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

Big Last Day

All good things must come to an end.  Today saw the first day of the Bermuda Billfish Classic and my last day on the water with the Click Through crew.  Click Through took the day prize, is in the lead for the Billfish Classic, and now is right on the transom of Que Mas for the whole Bermuda Triple Crown.  Three blue marlin released in a single day is a great day's fishing for one boat in anyone's book.  My hat's off to a top class owner and crew. The weather wasn't as cooperative with pouring rain and 4' to 6' seas.  Not a good day for photography except for a few parade shots from this morning.

Tomorrow I board a plane back to Morehead City after a fantastic week. Keith and Josie English have been incredible hosts.  The crew of Captain Matt Mauldwin, mates Courtney Stanley and Rustan Rood were top notch.  Asking a world class crew to "fish" with no hooks for a few days so I could get some pix was a tall order.  Needless to say it was all smiles the day the hooks went back into the lures. Highlights this week were of course jumping into the path of high speed lures and coming face to face with hunting white marlin as they exploded out of the cloud of cavitation.  These were starting steps toward the blue shot, but showing a lot of promise.

I bid farewell to beautiful Bermuda as I make plans for my next adventure chasing blues with the same crew in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands in just a few months.

White Hot Bermuda

To see the video, click here.


Today was spectacular!  The ocean was slick, calm, and burple it was so clear.  Under a bright sun we made the trip to Challenger Bank.  The plan was to try and tease a marlin to within photo range of the camera from behind the boat. That meant trawling a spread of hookless lures which would raise a fish close enough to the boat for us to see it, then in a matter of seconds, I needed to be kitted up with free-dive gear and camera and jump from the moving boat, right myself, point the camera toward the speeding lures and hope there was something still following behind.

The captain, Matt Mauldwin, mates Courtney Stanley and Rustan Rood were incredible.  First calling the fish before I could see it as it swam up and then guiding the lines over my head once I was in the water.  The first raised fish happened so fast.  No sooner had I cleared the cloud of cavitation than there it was heading straight for me.  I'm not sure who got a bigger fright, me or the white marlin.  On reviewing the footage we found that there had been two whites, one on the short rigger, the other on the long.  As I approached the fish it was in full feed prey response mode attacking the lure, in an instant it made a 90 degree turn and in a split second dulled its stripes, turning a very pale white.  It raised its dorsal a time or two and then retracted it into the recess on its back while hightailing it back to the lures now a hundred yards away.

This behavior was pretty standard for all the fish we raised, four whites and a blue who disappeared before I got to him.  All in all a great day on the water with more to follow tomorrow.

Bermuda Billfish Blast

It's the end of a great two days of fishing.  The Bermuda Billfish Blast is the first of three Bermudian marlin tournaments.  The Bermuda Billfish Blast, the Bermuda Classic and the Seahorse make up the Triple Crown which, to force an analogy, could be called the Kentucky Derby of marlin fishing.  The crews, owners, and boats are of the highest pedigree.  Being in Bermuda makes it all the more civil, with short pants, ties, and English accents.  This weekend's Bermuda Blast runs concurrent with one of the most interesting marlin tournaments in the world,  the World Cup.

If you sign up,  for one day on the 4th of July you may fish any destination around the world that has a qualified weigh station.  The last time zones are still fishing as I hack away but so far there is a 1097 lb. fish from Cape Verde on the Happy Hooker, that's a big fish to beat!  It's kinda cool to think about all the tournament fleets catching the light as the world turns to chase a single fish in a world-wide challenge.  Check back for final results which are far from certain as the light disappears over the horizon here in beautiful Bermuda.

As for the Bermuda Blast, yesterday was the release day of the tournament.  Marlin could not be killed and were all released for points.  Que Mas blew the fleet away with five blue marlin releases.  We ended yesterday in second spot with two released blues on Click Through.  The sea laid this morning as we left Pitt's Bay full of anticipation.  Que Mas exploded through the gate with a hook up after lines in, which they dropped.  A few fish were released today but it was slow fishing.  We saw nothing, which ultimately bumped us into third place.  After yesterday's bite, which saw Bermuda on form, today was quiet.  No fish were killed in the tournament.

