracoke Inlet as we went out the inlet channel.

Sunrise from Southern Style Wednesday morning as we head out to the Gulf Stream.

Nice and calm this morning.

Now on to the fish pictures.  Keith and I were so excited to have had the opportunity to land a sailfish.  It is a pretty big deal.  Keith can get a citation certificate for the catch.

Here  comes the sailfish toward the boat as Keith was reeling it in.

We had to get the sailfish onto the swim platform of the boat for Keith and I  to get the hook out of him.  Sailfish are not really commercially fished or used for meat in the states. They are typically a catch and release species. We did it as fast as we could and set him loose.  His right eye got bumped in the process, but he seemed to swim off OK.  We hope he does well.  He measured 57" long.

Sailfish are a type of billfish.  They are in the same class as marlin and swordfish.  Billfish are apex predators.  They eat smaller fish and marine cephalopods.  They live in deep waters using a specialized swim bladder allowing them to descend to great depths (up to 1,150 feet) to hunt.  They are also migratory generally living in tropical to subtropical waters.  They are of course best known for their long bills, called a rostrum and large dorsal fin called its sail..  The bill can be used to hit and stun prey.  Sailfish are considered the fastest fish in the ocean, able to swim up to 70 mph.  They can live 13-15 years and grow to 11 feet in length and up to 200 lbs.  

This is a picture from the internet of a sailfish in the water

It was a great 2 days of fishing this past week.  Even through our boat is not really a fishing boat, it has done a wonderful job for us.  Even the professional sportfish boats here in Ocracoke have given us respect and help with our fishing.  We have made many fantastic friends and learned so much from them.  Normally when you catch and release a billfish, you fly a white flag from your boat for all to see as you return to the marina.  We did not have one, but one of the professional sportfish boats even offered to tie one to a marker in the inlet for us to pick up on the way back in.  We thanked them for their kind offer but declined so as not to have them go out of their way.  How kind of them though.  It really made us feel good.