Micronesia day 9/10: Goat hunters

Took the long ride again with flat seas finally (less than 4 ft that is) and went back to where we had seen the doggies the day before.

This is one of the spots we know we aren’t going to get very many fish but if and when we do they’ll be good ones.

We did two groups of three and drifted the edge of the drop in 40-150 ft of water and I stayed in the shallows to check on all the ulua holes.  DJ and I found some really incredible ones with no one home but with no lights I can only imagine deep in the back of some of the caves there had to be some lobsters or something. Really incredible holes I can’t wait to go back and check them again.

First drift up in only 30 feet of water right on the drop DJ and I were taking pics and up swims a Reef Shark and a medium size ulua.  As soon as he saw us he turned to bail down the reef and out of sight but luckily he turned when I made some noise and came right back in for an easy 6 ft shot.  Battle royale ensued and I muscled him out of the reef not giving him and inch of reel line and DJ got some incredible pics of the whole thing.

While we were messing around with him we also caught a good tako (octopus) and with the ulua and him together it looked insane. So cool.

Back in hunt mode and over “posing”, DJ spots a nice Dogtooth tuna up on the high part of the reef only 20 ft from the surface and Mark snakes it from me and blasts it right in front of the two of us.

So far one of the best fish of the trip. Pics to come.

Lots of cheeky little reef sharks today but the tiger left us alone and we saw a bunch of turtles and dolphins so lots of life on the reef which is always good to see.

End of the day we had three fish: Dogtooth Tuna, Jobfish and the ulua.  For 9 hours in the water it doesn’t seem like much but thats hunting for doggies. You have to put in the hard hours if you want to land the good ones no matter how frustrating it is.

Day 10:

Dove some WWII wreckage and played with some giant schools of Mu that were lucky we weren’t in hunting mode. They were the biggest ones we’ve seen with some in the 7 lb range.   Big night on the town had us out til 10 o’clock.  We’re getting soft having dove all day every day.  Up early in the morning tomorrow heading for the deep reef and checking the FAD’s we put out. Troy’s last day so hopefully we can score him some good fish.

CK