The Schiffers: Day 10 - Fishing with Ocean Surfari

Thomas and Anna posing with a Skip Jack Tuna - first one of the day!

Today was our first day out on a fish charter. We were fortunate to have Mark, our captain, with Ocean Surfari take us out today.

Originally the day started with nothing but rain. Mark called me around 1pm to tell me the charter was cancelled for the day due to the storms. I convinced him to re-evalute the trip after checking the weather one last time and see if we could reschedule to go out an hour later. It seemed that an hour is all we needed. The storms dissipated and the thunder was silenced.

We ended up leaving the docks at 2:30pm and headed past St. John to a place called South Point. South Point is about 6 miles southeast of St. Thomas and is a reef where it drops off to 3,000 feet. Places a little further out drop to a little over 14,000 feet.

Mark wrangling the hook out!

Thomas, Anna & Mark with the Caribbean Reef Shark.

It wasn’t long until we had lines in the water and started trolling for Tuna. It didn’t take but a couple of minutes before one of the lines started streaming. “Fish on! Fish on!” Thomas grabbed for the pole and started reeling. Mark got him positioned in the chair and than the real reeling began. As soon as Thomas started reeling, another pole started squealing. I jumped on the pole and reeled a bit, before the fish came off. Thomas reeled for a couple more minutes and brought up a beautiful Skipjack Tuna.

Thomas and I both hooked on!

The lines went silent for about 30-40 minutes and then it started with a fury. We pulled up a Blackfin Tuna and then Mark rigged up one of the poles with one of the half bitten tunas we brought in. The catch was to be a shark and that’s exactly what we managed to get. Thomas hooked right into a Caribbean Reef Shark. This bad boy was a cool 100 pounds and man handled this guy right to the boat.

Anna's Rainbow Runner

Mark then went and rigged up a bunch of lines with live bait. LET THE REELING BEGIN!!! We landed all kinds of fish! The coolest fish I think we caught that we had to release was one called a Horse Eye Jack.

Mark told me that certain reef fish, along with Barracuda, which feed on smaller fish have a certain bacteria called "Ciguatera". In this part of the Caribbean it is highly recommend NOT to eat those type of fish. Trust me, after he explained the effects and as much as I like fish, you won't see us eating any we catch.

Anna, Thomas and I caught a bunch of Rainbow Runners and before we knew it was time to start heading back to the docks.