Tomorrow we switch from tournament mode back to photo mode in search of the blue.  I will hopefully have more photos and video for you then.

Clicking through the blues and white!

Blue Marlin Video
I've been slow posting for the last two days because of an almost non-existent wireless signal at the marina.  However I'm now back.  I've figured out that it's much better to make my way from the boat to the yacht club bar area where the signal seems to be strongest.

Wednesday was one of the best fishing days I've had without even seeing a fish. The Click Through crew have dived right in and are incredible in trying to help with my impossible shot of a free swimming blue.  On Wednesday we decided as a group to start at the bottom and test a few "there is no way" techniques to cross them off the "this is how we did it" list.  At one stage I thought we needed a film crew from Jack Ass to get me jumping overboard doing 8 kts with a 15-pound housing in my hands and then trying to find the raised fish in the prop wash.  Doing the calculations, the marlin is traveling at probably somewhere around 20 kts to catch the teaser which is traveling around 8 kts.  Once I jump in and come to an instant stop, that pointy fish comes out of the cavitation clouds VERY quickly...oops!

After yesterday, we are now becoming a well-oiled machine.  If this works it's because of the team.  I find myself part of a practiced crew.  That said, there are a few people on board still getting used to the fact that we are pulling hookless lures through these marlin rich waters.

Today we woke up to rain and clouds.  It's not the time to waste a less than perfect photo environment on a "hookless" experiment.  Instead, we put the hooks back and shot some VIDEO plus a few stills.  We started with a blue marlin this morning followed by my first white marlin underwater, both released (above: Courtney Stanley releases a white marlin).  The afternoon saw a nice blue dropped and half a dozen tire-kicking white marlin tugs at the big lures.  All of course good training for the first tournament starting Saturday (I had dates mixed up in a previous post).  All in all, a good day!

Land of men in ties and short pants.

My internet connection at the marina is very slow so this is going to be short and sweet.  Things are coming together.  The boat is awesome.  Keith, Matt, and the crew are stoked to help with my shoot so we're off to give it a go today.  When we get back to the dock this afternoon I'll try to find a more reliable internet connection for a more in-depth update.  I'll fire up the SPOT soon to give you an idea of where we are.

Tomorrow the tournaments start with the Bermuda Blast and I'll be back to jump and release shots.

It's on...Bermuda in the morning!

The last two weeks have seen my Bermuda trip on again, postponed, off again, on again.  Due to business commitments in Raleigh, the Waste Knot crew had to cancel their Bermuda plans.  During the Big Rock I met the owners of the Click Through, a 68' Wanchese.  Keith and Josie English seemed very keen to help try and tease up a blue for me in Bermuda between tournaments.  I'll be joining them, captain Matt Mauldwin, and mate Courtney Stanley for what I hope will be an epic 10 days!

That epic 10 days starts tomorrow morning with a 6:00 AM flight out of New Bern to Atlanta where I'll meet the crew and then on to Hamilton to meet the boat.  That means I need to be leaving the house tomorrow morning by 3:45 AM at the latest.  As usual, I will be blogging daily, adding new pix and generally providing a behind the scenes look at what goes into a shoot like this.

First and foremost there are never any guarantees with this sort of thing.  A shot of a blue marlin three feet from my lens in crystal clear "burple" water is my holy grail.  It's not a shot I can get by calling up my local PADI dive shop and booking myself onto the 8:00 AM two tank.  It's going to take trial and error with a great crew to tease a fish up and then keeping her lit and in prey response mode around the boat while I get as close as I can.  Teasing entails raising her first with hookless natural baits trolled behind the boat.  Once raised and feeding, the mates pull the teaser strips away from her, then feed her again, pull the bait away and feed, and so on, until she's trying to climb into the cockpit of the boat after the bait.  At some stage during all of this, the plan is for me to slip into the water and get between her and her food.  Sounds simple enough, right?

The reality of the situation is that this shot could take me 10 years to get.  This is the shot that keeps me awake at night and that I've played over and over again in my head.  Every shot I chase I try to visualize beforehand.  It's like a lighting bolt of déja vu if it happens, the instant the picture in my head and what's going on in the viewfinder collide.  For every fished raised there is probably only a 5% chance that that's going to be my fish--the one who will behave as predicted, point her bill right at me, come storming at the camera doing 20 kts and, hopefully, turn at the last 100th of a second, mouth open, eye in focus, and CLICK.

