Left Gtown at 5 am on the Split Decision. We had a full crew with myself, Chunky Dunk, Pallet, Tow Bull, Golf Pro, and Gas Man. Had two decent dolphin, a blackfin, and grown donkey in the box (this thing hit the way back and took 30 minutes to winch in…I really thought it was a slob hoo, and was extremely disappointed) by 9 am. Started to ease towards Bubble Rock and ran into some dolphin under a piece of floating plastic at around 1:30. The action heated up with a mix of small, mid, and one bruiser. I was putting the birds back out and thought there was a stick stuck in the bird chain…nope, white marlin. Got him to the boat pretty quick and released the fish healthy. Don’t have a good shot of him boatside, but you get the idea.
We could see the fish stacked up under the plastic, but the bite turned completely off. We stopped the boat and had them eating cut bait, but all we had were big trolling reels which are not the easiest to cast. Before we left, I jumped in with my camera and some goggles. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. There were probably 40 of them down there. I was so excited/worried about sharks that I forgot to switch over to video. I actually touched a peanut that swam by close.
Beautiful ocean
Ended up with a very good day:
22 dolphin
1 blackfin
1 donkey
1 white marlin
On the schoolie problem you mentioned- Pull 100ft of line off trolling reel onto open deck below a cleared rail or on top of the bow. pull it back over itself so hook end of the line is over the reel end of the line. Hook half a ballyhoo or whole squid on hook. Get bote upwind. Set reel lever to strike. Throw the bait at school of dolphin and leave slack in line. As soon as it hits the water, throw 2 or 3 unhooked pieces to the same spot. Pull first dolphin from school to beneath your boat, and you know the rest.