Good three days of fishing.  Strange weather on day 2, 30 knot winds and 8 to 10 foot seas.  Not unlike a brisk day in Bermuda, but totally freaky for CR.  If we had been signed up for the tournament, we would have had second place overall and in the daily Calcutta. Clearly we were having fishing as good as it could be. Got a nice 225# marlin on 30#  and one BIG sail that they said went 150 – 180#.  I think we had 13 sails overall and held a respectable hook up ratio.  Three of four nice Dorados, too.  Oh yeah, we also  caught a turtle and a bird, both safely released.

- Bruce Dilke

Well, that sure was a successful trip.  We ended up catching 5 marlin, 42 (ish) sails and innumerable dolphin for the 6 days of fishing.  Not bad at all!

The weather was predictably great with flat seas and sunny hot days which moderated at night.  Except for the last day, that is.  It blew in the morning!  We all thought we were in the Atlantic.  By the end of the morning, things had settled back down and we started seeing fish, especially after we ran a little to get a change of scenery.  It turned out to be a great call.

One interesting note – Chowie and his understudy, Arturo, managed to both hook the same fish twice in a day!  The first time is was a Dolphin that was apparently starving and the second was a Sail that decided he couldn’t eat just one.  Both circle hooks were right next to each other in the Sail’s jaw.  It was a pretty easy release.

Hope you like the pictures, more reports coming soon as De Mako is fishing pretty steadily for the next couple months.

This is Chowie’s Ceviche recipe. He makes it on the boat on the way out and then it is ready for lunch. Yum!

Ingredients:
• one ziplock of fillet (usually Dolphin)
• One green pepper
• One medium onion
• One bunch of cilantro
• One can Ginger Ale
• Six limes

Preparation:
• Mix water and a lot of salt in a bowl
• Cut the fillets into 1/4 inch cubes
• Put the fish into the salt water
• Stir fish, allow to stay in salt water for about 5 minutes
• Drain the fish and rinse with fresh water
• Squeeze the limes into a bowl.
• Put fish (only) in lime juice, stir and
• Allow to sit while you chop vegetables
• Chop onion, pepper and cilantro very finely
• Add chopped veggies to fish and lime juice
• Add about 1/2 can of Ginger Ale. Stir.
• Add two splashes of the Luzano Salsa
• Add Tabasco if you like it hot

Put the bowl in the Freezer for 30 minutes and then refrigerator for another hour and serve.

Here is a fishing report that I cannot wait to write!  Over four days ending December 17, Black & Blue member Mike Rehberg had a bunch of guys down for a little fishing.

Everything was proceeding as normal until they heard Captain Mike call out, “Killer Whale, right teaser!”.  What???  Check it out.  A Killer Whale came up and bit (and missed) the teaser.  Chowie said it was a sissy bite too.  Well, when that Whale jumped right afterwards everybody headed away from the transom and back towards the salon.

The other great story is that one of the guys on the trip (another Mike) caught, from his wheelchair, a Sail and a Striped Marlin.  That is a pretty cool story to go with those great shots.  Way to go Mike!