Starting tomorrow you will be able to track me in real time on my SPOT each day I'm in Bermuda.  Right now I'm trying to load 200 pounds of camera and dive gear into two 50 pounds bags and then I'm going to try to get some sleep before I have to get up at 3 o'clock tomorrow morning.

Slow Days of Fishing, Big Big Rock Drama and Bermuda Delays

As the last week's events become Big Rock history, I sit here grateful that I made it through, sleep-deprived, stiff and aching, but done nevertheless.  The week was fantastic in terms of gallery traffic and sales.  It's so great to see our brand come to life right before our very eyes.  For us on the Waste Knot it was a slow week-- basically no fish.  For the Citation, it was seven days beyond belief.  Their week started with a Big Rock record fish on Monday and ended today with a possible disqualifying loss of $900,000 because one crew member didn't have a fishing license!!!  Check out this link http://www.jdnews.com/sports/rock-79581-city-rules.html.

My Bermudian departure has also been put back a few days until next Sunday.  A little disappointing, but practical in terms of catching up after this week's mayhem.  I will keep the blog updated as we go.

Big Rock Day 1

I'm back in my office with a river of people passing by to see the Big Rock scales next door.  Citation out of Hatteras Village has just weighed a Big Rock all-time record blue marlin at 883 lbs (more than 400 kgs).  Although not a "dead fish kind of guy" myself, it is an incredible experience to witness thousands of people flocking to see this one fish.  It's one of those Catch 22s.  A great fish is dead, but it now lives in the minds of so many people, especially children.  They can see and recognize its grandeur and, for the most part, realize the importance of its preservation.  It's ironic that thousands of fish like this are killed commercially every day around the world to feed our cats, dogs, and chickens, and die in the holds of steel meat factories where they end up as protein bulking agent white flakes to be fed to livestock.  The death of this great fish in the sportfishing context will ensure the protection of others of its species because of the nature of the sportsman's passion.  Congratulations to Citation and the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.  What an excellent use of a great and noble resource.

For me the day was fantastic even with out a hook up.  The Waste Knot is an incredible environment from which to fish.  It's not just the molded teak, fine finishes, and almost 4000 HP.  Jarrett Bay has combined muscle and beauty into a single, organic fishing entity.  We left the dock just after 5:00 AM and two hours later were almost 100 miles out across the Gulf Stream, a river within the ocean, in water as warm and azure blue as the center of the Caribbean.  Big blue marlin fishing is a big risk/big reward kind of deal.  It's stuff you see on t-shirts like "go big or go home" and "if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen".  Today we went big into the hottest kitchen you could imagine, a hundred miles from home, in another time zone, in search of a 883 lb+ fish.  We missed, but after the last nine weeks of construction debris and paint, it felt FANTASTIC!  I shot some fun video with the new Canon 1D Mark IV which is blowing my mind and generally got salty and sunburned which was a remedy for my soul.

Although 883 lbs is a tough number to beat we will be at it again tomorrow.

Occhio Gallery and Big Rock

There’s an old saying that sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the light of an oncoming train.  That’s about where I find myself right now, sitting squarely on the tracks facing the biggest weekend of  the year barreling toward me in the form of the 52^nd annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.

First I need to back up to about 9 weeks ago.  My partners and I found a quaint old waterfront store here in Morehead City.  It was perfectly located between the world famous Sanitary Restaurant and Fish Market and the headquarters and weigh station for the equally famous Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.  The building hadn’t been occupied in years and could only being described as a “fixer upper”.  A few days later we signed a lease and took on what we thought would just be a bit of spit and polish to get the building in shape as the new Occhio Gallery and headquarters.  We worked out a budget and set to work, inviting qualified friends and family down to the beach for the weekend, where we then cleverly Shanghaied them into putting in intense hours of hard, physical labor on the new building.

