Professional Skipper - Free Sample issue (July/Aug 2011)

change the outcome. I shook my head and re-rigged. Dogtooth are one of the most powerful adversaries in the ocean on the initial burst. Once you get past that you pretty much have your fish, unless the sharks beat you. The problem is some of those first runs are quite sustained. It is mind-blowing how they can make the bottom after taking a lure on an 80lb game reel with the drag set to full strike. I tried a change to slow jigs. The first drop produced a red bass, but they carry the toxin ciguatera, so it went back. Ron and I then hooked up on sharks. If we continued we would only end up with a much lighter lure box, so we tried trolling just outside the reef. I took the strike when it came and it was a beaut. The reels All locked and loaded across the wide transom screamed and all I could do was hold on. I felt the change in the action as the fish reached the bottom, and fortunately it came off. A couple of minutes later it happened again, but there was no coming back from the third time. We went home to a roast chicken for dinner. We made a plan to make a serious, single-minded attempt to catch a marlin.With the anchor down I sent a softbait out the back and was unmercifully smashed on my first cast. I acquired the name "First Cast Charlie" because, after that, once again, I couldn't buy another bite. We moved slightly and caught a couple of cod and a goatfish but it was disappointing, considering our isolation. The Erkkila clan and I decided on a shore mission, despite the 20 knot wind. Everywhere we had gone ashore there had usually been a blacktip shark or two in view and now we understood why. A fledgling had crashed into the water 50m offshore. We expected to see nature at its most brutal but something special happened. At least 50 birds hustled and harried the baby ashore. James jumped into the water and helped it over the the last few metres, so the sharks missed out. It was cool to see how all the birds helped, not just the chick's parents. At one stage we found a narrow 15m rock pool less than 500mm deep with eight blacktip sharks. Back at the boat, we motored to Loop Island to find shelter but the wind didn't drop below 20 knots all night. On the positive side, it was July 4, so we helped Spoon, an American, celebrate with hamburgers, beer, bourbon and a suitable movie, The Blues Brothers. On the next day we turned into a pass between tropical reefs with our lures bubbling behind. Unfortunately, an ocean swell met the outgoing tide and it was ugly. We ran the pass twice without action, found a workup and couldn't elicit any kind of bite. What was happening? Another mile on we passed another workup and several reels exploded into life. When dogtooths strike the scene is mayhem, usually followed by carnage. We had multiple strikes for several hours, with regular explosions of white-water, followed by a cacophony of sound from ratchets. Damn it was exciting! This is one of the attractions of the Chesterfield Reef – catching dogtooth tuna at will. Remember we were trolling 80lb game rods with the reels set at The business end of deadly dogtooth dentures The first hour produced three bites of dogtooth tuna. None of them stuck, which is very unusual. We found the drop-off from 50m to 500m where they were hiding and had a couple more bites, but we either pulled the hooks or missed the bites. This was well out of character. Plan B was to get the jig sets out. John manoeuvred us into position and I sent a Zest jig to explore the depths. On the second drop I found something between a bus and a Ferrari. I didn't have a chance. The new Fin Nor Marquessa reel was superb and the rod was even better, but nothing was going to 58 Professional Skipper July/August 2011 r more than 10kg of drag. The fish were bigger than during our visit three years earlier and averaged 25-40 kilos, with some seriously larger fish in among them. We put the first fish we landed on the deck for dinner and released any others we caught until Spoon nailed a nice 36 kilo specimen that was stuffed, so we kept that as well. Spoon caught a much larger one in deeper water in good condition. We snapped a couple of pics and set it on its way.That was enough. We'd had a dog of an afternoon, we were dogtired but dogged persistence had paid off, with dogtooth for dinner! For more on Mike's exploits, look out for Fishing Coast tor Coast magazine.

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