SATELLITE TAGGING ROOSTERFISH!
Sax & Michelle from Florida and Pete & Tabby from California joined us aboard GOOD DAY today.
The guys wanted to try a mixture of Inshore and Offshore, so we headed Offshore to start the day & as things happened, the day started a little slow. At just about the time everyone was wondering where the fish had disappeared to, we hooked our first Sailfish of the day. Not long after and only 17 miles out, Tuna started busting up all over our spread and we caught two nice Tuna in the 25-35lb category. Sax & Michelle were delighted as a Yellowfin Tuna was high on their Bucketlists.
Tabby then hooked a beast of a Dorado on a live Bonito. I called it 40lb+ when it jumped far away from the boat. Chatting with Capt. Manuel after the trip he thinks it was an easy 50 pounder and coming from the man who thinks almost everything is small after catching a 1200lb Black Marlin on Good Day some years back, I will take his word for it! But as luck would have it, the hook pulled after a few minute fight & the Beast of a Dorado was gone. We caught a small 10-12 pounder as a consolation to add to the species list.
The Sail bites picked up and we ended up going 3 for 5 on Sailfish before deciding to head to the rocks for the final hour of the trip to see if we could get Sax his Bucketlist Roosterfish. I had been telling the guys about the 2022 Roosterfish Tagging study that we have been a huge part of this year and that we had deployed 2 Satellite tags in Roosterfish earlier this year in addition to a couple we deployed in Roosters 3-4 years back. Just a few days back the team at Gray FishTag Research called me and said that they had one Sat Tag available and if we could help to put it into a good sized Rooster over the next week or two if we have the right guests on board that are interested to be a part of the program. Today the stars just seemed to align & within 15 mins of arriving at the rocks and putting our lines out Pete & Sax were hooked up to a double Roosterfish. Sax released a 35” Rooster which he was over the moon with and when we got a glimpse of Pete’s fish, we knew it was a perfect candidate for the Satellite Tag. The fish taped out at 52” and was around 28-30lb. After the tagging procedure & a quick photo, the fish was released and will provide us with important data on its whereabouts, water temperature & depth over the next 3 months. The Roosterfish that was Sat tagged in February this year literally blew our minds with where it travelled as it headed straight Offshore to the continental shelf and completely shattered our previous thinking about where Roosterfish spend their time. We can’t wait to see the results of the fish we tagged today & the other one we tagged in April, the results of which are due soon.
A huge thank you to Peter DiFilippo for helping to sponsor the Sat Tag today. It was so fitting that Pete named the tagged fish, ‘Chazman’ after his late brother who sadly passed from cancer when he was just in his mid 20s.
After a glorious sunny day on the ocean, it was raining cats & dogs when we got back to the Marina Pez Vela ………..But nobody cared, we’d had a blast!!
Catch Report:
3 for 5 Sailfish
2 Tuna
1 Dorado
2 Roosterfish
Sax & Michelle from Florida and Pete & Tabby from California joined us aboard GOOD DAY today.
The guys wanted to try a mixture of Inshore and Offshore, so we headed Offshore to start the day & as things happened, the day started a little slow. At just about the time everyone was wondering where the fish had disappeared to, we hooked our first Sailfish of the day. Not long after and only 17 miles out, Tuna started busting up all over our spread and we caught two nice Tuna in the 25-35lb category. Sax & Michelle were delighted as a Yellowfin Tuna was high on their Bucketlists.
Tabby then hooked a beast of a Dorado on a live Bonito. I called it 40lb+ when it jumped far away from the boat. Chatting with Capt. Manuel after the trip he thinks it was an easy 50 pounder and coming from the man who thinks almost everything is small after catching a 1200lb Black Marlin on Good Day some years back, I will take his word for it! But as luck would have it, the hook pulled after a few minute fight & the Beast of a Dorado was gone. We caught a small 10-12 pounder as a consolation to add to the species list.
The Sail bites picked up and we ended up going 3 for 5 on Sailfish before deciding to head to the rocks for the final hour of the trip to see if we could get Sax his Bucketlist Roosterfish. I had been telling the guys about the 2022 Roosterfish Tagging study that we have been a huge part of this year and that we had deployed 2 Satellite tags in Roosterfish earlier this year in addition to a couple we deployed in Roosters 3-4 years back. Just a few days back the team at Gray FishTag Research called me and said that they had one Sat Tag available and if we could help to put it into a good sized Rooster over the next week or two if we have the right guests on board that are interested to be a part of the program. Today the stars just seemed to align & within 15 mins of arriving at the rocks and putting our lines out Pete & Sax were hooked up to a double Roosterfish. Sax released a 35” Rooster which he was over the moon with and when we got a glimpse of Pete’s fish, we knew it was a perfect candidate for the Satellite Tag. The fish taped out at 52” and was around 28-30lb. After the tagging procedure & a quick photo, the fish was released and will provide us with important data on its whereabouts, water temperature & depth over the next 3 months. The Roosterfish that was Sat tagged in February this year literally blew our minds with where it travelled as it headed straight Offshore to the continental shelf and completely shattered our previous thinking about where Roosterfish spend their time. We can’t wait to see the results of the fish we tagged today & the other one we tagged in April, the results of which are due soon.
A huge thank you to Peter DiFilippo for helping to sponsor the Sat Tag today. It was so fitting that Pete named the tagged fish, ‘Chazman’ after his late brother who sadly passed from cancer when he was just in his mid 20s.
After a glorious sunny day on the ocean, it was raining cats & dogs when we got back to the Marina Pez Vela ………..But nobody cared, we’d had a blast!!
Catch Report:
3 for 5 Sailfish
2 Tuna
1 Dorado
2 Roosterfish
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