Fishing Addiction Group

[Hunt anything]

Give me wahoo and dolphin with a mix in of a few tuna any day! Billfish are a waste of good fishing time unless in a tournament. IMO

 

[Trogon]

Fished Lake St Joseph in northwest Ontario with some grouse hunting buds. Personal best Northern pike was 36", walleye at 21". My boatmate and best friend from high school had a 32" pike and 24" walleye. Walleyes were generally 17" to 20". Used Johnson weedless Silver Minnow for pike, and assorted plastics on jigheads for walleye.

 

[Sourdough]

Took the new boat out yesterday with my friend Cappy. New boat's name is Huntress II. We had an excellent day fishing. From left to right; Barracuda, Mahi Mahi, Bonita, Bonita, Kingfish, Kingfish, Kingfish, Wahoo, and Wahoo.

 

[Altitude sickness]

The dolphin and Wahoo are good eating !

 

[analog_peninsula]

I just got back from a week in northern Manitoba at the Lodge at Little Duck. The fishing for pike, lake trout, and grayling was absolutely amazing. I’ve never fly fished before and I can’t tell you how many pike I caught. Lake trout in a fast river is also a blast, even on a 10 weight.

The Lodge at Little Duck

Welcome to The Lodge at Little Duck, one of the finest full service fly-in hunting and fishing lodges in Canada’s magnificent North Country

www.thelodgeatlittleduck.com

 

[Ragman]

The dolphin and Wahoo are good eating !

Being that I live in the middle of the Canadian prairies, I have only fished saltwater 5 times. Of the fish that @Sourdough has in his pic, I’ve only caught Bonita and barracuda. The barracuda I caught off oh Playa Del Carmen and the charter captain gave me one to take to a local restaurant and the would cook it for me. It was delicious!

 

[Ryan]

My summer hiking always gets me to my favorite grayling lake once or twice a summer. Got a couple yesterday.

 

[analog_peninsula]

Me dropping a grayling.

 

[Seavas]

Give me wahoo and dolphin with a mix in of a few tuna any day! Billfish are a waste of good fishing time unless in a tournament. IMO

You have that backwards, my friend!
Meat fish are fun to catch and eat but the real reason we head out to the deep blue is to see a billfish putting on a show behind the boat. You can't buy that in a grocery store.

 

[Hunt anything]

You have that backwards, my friend!
Meat fish are fun to catch and eat but the real reason we head out to the deep blue is to see a billfish putting on a show behind the boat. You can't buy that in a grocery store.

View attachment 701735

I do love to see billfish do there thing , I prefer to hook up for 20-30 minutes and watch them do their thing and then throw the hook.
Back when I was a younger man and had a functioning boat I spent around 30 days offshore a year and a billion the spread was definitely a highlight of the day!

 

[Altitude sickness]

I woke early one morning and tried to find a charter in Cabo years ago. Each charter office laughed and said they have been booked ahead for months.

In one of many charter offices I visited that morning was a gentleman from AZ that told me that he just signed over his boat to that office for them to use on charters or he would’ve taken me out.

He then said I know a guy that will take you out. And walked me over to a local that didn’t speak English and had a homemade whaler type boat. No radio, no lifejackets, no shelter. He warned me that the billfish and tuna were 18 miles out and I said I didn’t care let’s go.

When we got that far out, I realized my wife was still in bed and had no idea who I’d went with. if the motor quit. no telling where we would’ve ended up.

Once we started fishing, it was nonstop. I did not know how I was going to possibly reel in one more tuna or striped marlin.

The local Mexican I was fishing with could not speak English and my Spanish is weak. But he got his point across that he did not wanna let the largest Marlin go. He wanted me if asked to tell people that he swallowed the hook so he knocked him in the head.


When we made it back to Port, he said he would have all the tuna cut, flash frozen, and vacuum packed for me by the next morning. and kept insisting I take some of the marlin. When I met him to get my tuna, he forced some packages of the striped marlin on me.

It was far better than a tuna and wish I would’ve taken half of the marlin. Great texture and mild flavor. Not fishy at all.

Most don’t kill billfish because they take so long to mature, but this guy was so poor. He didn’t have the luxury to throw meat back in the water.

