Black Jack

I went out fishing at sponge beach with Kirk and his dad. We launched their 11 foot whaler - Mini Me - from the beach and started trolling right away over the shallow reefs. We didn't get any bites on the reef so we went out to some deeper water around 50 feet. I had a medium sized barracuda but he got off, and then a little while later I got a big bite and my drag started screaming out. I thought it must be a big barracuda but it down too deep for a barracuda. After we got the fish closer to the boat I looked down expecting to see a big grouper and I saw two Black Jacks (Caranx lugubris)! One of them was shadowing the one I was fighting.
Black Jacks are an uncommon jack that lives from 50 - 1200 feet. This is the first one I have caught. We threw him in the fish box and started trolling about the same distance out and I caught a small 'cuda that we let go. Later Kirk got a big four pound (23") Bar Jack. My Black Jack was 25" and weighed 7 pounds. I caught the Black Jack and a small Blue yozuri and Kirk got the big Bar Jack on a white and silver jig.We only got some smaller fish after that so we decided to go diving on the reef inside. There were lots of parrotfish but that was about it.

I can't upload any pictures now because of the speed of the internet, I'll post some later.

Fishing

I caught a Bar jack (Caranx ruber) off the north point of our beach yesterday. There were Cero mackeral everywhere but none of them got hooked. I caught the Bar Jack on the silver Got-cha and the day before that I got two mackeral and a big Blue runner off the Jetty at Cupids Cay in Governors Harbour.

I went out in Mini-me today with Kirk and Jake and we caught 5 Almaco Jacks (Seriola rivoliana) in front of the Cove. A school of about eight showed up to investigate a small yellowtail I was using for bait. We used live pilchards to catch them. Jake caught three of them and Kirk and I each got one.

We caught the pilchards at a secret place Barry (Captain Z) told us about. The pilchards hide in a pile of rocks that are up against a cliff. Mini-me can barely fit in between the rocks. Kirk and Jake navigate in while I stand on the bow and net them. We only get one cast before all the pilchards get spooked and dive too deep to net. We got more than enough Live Pilchards in one cast for a days fishing.

Below: Silver Got-cha

Today we went fishing directly opposite our house on the Atlantic. I saw a big shark - the first one we've seen there - but unfortunately the water was too rough to identify it. There was a big school of small jacks that were nailing our lures but none of them got hooked. We also saw a little turtle. I'm pretty sure it was a green turtle, not a hawksbill, judging by the shell.

My dad was bringing in a medium sized Yellowtail Snapper (Ocyurus chrysurus) that got off while we were bringing it up and a resident cuda chomped him as soon as he hit the water. The barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda) lost his grip and the he slipped away, and then the barracuda circled around and grabbed him just in time. This time he bit the tail cleanly off. The Yellowtail was still struggling to swim away. Then the cuda came back, sheared the back half of the yellowtail off and ate it and swam around with the yellowtail's head in it's mouth and finally gulped it down.

On our way back we saw two huge male and female (females have white on their necks) frigates flying really low right over us. I would rather we caught fish, but at least we got to see a lot.

Mini Me

Kirk and Jake have a boat called Mini-me that we take out a lot. It's an eleven foot Boston Whaler with a 25 hp motor. We caught this Green turtle and took him to the Cove and let him go there. So far we've caught three turtles. Of course we let them all go. They have all been Green turtles so were hoping for a Hawksbill one of these days. Mini-me cruises at 22 knots. It's a great boat to run around in but it weighs a ton. It takes the three of us and two adults to pull it up.


Below: Kirk's driving, I'm holding the turtle and Jake's on the bow. This is in
front of my house.

Finally Back!

UPDATE: I forgot to tell about the poisonous dorsal spines the Lionfish have. They are extremely painful but there has been no reported deaths from the Lionfish.

Hi, I'm Back. After months of trying to fix my old website, I finally gave up and decided to use blogger. Since I was last posting, the Cove resort has a new Manager who has two boys that I've been fishing and diving with a lot. The Cove is a small resort two miles south from my place. Kirk is 13 and Jake is 10. Here's a link to the Cove's website: The Cove

I went scuba diving a little while ago and got some cool pictures. I saw the Lionfish (Pterios volitans) that lives upside down in a small cave by our point.

Lionfish are from the Indo-Pacific. Aquarium owners sometimes let them go when they grow too big or find out they are eating all the other fish. Lionfish have been reported from Florida all the way up to New York and even Bermuda. I've asked a few people how they got to Eleuthera and I've heard this story the most: A person in Spanish Wells (a nearby island) mistakenly let go Lionfish eggs, and they hatched and spread all over the island. It seems unlikely, though, because Lionfish larvae spend a long time in open ocean so the odds of getting back to Eleuthera seem really small.

Here's a link if you want to read more about Lionfish invading the Atlantic: NOAA Lionfish Invasion

Anyway, the Lionfish that lives at the point moved in a few months ago. I went diving a couple days ago and couldn't find him so he must have left. We've been seeing a lot of them lately, I saw one with my mom in our boat and we just speared one at Mutton fish point. (We've been instructed by scientists to kill them.) They're supposed to taste really good but I'm definitely not filleting one.

Below: Lionfish
Cushion seastar

A balloonfish (Diodon Holcanthus), they're not very common
on the Caribbean side. This one was very tame.
Something happened to this Porcupinefish's (Diodon hystrix) eye.
The scrapes on the side of his face are from him not being able to
see where he's going too well. I'm sure the only reason he's alive is
because they don't have any predators.