JoeyM

we were almsot scared off by the forecast of scattered showers and thunderstorms. i am sure glad we decided to go. besides the pea soup thick fog off of jamestown, the rest of the ride out was nice. 2-3 ft seas, cruising at 30 knots. left dock at 4:30.

original plans to head out to the tails to a temp break at the SW wall. we made it to about 15 miles of there on the northwest flats, when we spotted a nice big sportie acting eratic.

we slowed up to take a better look and found the area to be filled with whales. we still were thinking of not stopping and continuing on til we saw what the sportie was hooked up with. maybe 150 yards away from us (maybe half the distance from us to the big sportie) we see a huge marlin greyhounding. the thing was going nuts, and made several jumps at full speed covering 50 yards in a matter of seconds, at times maybe 5 ft out of the water. the big sportie was backing up as fast as he could.
so, lines go in (its around 8 am).

long story short, the big sportie, who we ended up talking to on the radio, lost the approx 300 lb marlin at the leader. he estimated it at 300 lb, but i think it looked bigger.

we worked the area filled with whales and manage two yellows. one about 25 lbs, and one about 40. we are the only two boats there. things slow up and we troll towards the tails. by then its about noon, and the tails is pretty packed with boats. 90% big sporties, radio chatter indicates sporadic fish, but we troll up and down the west wall and get nothing.

sounded like anybody who overnighted did pretty good. day fisherman sounded like about half caught yft, and those that didnt caught mahi or longfins. heard of two whites caught the day before.

so, we work our way back up to the flats, and nail another nice yellow. this one bottomed out my 60 lb boga, i'm guessing around 70 lbs. we are getting close to the time to go home. enjoying the whale show again.

then all hell breaks loose and we go 3/3 on yellows again. after that our fish box is full, and our ice is going faster than expected, so we leave for home at 3:30 pm. make better time going home and we're at the dock by 6:30.

took 5 of us with two foodsavers about 3 hrs to process the meat.
here are some pics: