Was out fishing about 40 miles offshore in blue water trolling around a rig. HIT! Ah, another damn King Mackerel, poor eating we always release. It was just under three feet. Got it to the back of the boat and up on the top of the ladder platform by the engine. Had a hook remover trying to get the hook out.
Suddenly the shape of a levitation rises from the deep. An enormous male porpoise sticks his head out of the water and grabs the tail of the King. I hit it on the head with the back of the hook remover, we don’t want it to take it before we get the hook and wire leader off. It lets go. I get wounded by the king’s sharp teeth as it is flopping around as I pull it up to rest on the top of the gunnel to try and get the hook out again. On Plavix I am now bleeding far more than the wound would suggest. Fish blood, Rack blood fish slime, it was fun.
Up he comes again. His head right there looking into the boat and he grabs it once more. I slapped him in the face with a bloody hand. He took the back third of it and went down again. Swam in a circle and came back up for the rest of it. It’s like we were becoming pals. Finally got the hook out of the king and it fell in and he took it and then with it in his jaws, did a little dance and tail slap – which seemed a THANKS to us – as he sped away.
One of those things that happens OUT THERE that you never forget. Like the 12′ hammerhead that circled our boat for an hour thinking about eating the barking dog we assumed he though a seal. Or the 2000 pound Ocean Sun fish what we stopped at with an entire biosphere around him of albino remoras.
Down side? Sean’s girlfriend had Sean’s phone in hand but couldn’t figure how to get the video going. Turns out Sean had it secure on thumb print or some damn thing. NOT THE LADY’S FAULT. He learned that a thumb full of blood and fish slime does not get you in.