Report submitted by 'Oz'
|
Nyati Offshore Report
North Padre Island, TX
August 10-12th, 2007
|
Please visit our Sponsors
|
We headed out late Friday with the goal (as it has been the entire
summer) trying to land a Swordfish. We get out and reach our deep water
destination around midnight and hope to get some baits out before the morning
troll. Upon our arrival we notice several other boats that were fishing the
Legends Tournament and also targeting the Swords. Unsure of what we should
do we set up and get some baits out anyway. The water was very calm, with
no wind nor moon. There was a bit more bait activity then there was the weekend
before at the floaters. Flyers and squid were quite present. After a couple
slow deep drops for freaks and Tilefish the majority of the crew went to
get some rest for the morning. Brandon and I continued to hang in and keep
the baits out.
During one of the longer drifts we see a few fish in the lights...
mostly Blue Runners and other bait-like creatures chasing the Flying fish.
Then something catches a glimpse of my eye and I look at the edge of the
lights to see a billfish slashing flyers on the surface. To the best of my
recollection at the time it appeared to be a Sailfish. I then sight casted
a live bait to it with the Saltiga and after just a couple of seconds it
gets blasted... HOOK UP! It starts leaping and thrashing on the surface and
jumps towards the boat and hangs in the beam of the underwater light just
long enough to see that it is actually a Swordfish! Not being able to speak
in a sentence properly at that moment, the fish then dives down and Brandon
goes in to wake Gabe and Skipjack up. After about 5 more minutes I get the
fish back to the surface and is subdued by Gabe. The boats first official
Sword!!
A sight-casted Swordfish.... And quick pic before the release
The rest of the early morning the winds and seas were near absolute
0, and too calm. As the sun came up we began trolling. Things still remained
quite slow.
After a while Skipjack Sr. nails gets hooked up and lands a nice Wahoo
Jay soon lands a cow Dorado
Things still remained very slow. The weather system was screwing
us. But we kept at it. With very little activity we trolled a lot of area
with minimal results. We trolled the remainder of the day and then headed
back to our Sword spot around sunset.
We start early with the Sword baits and begin to make some drifts.
We noticed an abundance of squid showing up. A good sign. Bang out a couple
of deepwater Hake and continue to maintain baits. Gabe and I were on the
deck for a new drift putting baits out and I notice one of the floats break
free from one of Scott's baits. I figure it had been hit and bring it in
too check the bait while there is a bit of resistence, we get it to the surface
to see there is a small Sword on!! It tries to thrash and slash but this
cocktail Sword is no match for an 80W. Gabe leaders the fish and we get our
second Sword in 2 nights! Nite after night of blanking, persistence finally
pays off... watch out Andrea Gail!
We get baits back out for another drift and after a while one
of the live baits gets nailed. BIG SWORD is what ran across our minds and
Gabe gets the rod and carefully sets the hook and we get him in the chair.
Being stubborn we still weren't sure what we were dealing with
but all preparations for a large Sword were taken. After a decent battle
over about 20-25 minutes Gabe gets the fish up and we see it is a..... Hammer??
Perhaps the largest Scalloped Hammer i've ever seen, Gabe carefully fights
but could have put the 'Hammer' down on him if we known it was a shark.
Regardless, it is good practice for a future big sword situation and Gabe
gets a release on his biggest Hammer thus far.
While not a sword, it is a beautiful fish and released to make its way to
a beach near you.
The guys duke it out for a couple more hours but things go slow
as the seas and wind die down flat again. I then hang for the remainder of
the night keeping baits out and deep dropping for freakfish. I start to hammer
a deepwater Hake or two on about every drift.
The rest of the early morning gets slow and get the gear ready
for sunrise and the troll. We start early and after about a half hour Sam
gets hooked up on a nice Dorado but is lost close to the boat before we can
stick him. We continue to troll and at some point of our trollathon we get
what the guys think was a nice White Marlin that came slicing through picking
up a lure in the spread and crossing a couple lines. Depending on how you
look at it, fortunately it spit the hook thus in avoiding a major cluster
****. We continue to troll on and SJ Sr. nails another 'hoo.
With things being too quiet, we troll our way in and hit up
one of the only weedlines around and pickup some 'chickens'. We then move
inshore a bit and with things continue to being slow we decide to finish
the day bottom fishing for an hour or so. We see a trail of dead snapper
behind one of the party boats on the rocks and knew it couldn't be a good
sign. However, Gabe did bang out a couple of Snaps and we all got to see
a Sailfish breach next to the boat a few times. After a slow day we make
our way back towards home and hit the jetties right around sunset. Overall
it was a interesting trip we finally were able to land our first Sword(s)
on the Nyati. Thanks YT and crew and everyone who took some killer pics including
Skipjack, Gabe, and Sam... thanks all for another fun trip on the open ocean
with the Nyati! We may be at home next weekend partying it down if a tropical
system heads this way.... on the other hand, watch out Andrea Gail, here
we come!
Bonus Creatures of the Deep UPDATE:
Here is a few pics of some more deepwater creatures... first
is a underwater pic of a mystery fish from I think the Jack family that we
can't quite identify... and some others we've got the last month including
some super-squid the new pending State and IGFA All-Tackle world record Roudi
Escolar from a few weeks ago.
Good luck and see you on the sand (err water).
- Oz
POST
your comments about this Report in the EC FORUMS!!
[BACK to
Reports]
|
