Photos today feature a couple of lighter moments during the last Revillagigedo with Stuart Exall and Kurt Schaefer doing the honors. Stuart was actually the first angler to bring the big spinners for throwing poppers a couple of years back. On that particular voyage, the wahoo were going nuts over the big poppers he calls "Stick Baits" that are made and marketed by "Jai" of Seven Seas tackle in Thailand. In what is by far the most exciting, dramatic surface strike I can imagine, the wahoo that hit the stick bait are typically at peak velocity and fly from the water to reach heights that are believable only if personally experienced. Anglers who have fished wahoo amidst a red hot stop are familiar with the image. I have to say that the sight of a fifty pound wahoo, fifteen feet in the air with a surface jig or popper clenched in it's jaws, never loses an ounce of magnificence to me. No matter how many times I see the image, it still elicits the same result. I am typically the first one hooting or emphatically exclaiming my awe.

So as I was saying a couple of years back Stuart brought along his big spinner for presenting the stick baits. After watching the show, and salivating at the sight of such tremendous explosions on the poppers, I was eager to take advantage of Stuart's gracious offer to try it out. From that point on, I was throwing that thing at every opportunity. It is good fun. But, that's all it is. I definitely would not recommend the surface popping method with a big spinning rod to any anglers serious about wahoo production. Overall the percentages of fish hooked to landed is poor at best. But, as I was attempting to describe, it is all about the strike. The sight of those big "skinnies" flying out the water is worth it every time. And then some.

I don't think the shot of Stuart pulling on a wahoo in Lunker Hole was one that he hooked on a popper, but the image does the trick anyway. Also, the image of IATTC senior scientist Kurt Schaefer testing one of the other "specialty" rigs favored by the Thai anglers on the February voyage does a fantastic job of representing what we call getting "reamed" on a big fish. In no uncertain terms, this would be an example of gear being pushed beyond it's boundaries by our standards. In this case we were having some good fun however testing the limits. Believe it or not, as I recall we landed this tuna that came in around eighty or ninety pounds. If we hadn't seen all the anglers from Thailand pull this off numerous times with the same equipment in February, we probably wouldn't have believed it possible outside the category of pure luck. Regardless, with Stuart observing closely, Kurt, applying the techniques of the highly accomplished Thai anglers, gave the battle all he was worth, and won.

I threw in a couple more tuna shots to enjoy as well. Don't forget about the new two day voyages we added in June, and, I believe we presently have one opening available on the first eight day departing May 28th. The boat will be out this weekend with Capt. Brian Sims at the helm then back in for a final four days before the season begins. Give Tracy a call if you can squeeze a trip in.

Have a fantastic day!

Tim

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