The budget was blown in the first few days and I’m now on a first name basis with staff at the city dump as well as the local mega home improvement store.  City officials here in Morehead were great, helping us meet impossible deadlines.  We were literally unpacking our stock minutes before the first customers entered the gallery and some of the paint was still drying.  It was a very long, hard, and tiring process.  One that defines the phrase, “If I only knew then what I know now…”  Click here here to see the whole process in pictures.

But it’s done and I’m happy to say it turned out better than we could have ever imagined.  It’s a cool space to come and talk about fish and fishing—a great place to hang out and, of course, buy stuff.  In our gallery space we have amazing underwater DVDs playing on the big screen TV surrounded by massive aluminum prints of underwater life from around the world, especially sailfish and marlin.  Luke Pearson just did a fantastic job of editing my raw footage from my last Isla Mujeres trip, Click here to see it on Youtube.  Along with the gallery and prints we also have a large selection of posters, greeting cards, postcards, decals, and t-shirts featuring prints from the Occhio gallery.  In addition to Occhio’s branded merchandise we also offer a few products that we felt blended well in the great new space.  Some are fun, like our SweeTea t-shirts and BoHo handcrafted long boards.  Other items are more practical for your life on the water, like OluKai footwear, Kaenon Polarized sunglasses, and Fishworks Proven Products technical clothing.  We are also the exclusive retailer for Vitek Sail products.  North Carolina-based designer Lauren Vitek has provided us with a great selection of her fashionable bags and totes made from recycled sails.

Both the gallery and store are now open and in the capable hands of the dynamic Donna McNeely, who is managing the store and gallery, as well as online sales.  Please check out our website over the next week to see our new products as they are listed. 

My work here on the gallery is done for now.  After postponing trips to Guatemala and Malta to finish the store, I need my blue water camera fix.  I’m writing this blog entry at my new desk in my office located in the back of the store.  From my 6’x6’ picture window I’m looking directly over the sterns of a few sport-fishing boats moored at our dock, and I can see Sugar Loaf island 100 yards across the channel, as well as the Intra-coastal Waterway and Core Banks Island.  At my feet are my camera bags—the Isla Mujeres tags from the March trip pitifully scrunched up around the handles.  I need to get back in the water!

Big Rock kicks off with the Keli Wagner Big Rock Lady Angler Tournament—a charitable event to raise money for the fight against breast cancer, and which serves as the precursor for the main event.  In the words of Jimmy Buffet “Come Monday…” it’s full steam ahead for one of the largest blue marlin tournaments on the U.S. continent with a purse that could be as high as the 7 figures!  The Big Rock!  This means a lot of big boats fishing hard and, if conditions are right, a lot of blue marlin action.  By far the majority of the fish will be tagged and released.  A few large fish will be weighed.  State, federal and, most importantly, high tournament minimum weights for a fish to be killed make the Big Rock an excellent use of the incredible summer blue marlin resource along this part of the Atlantic coast.

Blue Marlin action means I want to get wet.  I’m going to be using the Canon 1D Mark IV camera body for the first time and hope to capture a blue release underwater, not only on stills but also with this camera’s incredible HD video option.  That is if we can hook up.  I’ll be riding along with my business partners on the incredible Waste Knot, a 68’ sport-fishing machine.  The Waste Knot was built just up the road in Beaufort, NC, by Jarrett Bay and represents the pinnacle of sport fishing yachts.  So stay tuned for regular updates and track me in real time… come Monday.

Done Deal

I'm sitting in the Margaritaville Cafe at the Cancun airport waiting for my flight.  My previous blog didn't happen due in no small part to an intermittent internet connection.  Yesterday was my last day.  Doug Wall, my host, joined us just in time for the wind to switch to the Southeast and start to blow like hell.  We decided to give it the old college try regardless.  To use the correct maritime terminology, we got the snot slapped out of us for 4 hours in 4 to 6 foot seas, very short wave periods, and winds gusting at 25 knots plus.  I enjoyed the ride watching everyone get soaked from the air-conditioned comfort of the leather couch in the well-appointed salon.  George, the mate, raked up some really nice bonitos.  Things like weather become a lot less stressful when you've already got what you came for.

