December 19, 2011.

Happy Birthday Allyson.

We had a small window of decent wind from a good direction so at 0700 we headed out the cut at Cave Cay and into Exuma Sound. The trip to Georgetown is a jump of a bit more than 30 miles. The remarkable thing about this little jump is that we'll be able to do some deep sea fishing for the majority of the trip. The water along this route is between a few hundred to a few thousand feet deep.

While Christy and I have the whole spearfishing down pat we still don't have much of a clue so far as the whole rod and reel thing goes. In the past we've caught one tuna, one Mahi Mahi, one Sailfish and a few Cero. Considering how much time we've spent dragging various lures around we haven't caught shit.

Our friends Jay & Di sold their cruising boat this past year. They're now touring the country via motor coach so they felt they had no need for their various deep sea fishing bits and pieces. They generously bestowed several pieces of gear upon us including what would turn out to be a magical lure.

I tied on one of our new lures and dropped it over the side. I was paying the line out to leave the lure trailing 150 feet behind the boat. It wasn't even played out yet when it got hit. Fish on! It ended up being a small Mahi Mahi of about 5 ½ pounds.

That pretty much set the tone for the day an hour later we took a 44 incher that I had to gaff. When I gaffed him I hit something arterial and there was blood everywhere.

We land them on the side deck and then after subduing them I walk them to the bow to fillet them so I can use the anchor washdown to clean up afterwards.

There was blood the length of the boat.

Twenty minutes after cleaning up as best I could we took a 36 incher. This one got hit by a Barracuda as Christy reeled it in. We did get the entire Mahi although he was a little worse for wear when we got him onboard.

Mike & Kathy on Sapphire were trailing 3 lures at the same time and ran through a school of Mahi and scored simultaneous hits on all 3 lines. After landing the trio they caught one more before they were through. I think there were about 18 boats strung out over a ten mile stretch and I heard 15 Mahi Mahi taken. Nice day, actually magical.

We arrived at Conch Cay Cut at noon at the head of the pack. This cut always makes my ass clinch a bit, even when its decent out. You come in a large gap between breakers both to port and to starboard. As soon as you're past the breakers you turn hard to port and travel a half mile just inside the breakers, parallel to them.

I dunno, breakers to port and a reef to starboard, I just hate that section.

After dropping the hook at Sand Dollar Beach we scrubbed the topsides as best we could before settling in to an afternoon of doing nothing. We'll be here through the holidays before continuing south.