St Thomas-Getting the Shot

Well, back in the office sorting through the mountain of stuff to be done.  Luke Pearson has just finished the behind the scenes webisode of the trip called "Getting the Shot", he did a fantastic job!  The shots are still undercover until the December issue of Marlin Magazine but the video will give you some idea of what we were doing.  Another big thank you to Keith, Josie, Matt and Courtney on the Click Through!

Getting the Shot- video

Getting Better

The wind has howled non-stop since Tuesday, pushing the seas to a very bouncy 6 to 8 ft.  Yesterday we took a break from the body bashing and enjoyed a day snorkeling and scuba diving.  With seas that rough jumping overboard for in water shots becomes tricky and dangerous.  It's more the crawling through the marlin door in the transom than anything else.  In 8-foot seas the entry through the high transom goes from eye level to high above your head in an instant, revealing the shiny, sharp blades of propellors and rudders.  Needless to say, I spent today in the boat, my long 400mm lens attached.  Fishing has slowed for this time of year, slow being a relative term, with most boats releasing one or two blues.  The first of our fish gave us a dramatic aerial display just before being released. The second went more quietly.  Although I enjoy the excitement of trying for those marlin jump shots, I'm getting very antsy to get back in the water and have another shot at a blue below the surface.  The wind is starting to drop and tomorrow is a new day.

Wednesday=Wind!

The forecast wind and swell arrived.  Need I say more?

Entourage

The wind and swell arrived.  It was a lumpy start which just got bigger as the day went on.  I jumped in on a strike which turned out to be a wahoo that ate the skirt clean off a teaser.  The silly 40 lb fish stayed with the dangling teasers as I swam back, posturing at the suspended lures until it almost choked on a leader it didn’t see.  The next fish was a blue.  It hit the same pink squid chain off the right rigger that was so popular yesterday and then transferred to one of the new Fathom Offshore clear, soft head, prototype lures.  Andy and Brandon from Fathom stopped by the gallery the day before I left to drop off some new designs to test.  This marlin loved it!  He grabbed the soft head and would not let go, tearing line off the teaser rod in Keith’s hands.  He eventually turned and headed straight for the boat, the lure still in his mouth.  He was now body out, mouth open, hookless lure still in his mouth.  It was like a marlin running of the bulls.   I must admit I thought twice about getting in with this guy!

Family Group

I jumped in to find nothing.  He was gone!  As I made my way back to the boat 100 or so yards away, I heard a series of clicks and squeaks.  I couldn’t see anything in the crystal clear water but knew quickly that I was not only hearing but feeling the sonic waves of echo location from a pod of dolphins.  Just as I got back to the marlin door to climb on board, a pair of spotted, Atlantic bottlenose dolphins buzzed passed.  Up ahead I saw another larger family group enjoying the pressure plate of water pushed by the bow of Click Through.  They were relaxing, playing, and even mating, quite happy to whizz past me in small groups, I’m sure wondering what the hell I was doing there.  Half an hour later I got on the boat.  Life is good!

Tomorrow morning's forecast is for 10′ seas and 23 knots of wind.  Click Through is putting hooks back in tomorrow after two days of helping me get my in-water shots.  I’m going to put on my long lens and relax in the air-conditioning of the salon, maybe watch a few movies.  I will try for some jump shots in the rock and roll weather.  It’s not conducive to getting in the water. It will for sure be a while before I can beat today's entourage.

Epic Day!

 Where do I begin? Thankfully, the forecast swells and wind did not arrive today.  The morning started with a great sunrise and just got better from there.  Bright sunshine gave us fantastic light and the sea was calm with a series of long rolling swells.  Action in the morning was quiet.  Unfortunately there is no "How to Shoot Photos of Blue Marlin" handbook.  It's very much of a "what if we do this or what if we try that?" kind of game.  The first fish we raised was a disaster.  It attacked the right squid chain after smashing up the right long.  The crew called it as I got ready.  I jumped in and saw nothing, but as I spun around just passing the long teaser I saw the blue hiding in the prop wash.  He seemed to understand that I couldn't get a clean shot of him in there.  Seconds later he was gone.  It was over before it had even begun.

