Catch of the Day -- by Kai

I had a feeling that we might be able to catch a fish when I saw the water temp today.

Dorado -like a lot of other open ocean tropical fish- like the water to be above 82*.

The past few days we have been in fast, but cooler current but today, when I woke up and looked at the instruments, it was back up from the low of 76' to 85*!

When My mom was on her dawn watch, something took our line out, without anyone noticing when it happened (probably it happened at night) but whatever it was must have got eaten by something much bigger. The line was snapped all the way back to the leader.

When I got up, mom asked me to change the lure, so I put on one of our home made ones and set it back about one boat length behind Pura Vida. I set the drag to about 10 pounds and I stepped back and got ready to wait.

A couple of hours later, we were all hanging out on deck when mom said,"look, something is jumping in the water!",

Then we saw them.

Two neon torpedoes, skimming along the surface, directly at our lure.

In about five seconds, the line was already running out...
Everyone jumped up and raced to the reel.

Dad played the fish for awhile by hand, while I reeled in the slack. All of us, were terrified that the leaping Dorado would come loose of the hook, because they flail their heads so much when they are above the water.

Dad and I carefully worked the fish to the transom and got ready to gaff it.
Dad lunged with the hook several times, before he finally hooked it in the side but just before pulling the fish up, the handle broke in dad's hand and our gaff hook floated away into the ocean!

For a minute we were all stunned trying to figure out how we were going to land this big fish with no gaff.
Mom said, "quick, throw a towel over it's head!"

Our friend, Tony from Escondido is a really good fisherman and he told us this is a good trick to use, if you land a big fish that still might have some fight in him.

My other good buddy, Terry, (also from Escondido) would say, " don't drop your gaff overboard, in the first place!"

Anyway, we had lost ours and we didn't want to lose this great fish, so
Dad grabbed the line and hauled the fish onto the deck and mom threw an old rug over its head.

The fish calmed down and stopped thrashing.

DAd quickly put the stringer through its gills and mouth and slit its gills, then he tossed it overboard to let it bleed out.

This is a quick way to kill it and the meat tastes better if you bleed it fast.
As he was doing this, I finally got a chance to inspect our fish closely.
It was a 20 pound female. Unlike the male Dorados, its head was rounded and small, instead of tall and blunt.

Its body was mostly silvery blue, except for the top of its back which was dark blue. She had neon green and yellow spots and its tail and fins were neon yellow also . She had a high, long dorsal fin and big, round green eyes.

Dorado are really one of the most beautiful fish I have ever seen.
They are also one of the most tasty fish I've ever eaten-and seeing as we really needed something fresh to eat out here, we were all excited.

My dad and I fillet it (i had to hold it, while dad made the cuts because it wouldn't all fit on the fish table), and then we put it in bags to go in the freezer for mom to cook for us.

Tonight, my mom will grill it with butter and tomorrow she will make Sashimi and sushi, once its cooled down.

We always take a moment to thank the fish for giving its life up for us.
It took us days and days to catch a fish out here but now we will have fresh food for a few days.

I think its really fun to be able catch and kill what you eat-
its not easy and it takes some practice but it pays off in a tasty meal!