The fish are fighting back....

January 3, 2014.

Every once in a while a good fish story comes along. Just 2 weeks ago we had the dying Hogfish practically climb into the Big Red Bucket O'Doom. Well our friend Steve had himself a fish day. Thats right 2 pretty good fish stories in the same day.

We had a benign weather day so it was a great opportunity to go into town. There are 2 boats here that had never been to town before so we decided to take them for a tour of the town. Steve & Kim blasted off ahead while we went over and collected the crews from Pura Vida & Purrfect Two.

Kim & Steve were a quarter of a mile ahead of us. Standing in the dink provides a smoother, drier ride and they were skimming along at 15 knots. Just as they were about to make the hard turn to port to enter Duncantown's channel they had “an encounter”.

Kim saw a small fish jumping and skimming the surface as they often do while being chased by a larger, hungry fish. Fortunately she was paying attention as a 3 foot long Barracuda leapt 7 feet out of the water directly in front of them. Since she was looking at the spot when it happened it gave her time to double over and duck the flying Barracuda. Steve, not so much. The Barracuda hit him on the front of the shoulder and because of cat like reflexes he was able to block it from hitting him in the face as it arced back towards the water.

When we all pulled into town Kim shared the story of their encounter. At first I thought they were pulling my leg until I saw that the upper chest and shoulder of Steve's shirt was impregnated with fish scales. I was glad that Steve was alright as this allowed me to laugh.

After returning to the boats and having lunch we decided to do a little hunting in the cut. Steve hit a nice Hogfish. His shot was a little high on the body and the fish was able to rip himself free of the spear. As Steve gave chase the Hogfish dove for the protection of the reef. Adjacent to the reef was a locals fish trap. They are large cages with a funnel shaped doorway that allows fish to enter but not get out. Steve's Hogfish decided that the best place to hide was to dive straight into the fish trap. It was a little shortsighted on his part but he did get the best of Steve.....