This last week has been amazing, I hope the photos do the experience some justice.  The sailfish is one of the most elegant of all the game fish and one of the fastest.  The sail has the grace of a flamenco dancer with her flowing skirt and fine foot work and the timing of a matador.  The bigger bill fish have their raw power and brawn but the sail is a true master swordsman, an artist with the bill and cape.  To see them en masse and lit up like the Vegas strip was incredible.  Life is good!

It's now back to Morehead City to get these images working and start setting up for the next trip.  Guatemala in April at Casa Vieja is looking good and then in late May it's off to the Med for big bluefin tuna (yes, there are still a few left there).  As the spring turns to summer I will be working off the North Carolina coast with some of my favorite boats and captains.  I'm looking forward to getting some shots of the great Carolina marlin fishery.  Thank you again for all the emails, comments, and Facebook messages from those of you enjoying the blog. As of this morning we are just short of 1000 visitors this week.  A big thank you to Doug Wall for the invite on his great boat, Captain Larry "The Switch" Toma and mate George for their patience this week.  There are not many fishing captains that will literally park their boat over a bait ball for more than three hours and watch while a hundred sailfish circle the boat eating bait inches from the transom and not have a single line out.  Larry, you are a strong man.

Cheers from Mexico.

Marc

In the "Can"

El Milagro Marina, Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Another great day!  Captain Larry had us in the birds before we even got to the starting waypoint.  I was in the water with a bait ball within 20 minutes of leaving the dock.  We started with low, early morning light so I decided to go with video to begin.  Here is a link to todays VIDEO.  Sorry about the sound track; it's all I could get royalty-free from YouTube.  Stay tuned for the high quality DVD version.  One shot in particular stands out, another near miss from a sail's bill. Speaking of which, I saw a sailfish today with another sail's bill broken off at the base of its tail.  This I've seen in marlin before but the first time in a sail.

Today Larry and the crew had getting into the water with the bait down to a science.  The fact that the dolphins were gone was a BIG help.  So much so that I was able to shoot 15 minutes of video, swim back the boat to swap cameras, get back in the water with the same bait ball, shoot 300 images to fill my 8 gig card, swim back to the boat, dry off, enjoy a snack, download and view my images, change lenses, and get back in the water just in time to see the last 5 sardines get eaten.  The last one took refuge around my neck.  I had 4 or 5 sails circling me, eyeing the stowaway.  Finally one sail made a move and snatched the sardine from literally under my nose.  As he passed, for a split second we were eye to eye, a few inches apart. WOW!

I have one day left with the chance of a big blow tomorrow from the southeast.  As it stands, this trip has produced images way above those I wanted. I'm stoked with what I have in the "can".  From the around 1500 images I have shot I will choose probably three for prep and printing into limited edition fine art prints which will be added to the fine art collection on my website.  I will also produce a range of sailfish posters and note cards which will be available from the online store in the coming weeks.  The video side of things is new to Occhio, but with some post-production editing I am going to try and produce a 15 minute DVD of a sailfish bait ball.  Keep coming back to the website for updates.

Thanks to the almost 700 people who have read my blog over the last few days and for all your Facebook messages and emails.  It has really been great to share this trip with you.  I've had several requests for more information on the island of Isla Mujeres itself.  Once I'm done with tomorrow's trip I will take a drive through town and try to get some local interest shots.  Today I've added a shot of the El Milagro Marina where we've been based.  Click here to follow a link to their website.

A Day Festooned with Pristine Beauty and Brilliance

The title I stole from a dive travel writer years ago.  I would laugh with friends about it and say, "What the hell is festooned with pristine beauty and brilliance anyway?"  Well today my day was festooned with pristine beauty and brilliance!  I have video to prove it.  Click on this youtube link to see the video that I shot with my Canon 1Ti.  The winds switched to the summer trades from the southeast.  When we rounded the western tip of Isla there wasn't a whitecap insight.  As we approached the "start" waypoint we could see the horizon literally covered in birds, their flying patterns very different from the herding bird wild goose chase we had been on yesterday.  As we approached the first of the feeding pods we realized that it wasn't just sailfish; there were dolphin (mammals not dolphin fish) everywhere.

