Eric Mays (left), Russell Blocker, and Erics Mays, Sr. supporting this heavy wahoo caught off Port Canaveral on a nice Sunday afternoon in May.
Large Wahoo
Port Canaveral, Florida
Eric's account of the Sunday in May of 2008. "We caught the fish in 150 feet of water , as we were east of Port Canaveral the fish struck the downrigger that was about 35 feet down with a green/yellow islander with a ballyhoo. The fish struck at noon after we had no strikes all morning and trolling out to almost 400 feet of water. After trolling back in we found an edge with a little bit of weeds in it and a lot of flying fish then the big 50w began screaming, the fish did two big runs then coming boat side in about 15-20 minutes later."
Eric and his dad have been fishing together for a very long time. This day they took along Russell Blocker from Ocala, this was his first time being on the end of a rod with a monster Wahoo and it’s a fine one at that , it was good team effort landing this remarkable catch.
As Eric aproached the docks excitment was everywhere with many people waiting to see the monster fish he had caught. From home I even heard captain Brent of the Obession on the radio asking other captains to guess what size this fish was. Some said fifty pounds, then it was sixty "no you're cold", he would say, then someone said seventy and Capt. Brent said "not even in the seventies". The guessing went on until they were finally told the fish ended up weighing 88 pounds. After hearing this I grabbed my camera and hurried down to the docks at Port Canaveral to record the event at hand. This was by far the catch of the season. Sometimes pictures don't do justice, you just had to be there to see it and to see how proud Eric was... and how truly big and fat that wahoo was too!
Way to go Eric Mays! |
