Well, the weather is very hot and humid, as is customary with February each year. This year seems hotter... They say that the last five years have been the hottest average since the recording started... Global warming is no longer something that we are warned about- it's here... How does this effect the fish? I'm not sure, this is new to me. I've been through an El Niño, but never through a global warming... We learn as we live.
January started off rather good that had us hooking 4 sailfish in 6 starts. One was a double, where we lost one and got one. There was a Dorado in the spread at the same time, which really set the cat amongst the pigeons... All hell broke loose, but in the end we got the Sailfish and the Dorado, but lost the other sailfish when they all went in different directions . Jacques, Stuart and Nigel all got their sailfish on different days, which were all caught on pink and white islanders with a halfbeak rigged on a double hook. The good old state maker, blue and white wasn't the favourite anymore.
Tim managed to get a good GT of around 17kgs which really put up a great fight. Man, these fish are strong, and just don't give up... We got him in 10m of water trolling a rather big rapala. Took us about 40 minutes to get him in.
So what I can tell you is that there are Sailfish, GT, Kingfish and Dorado around. What I can also tell you is that there are precious few Cuta and Tuna around. They normally are bankers and they keep the chef turning over fish plates in the restaurant. This year there have been precious few. I've eaten more chicken in the last month than what I care to remember.
The other difference is the bait that is coming out from the locals. There are precious few carapoa (horse mackerel) coming out in the nets. Now this is my favourite bait for going on the slow troll, or drift for cuta.
I didn't have any spearos come visit, so can't give you an update, but I did see when the wind blew south east, the water was nice and clear...
February is our last month of the traditional hurricane season, so I sit and wait, and watch. With this change in the weather phenomena, who knows what's going to happen next? One things for sure, I'll be here to keep you up to date...
See you out there on the ocean some time.