I have not caught any fish since the Dorado I caught before crossing the equator. Honestly, I have not been fishing much, but I had a line out yesterday. As dusk approached without any bites, the alarm I had set to retrieve the line went off. A good way to lose a rig is to leave it unattended overnight. When the alarm went off, I thought to myself that it’s about time I caught a fish. As I reached for the pole, the strike indicator went off and the line started paying out uncontrollably. I put full drag on, but it hardly slowed down. I quickly heaved it to take some pressure off the line and I played the fish until it was tired enough to gaff. I had caught a Bigeye Tuna. Before the sun sat, I cleaned the fish, producing enough meat for several weeks. While I was working on the fish, I received a VHF call from S/V Trinity, a much larger and faster catamaran that was about to overtake me. They wanted to know why I had stopped and offered assistance. I explained I had caught a fish. Their reply (in my best Australian accent) was “Good on ya, mate. Cheers!.”
