UPDATE: My 1st Mahi-mahi

Well it finally came to pass. After dragging lures of every size and description and being skunked time after time Capt. JP finally caught his 1^st Mahi. Yep he's no longer a Mahi virgin. It was a good size fish, measuring 48” from the tip of the tail to the tip of the nose. 

Ginny and I will never forget the color of the Mahi in the water as we reeled it in. The color contrast between the royal blue color of the crystal clear ocean and the neon greenish blue of the Mahi as the sunlight reflected off of it created a surreal moment and image.

We caught the Mahi about 15 nm south of Little Harbor Abaco in the deep waters of Northeast Providence Channel. As I pulled the Mahi close enough I could gaff it we could see several others swimming close by.Once I gaffed the fish and pulled it over the rail onto the deck that’s when the fun began. The Mahi was far from done. When it was all over it looked like several murders had taken place on the deck of Wind Dust. Blood was everywhere. As we got back underway I used a bucket to do a quick wash down of the deck and place the Mahi in the shade wrapped in a cool wet towel. 

That’s when it hit me that this was a pretty big Mahi. I decided I should measure it’s length. Wow 48 inches of fish. By far the biggest I have ever caught. We didn’t have a way of measuring the weight so I had to guess maybe 20 to 25 lbs. We were making the crossing with 3 other boats and we of course boasted of our catch and offered up fresh Mahi to our buddies once on anchor.

At the anchorage off Lynyard Cay we filleted and cleaned our catch. There were two big fillets and enough meat to feed our friends (5 sailors), ourselves and have enough frozen fish for 3 or 4 additional meals.

This was the first fresh - never frozen Mahi we had ever eaten and man was it good. We seasoned it and cooked it on the grill. Yep, add a glass wine and sit back and enjoy. Needless to say I will be deploying my secret weapon the next time we hit the high seas. Stay tuned to see how big this fish really gets by this time next year.