Catching a Mahi Mahi

By Travis...

Yesterday while we were sailing from St Martin to the BVI’s we caught a big fish called a Mahi Mahi or a Dolphin fish. After trying to get the main sail up and having a bit of trouble we sailed over a sea Mountain. Beau saw birds flying overhead and flying fish jumping. So he decided to put the rod in. Then he saw one flying fish just behind the lure then a big fish jumped out and ate the flying fish! He then saw it following our lure and BANG! The rod started to lose line. I suddenly woke up and got strait to the rod. Beau was already there so I untied the rod from the holder and Beau started winding. Since it was a big fish it was hard to wind it in so Dad got us started. It took us about 10 minutes to get it onto the boat.

When we got it close to the boat so we could recognize what fish we had Beau and I cheered, as we had wanted to catch a Mahi Mahi since we got on the boat. But our troubles had just begun. When we gaffed it and got it on the deck it used the last of its energy on its last spasm. Beau forgot to shut the deck well and dad fell in!! Then while in its amazingly energetic spasms it wriggled into the well as well! So we had a spasmodic fish in our well making an absolute mess and leaving blood everywhere! When it was wriggling into the well it left a dump on our seat and then its tail flicked it everywhere. So we had a massive mess to clean up. Our fish hitter broke so we had to use a spanner instead. It took a while to kill the fish, as its spasm’s hadn’t stopped.

Dad filleted the Mahi Mahi while we cleaned up its mess. When dad got to its guts he cut them open and found the flying fish that it ate! Beau wanted to keep as a souvenir but Dad had already chucked over. I tried to cut its head off because the fishing book we bought said that the head was good for soup. But the knife I was using was getting blunt and there was a big bone in the way. So we just chucked the carcass. Mum cooked a great teriyaki Mahi Mahi and it tasted better than Wahoo and that’s hard to beat!

We all pitched in in catching the fish: Kara spewed 11 times and her spew was used as burley. Beau, dad and I wound the fish in. And mum cooked the Mahi Mahi.