 

We went into a post-play huddle to work out what had gone wrong.  With a few adjustments to the play book the next blue presented itself an hour later.  This time we were on the money.  As I got in the water right behind the squid chain was a blue bearing down on me like a freight train.  This fish and I were on a collision course and it was making no signs of changing his mind. There I was playing chicken with a blue marlin.  I held on to the camera, pulled the shutter release, and waited for the bang!  He just missed hitting me and disappeared after the teaser.  I checked the LCD display, and I had it!!!   As I swam back to the boat I was joined by a bull shark who followed me, getting closer.  I would turn and he'd move away but was straight back on my heels the moment I turned my back.  

 

Back at the boat the guys were still playing with the marlin.  He was climbing all over a hookless teaser Tommy was casting to him and would alternate hits with the squid chain still hanging from the teaser.  I arrived back just in time to watch him swim away all lit up in luminous hues of blue.

I think we're starting to get the hang of this and will be back out tomorrow to try it again.

Hope

Packing For St Thomas

As you may know we are moving to a new blog more initigrated into the website.  I'm dulicating the blog here for a few more entries until the traffic has moved.  To view the new blog click here. www.occhioinc.com/blog

The last few weeks have been hell.  This year has seen one of the biggest white marlin runs ever here in North Carolina.  Between Ocean City and Oregon Inlet the white marlin have been going ballistic.  One boat released 57 in a single trip.  And I’ve been stuck in the gallery.  By last weekend I’d had enough and decided I could squeeze out a short break from the office early in the week.  I traveled up to Pirate’s Cove on Monday afternoon to join the Waste Knot for a late-season shot at the action.  I stood on the end of the dock and watched as the Waste Knot came under the bridge.  As she made the turn down the channel, I noticed that her starboard rigger was jammed tight with blue flags showing off 14 white marlin releases for the day.  They had hit bait ball after bait ball with white marlin cutting sardines and minnows with some 50-pound yellow fin tuna mixed in for some spice.  This was it, I was convinced.  I was not too late!
We left the dock at 5:30 the next morning under breezy conditions with a forecast for a perfect day.  I hadn’t slept all night, like a kid at Christmas hoping for his first bike.  Cameras were prepped, mentally I was ready, the shot I wanted so well-visualized in my mind it was as good as hanging in the gallery.  The day ended a skunk.  Not a single white marlin in sight.  I was devastated.  The only consolation was the fact that I was l leaving for St. Thomas in a few days for another chance at a way more elusive adversary, the blue marlin.  It’s this hope of the next great shot that keeps me doing this insane and often seemingly impossible thing that I do.
Yesterday, while packing for St. Thomas, I got a phone message from Keith English, the owner of Click Through, the 68′ Wanchese that I was to be working on in the Virgin Islands.  He said, “Have you seen the weather forecast for the islands?  It’s looking really nasty all week.  The forecast is for 9′ seas and 20 knot winds off the fishing grounds of the North Drop and it’s going to rain–a lot.”

I left messages for a few captains down in St. T., including Matt, the captain of the Click Through.  Then I called the airlines to cancel.  Matt called me back with the news that, yes, the weather was crappy, but boats where hooking up 6+ blues a day.  I spent the afternoon changing my mind every 10 minutes, like that Clash song, “Should I stay or should I go? If I go there will be trouble, if I stay it will be double.”  Call it potential, possibility, or even hope, but I guess I suffer from that uniquely human trait that allows us, in the face of very small odds to believe that there is a chance I can pull this off.
It’s with this hope in mind that I sit writing the first entry to my St. Thomas blog from the airport on my way south.  I will try to update daily over the next week as I try for my blue shot.  You can also follow me daily on my SPOT tracker in real time.  I hope you will join me.

We are packing up and moving blog sites.

Hi,
Well for those of you who have been following my blog over the last year, you will soon see a new look and address.  In an effort to intergrate our blog into the website we've moved it to a new home.  So bookmark this address www.occhioinc.com/blog and follow us around in future from there.  Thank you to the almost 3000 people who have been reading our blog so far!

The link below is a link to our current Occhio newsletter, take a read and  learn more about what's up with Occhio and what's coming up soon.
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs045/1103105356571/archive/1103583958851.html
Cheers
Marc