It was risky, but instead of spending a fortune and sharing the fantail with five other fisherman. I got to reel in every fish for 1/10 of the price.

 

[HookMeUpII]

Took the new boat out yesterday with my friend Cappy. New boat's name is Huntress II. We had an excellent day fishing. From left to right; Barracuda, Mahi Mahi, Bonita, Bonita, Kingfish, Kingfish, Kingfish, Wahoo, and Wahoo.

View attachment 701167

That an Albemarle?

 

[HookMeUpII]

I do love to see billfish do there thing , I prefer to hook up for 20-30 minutes and watch them do their thing and then throw the hook.
Back when I was a younger man and had a functioning boat I spent around 30 days offshore a year and a billion the spread was definitely a highlight of the day!

They provide a good show but I'm with you, here they can be a nuisance. Hasn't been the case in the last few years, but years ago, we couldn't keep white marlin off our baits. They would hit everything from a ballyhoo behind an illander, to a spreader bar meant for tuna. We'd get a few that would hook themselves on them but it mostly just caused fouled up, mangled baits, and chafed up leaders which had to be replaced. This usually happens when the water gets hot in August.

I've had a couple monster blues come up over the years. We hooked one in 2009 that had to be over 700 lbs. We fought her for 2.5 hours on a 50w before she broke the leader off on the boat. The problem with them is, when they come up and get hooked, unless you're on a minimum of an 80w, it's a very long day.

In terms of excitement, they don't put on the acrobatics, but it's hard to beat a wolfpack of 200 lb bigeye tuna coming up and crushing the baits. When you see multiple rods knocked down with 200lb+ fish, it's quite the experience.

 

[deewayne2003]

You have that backwards, my friend!
Meat fish are fun to catch and eat but the real reason we head out to the deep blue is to see a billfish putting on a show behind the boat. You can't buy that in a grocery store.

View attachment 701735

Negative sir!.... The billfish are fun but after catching 20+ in a day my first trip to Costa Rica the next trip down there was to fill the freezer.

3 day overnight FADS trip out of Quepos Costa Rica
Old pics but the total tally for this trip was......
7 Marlin (blue, white and striped)
6 Sail fish
3 wahoo
27 Yellowfin Tuna
50+ Mahi Mahi - we lost count on day 3 when our deckhand threw his shoulder out of socket and we had 3 men on the boat with multiple hooked up for over an hour.

Split fish between 3 guys and loaded up the Yetis and flew back to Texas

 

[PARA45]

Beautiful bulls!

 

[deewayne2003]

Beautiful bulls!

Thank you, actually the same fish before and after being put on ice.

 

[HookMeUpII]

Negative sir!.... The billfish are fun but after catching 20+ in a day my first trip to Costa Rica the next trip down there was to fill the freezer.
View attachment 701909
View attachment 701908
3 day overnight FADS trip out of Quepos Costa Rica
Old pics but the total tally for this trip was......
7 Marlin (blue, white and striped)
6 Sail fish
3 wahoo
27 Yellowfin Tuna
50+ Mahi Mahi - we lost count on day 3 when our deckhand threw his shoulder out of socket and we had 3 men on the boat with multiple hooked up for over an hour.

Split fish between 3 guys and loaded up the Yetis and flew back to Texas

The FAD's are a trip of a lifetime. One day I'll make it there...one day.

 

[Altitude sickness]

One heck of a bull dolphin. The color in the water is amazing.

 

[deewayne2003]

The FAD's are a trip of a lifetime. One day I'll make it there...one day.

It's only a 3.5hr direct flight from DFW and probably cost way less than the Kudu hunt in your avatar......

Just saying, some day may never come.

 

[HookMeUpII]

It's only a 3.5hr direct flight from DFW and probably cost way less than the Kudu hunt in your avatar......

Just saying, some day may never come.

We run a boat of our own out of NJ. It's tough to justify the expense when we have fuel, maintenance, insurance, etc.

The first one on my bucket list is a long-range trip out of SD. I think that's probably #1 for me.

We don't have the marlin fishing that Costa Rica and Panama does. However, our tuna fishing has been world class the last few years.