Finally got our trolling mojo back on Reach! Not that our diet isn’t fish-rich. We love to eat seafood, provided by Mark's underwater fishing skills or local flavors in our marine destinations. Yet, it had been years since a fish struck a line when we were sailing.
Not for lack of effort. We got lost in the labyrinth of trying all sorts of lures ~ squid teasers, rubber ballyhoo, plugs, spoons…
Asking every angler in every port (there are some serious anglers in Florida) what they were having luck with ~ what depth, water temp, underwater structure, phase of the moon, color lure??!
Perhaps we need to run a few more poles?!
In our recent Caribbean passages the weather conditions were too rough to throw out a line. This time, sailing from Florida to the Chesapeake Bay in just over 4 days, we had ideal conditions with SW winds the entire time varying from 8 to 18 knots.
Reach was whole and balanced again sailing anywhere from a deep run to a beam or close reach as we rode the Gulf Stream along the coastline. This warm water river slicing through the Atlantic ocean added several knots more to our speed over ground.
I do believe that you have to be where the fish are to catch a fish. If we didn’t catch any on this particular trip then we’d be perplexed. Reach was sailing in a lovely groove with all new sails & rigging. Mark pulls out the hand-line on a Cuban yo-yo. He attaches a leader with our old faithful pink squid. We are back to basics.
First hit was a mahi-mahi. It was a small one but we’d re-learned from our recent fishing excursions with Steve & Connie just how tasty this fish is to eat.
One standby fish recipe was begging to be tried ~ ceviche! Turns out mahi-mahi is wonderful in ceviche and I happened to have fresh limes and oranges aboard (oranges are key to add sweet citrus flavor). Chop up some sweet red pepper and culantro (from Reach’s garden) and you have dinner fresh from the sea.
The next hit was a fighter. We saw a long narrow body shape with dark gray/brown coloring. So, not shiny enough for a tuna or barracuda. Maybe a jack? But almost looked like a shark. We were off of the NC coast of outer banks where shark activity had been high this summer.
When we slid this fish up the new stern steps with a gaff for good measure, we realized it was a cobia.
These fish look like shark-suckers with a flat head, but they don’t have the head suction like remoras.
Cobia also have very flat plane on its belly.
Maybe they use it for bottom-feeding, since they are also called crab eaters?
Maybe their rich diet of crab and squid might contribute to their renowned excellent fish flavor?
Oh, & why do they have a big tongue?!
All of this is pure speculation after consulting a gamefish book. The only reason we were familiar with this fish species at all was from the cobia farm that we encountered in Panama. Now we can add one more fish to our pescadorian favorites.
It was a beautiful passage by the way.
The trip was fairly dark under a new moon with the milky way shining bright each night.
The first three days were just under 200 mile days (thanks to the Gulf Stream) and we had to slow down on the last night to enter Norfolk at sunrise.
Marine traffic was mild and predictable with cargo or tugboats heading into major ports of Savannah or Charleston. It was a bit unique once we hit Norfolk as warships and submarines were added to the mix. The crowd on an early morning reminded us of our Panama Canal zone entries!
We dodged a few storms ~ like this one blowing out over Florida as we departed~ never getting hit with more than a handful of raindrops. You can keep your lightning ~ we’ll take the rainbows!
