Normally when you think of fishing in Bimini, you think of immense game fish like 1,000 pound tunas, gigantic swordfish, and large marlins. However, here at the sharklab we go fishing with the sharks in mind. In order to pull off all the long lines, shark dives, and hammerhead baiting, we need large amounts of bait. A single 24-hour longline set consists of 5 different lines,each with 15 gangions (hooks). Obviously you can do the math; we need 75 chunks of barracuda to go on all the gangions.
I was pumped last week to hear that I was assigned to go fishing for barracuda. I knew that we would have luck, but I didn't expect to seta sharklab record.......11 cuda in one day (really half a day). Around one set of rocks we caught at least 7 within an hour. At the end of one fight, I had a school of amberjacks circle the barracuda as I brought it to the boat. One took a big look at my barracuda but didn't go after it.As I look back on it, I wish I had left it in the water because I'm sure he would have been caught by one of the two trebble hooks on the lure as he went after the barracuda. As the end of the day neared, my roommate hooked into a fish that fought much different than the rest of the fish we caught that day. It had a strong initial run and then everything stopped and no line could be gained on the fish. We thought that the fish had rubbed the lure off and a rock. As we drove the boat towards the line, I was prepared to put my mask on and dive down and unhook the lure. Suddenly the fight was back on and up comes a nice sized grouper. We were amazed because the last thing we were expecting to catch while trolling shallow rocks was a grouper. Needless to say, it fed the entire lab the next night.
Although I like fishing for barracuda, I look out over the gulf-stream every morning and wish I had a chance go after the trophy game fish that frequent the waters no more than a mile from Bimini. Despite all I am learning down here, there is nothing I would rather do than go fishing. As we came in with the sunset I couldn't be happier.
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