For a lot of people fishing is a competitive sport.  All one has to do is see the amount of time, money and energy that goes into some of the big fishing tournaments.  And was there ever a fishermen who never felt the competitive need to stretch the size of his catch in telling a story? (Other than yours truly, of course…)

But this kind of competition is new to me!  Around the reefs here, the sharks have the game all figured out.  As soon as I show up in the dinghy, there they are… two or three 5 to 6 footers shadowing me.  Waiting…

Yesterday I was two for three.  I landed two small fish–small enough I could get them on board right away.  When I hook something a bit bigger that I couldn’t muscle right up to the boat…  my competition was all over it.  He grabbed the head, cutting the line instantly with his teeth, and then leisurely came back to scarf down the back half of MY fish as it slowly sank toward the bottom.  Of course the water is so clear you can see all this going on under your boat.  Not sure yet how I am going to work around this…

Today was a calm and quiet day, so we took Harmonie out in the ocean to try some deep fishing for snapper and grouper.  I had no luck there, but while we were drifting, there was a flash of blue, green and gold in the water.  So bright, you’d swear it reflected more light than landed on it.  Mahi!  I grabbed a spinning rod with a white jig, and had him right away.  

It was a lot of fun landing him on lighter tackle than the heavy trolling gear where we usually hook them. He put on quite an aerial show.

Fresh Mahi-Mahi for dinner!