With a hectic SW wind early this morning, we waited and decided to launch later and so only got going at around 09h00 after the wind had subsided. The sea settled and the water a rich deep blue with a light SW blowing over a slow NE 4ft swells made the conditions really nice.
This trip was to introduce two boys 4 & 6 to deep sea fishing along with Mom & Dad and off we went, I brought along my Ultra Light trolling tackle and only ran 4 lines so it could be easy for the boys. No sooner did I have the spread set and the older of the boys started feeling sea sick followed shortly by his younger brother, this eventually ended with the boys sleeping on the deck, and Dad also started feeling unwell. Mom stayed strong.
I decided to stay close, in case I needed to run back quickly and so we headed in a southerly direction, it was a little quiet when all of a sudden one line went and dad got the fight, it was not a big Bonnie but on the Ultra Light tackle it put up a good account for itself.
I could see the Bonnie, and was already in position to grab the leader when there was a huge silver flash right there in the prop wash and the bill came out of the water and with a quick flick it slashed both sides of the Bonnie killing it instantly, not even a quiver or a shake, just dead.
It was awesome to see the Sailfish strike from so close up which is something I have never witnessed so close before and I was able to see exactly what the Sailfish did and this was a really good learning experience.
What I observed was the Sailfish using its Bill to strike the Bonnie sideways, and then with a lightning fast flick it had the other side of the Bonnie on the other side of its Bill and whacked it in the opposite direction. The Bonnie was left stone cold dead.
I assume that the next move would be to swallow the Bonnie, but the Sailfish saw us and dived down giving us a close up of its wide tail.
This all happened so fast there was not even a chance to comment while it happened.
I then turned the boat heading back towards port as the sea sickness was affecting everyone except for Mom, and we had another Bonnie strike which Mom brought in and gave here a really good fight on the Ultra Light tackle.
After this I was asked to go back to port and call it a day as the Boys and Dad were really not looking well and we were back at the slipway before 11h00 making our trip less than 2hrs. I really wanted to go back and find that Sailfish, but I did not have the correct tackle on board and I even called a Mate to bring some rods and Join me, but he was too busy.
Whilst in port heading to the slipway we were stopped by the water police who checked all our documents, fishing licenses and they even measured and photographed the 2 Bonnies we had. I found them to be courteous, and the whole inspection was over in a few minutes.
