Dorado Trip, Or Was it?! - Malta August '07

[skip]

Went out today with Joe, his son Matt, Keith and myself. Was a late start on the boat at around 9.15am as we couldnt get there earlier and then straight from Xemija to Mgarr for refuelling, where we found very large commercial fishermen filling up with diesel. We managed to squeeze in to get unleaded and took on 320litres (half tank!!) before heading out around 25 miles West of Gozo for lampuki (Dorado).

Didnt find any FADs until around 17 miles out which is unusual. We had some small Pin Minnow lures and a hand line in the water and a rod/lure combo which rKeith had out. Matt got a hookup on the hand line and we pulled in a 500g lampuka, followed very quick by the Penn Commander 30 with the Blueish Pin Minnow erupting as the line peeled off and we could see a HUGE splash behind. The reel was emptying very very quickly (they dont carry much line!) but Joe managed to get on it real quick, feeling something very LARGE hooked up. Suddenly the line went slack. As we reeled in to investigate our 12kgs rated black snap swivel had been turned into nearly a straight piece of wire. The fish opened the snap swivel completely as the minnow was attached directly and it wasnt an al-cheapo snap swivel either.

I HAD to get bigger stuff out and put the trusty Cedar Plug Daisy chain, 3 x 4 inch natural cedars with a 6 inch Dorado rigged cedar, on the large rod. 3-5 mins later BAMM went the reel spooling off equally quickly. Joe was on it in a flash with lots of wooo-hooo's and everyone was excited. It took at least 200m of line down to the Spectra backing, on went the Braid fighting belt and Joe expertly fought the fish.

As she came close to the boat we could see it was big. I gaffed it and struggled to pick it up into the fish bag we have, what a beauty. The drag scales measured 15.5kgs our biggest BFT yet. Excitement all around, Matt may even have a pic of the fish on the scale.

Back in with larger gear and out with the small stuff, lots of trolling and visual sighting, shoals of 10 or so fish but no more strikes. We then put on Joe's lures he has from Oz (he'll have to confirm type) one blue and one green/black cone head. After some persistence we got our next hook up which Keith tackled. She was really pulling hard and taking line, unfortunately half way through the fight the drag locked and the spool wouldnt turn on the Okuma 80 2 speed. Determined not to lose the fish, Joe hand lined the fish to the boat where I eventually after several attemps gaffed the fish and into the boat. Reckon it was around 8kgs or so a nice BFT. Well done Keith.

Lots more sightings but no more hookups, just too much bait fish on the surface which they were coming up for. Would have been nice to catch some live bait or chum and chunk perhaps.

Catch Times:

15kgs BFT around 12.10
8kgs BFT around 2.30pm
Lampukia around midday

No much sightings on the FADs for Lampuki just very small ones. But forget Lampuki when there's BFT around!

Well done to an excellent crew and a fantastic enjoyable day.

[Ragman]

Nice report skip! Thanks for posting from Europe!

Beautiful water at only 17 miles!