The water was cold and green and. with the time of day, there was very little light.  I jumped in on the first bait ball which seem to be traveling a million miles per hour into the current and far from me.  I got in and three seconds later there was a trail of sardines, sailfish, dolphins and frigate birds headed for the horizon.  This went on and on, in the boat, out the boat, in the boat, etc.  Our practiced true and tried tactics from Friday had no effect on today's action.  It didn't take long for me to work out who the %&@# culprits were... the dolphins!  After today if I never see another dolphin it will be too soon.

The success we'd had earlier this week was based on getting the bait ball under the boat and calming things down before I jumped in.  The bait would then hang around me as it perceived shelter from the attacking sails.  But Flipper and friends wouldn't allow any sort of respite and relentlessly drove the bait into the path of other dolphins, leaving the sails to take opportunistic shots at the bait while the dolphins regrouped.

This went on for almost two hours turning my legs to jelly trying to swim after the fast moving action.  Captain Larry finally found a small bait ball far from the intersecting mayhem that surrounded us for miles.  The same culprits were there but the scale was smaller and more isolated.  This ball was also in cleaner water.  We soon worked out a new game plan:  attack, attack, attack.  I'm talking Tora! Tora! Tora!  Larry would back right into the ball causing Flipper and Company to back off long enough for me to get in and take over the bait.  The sails would soon return, I'm convince relieved that the bullies had been driven off and they could now set up the hold and strike patterns which work so well for them.  This would give me about 5 or 10 minutes where I was in a position to breath, think, and shoot without finning at high speed.  The dolphins would wait on the perimeter of visibility for the sails to open a gap and let the sardines make a run for it.  There would be a volley of squeaks and clicks and mammals would come charging in between the sardines and me and dive the ball off into the distance out of my reach.

A big leg workout but worth all the effort.  Watching the interaction between the mammal and fish predators was amazing.  Unfortunately the dolphins would not allow me close enough to photograph them. After jumping in with them the first few times it was obvious that these were not bottlenose dolphins.  After looking at the video, I'm going to guess that they were rough tooth or steno dolphins. After three or four hours of getting in and out of the boat my legs gave up. I put on the long lens for jump shots and sat back as the crew put out lines. Almost immediately they were into a triple sailfish hookup. Life is good.

Back at the dock early, cold Dos Equis in hand, it's a great end to a day festooned in pristine beauty and brilliance!

Herd a' Birds

Click on any image to enlarge.

Early morning light on the water, combined with a choppy sea is sharp and ominous.  Traveling into the rising sun, the sea this morning looked ink black.  The forecast held steady for a brisk NE wind which was chilly to say the least.  Has anybody told the person in charge of weather that it's March in Mexico?
We rode the chop the 8 miles or so to our usual start waypoint and on cue Captain Larry and George, the mate, spotted the birds.  We made the mile or so correction to follow them but never seemed to arrive at the point where they were working.  This was going to prove a common trend today.

No sooner had we found the birds and arrived,  they would pull skyward and start circling in high vertical columns that O'Hare traffic control would be proud of.  They became like mirages in the desert, what appeared to be a mass of frigate birds in the distance evaporated before our eyes as we approached. As someone on the boat described it "this is like herding birds".  We did get an opportunity for a quick jump in, finally finding a small bait ball.  I was able to keep up for a few minutes then BANG every sardine, sailfish and bird was gone, Harry Houdini style!

Giving up on chasing the birds from the water we laid a spread of  ballyhoo rigs and started trolling towards the frigates deciding that if they were there when we got there, bonus, if not no worries.  It didn't take long to turn up ACDC on the stereo... suddenly the sun came out, the birds circled above and we had 3 sails having a block party in the spread to the sounds of  Back in Black and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap?  Either way rock 'n roll seem to work, I highly recommend it!

We released 3 sailfish around midday.  This gave me an opportunity to break out the long lens and take my camera out of the housing to try for a few jump shots.  These are the shots the the fishing magazine editors are always after.  I on the other hand am normally dangling off the transom, with my camera housing pleading with the captain to let me get in the water.  It's a steep learning curve and although I got a few keepers, I have a long way to go.

We finished up this afternoon with the conditions getting better and better.  In fact I'm sitting on the boat right now with the sun setting,  a very gentle breeze pushing the El Milagro hammocks around under the palm trees at the end of the dock, cold Pacifico in hand...life is good.