The Helen-S VI
Me
fishing on the Helen-S
(Eric sitting behind me)
Eric was seriously into
fishing and he found a three day, two night fishing cruise to the Bahama
island of Bimini and then he talked Paul, Craig and I into going.
Bimini
is a small island just sixty miles off the east coast of Florida so it
is an easy boat ride to it. We drove down to Pompano Beach early
Friday morning and boarded the Helen S VI. The
Helen-S IV described as “the pride of a small feet of fishing
vessels, built with long range trips in mind. In 1971, she was
christened with the sole purpose of running trips to the Bahamas.” The
boat left port mid-morning for the four hour trip to Bimini arriving in
time for a good half day of fishing. The Helen S. was a nice clean boat,
seating for fishing along each side of a large interior galley, the boat
could accommodate 30 people on each side (60 total) but there were
only
half that many on the cruise so there was plenty of room. The boat
didn’t have sleeping quarters so each night we docked at Bimini and
stayed the only hotel on the island. After checking in we had dinner at
a restaurant in the town and went to bed early for the boat left just
after sunrise Saturday morning for a full day of fishing.
Fishing
was good, with us each catching a number of grouper, snapper and a few
other smaller fish. It was fun but tiring in the hot sun and I had to
take a break in the airconditioned interior galley. At the beginning of
the cruise we all put money into a pot which then each day, the person
who caught the biggest fish that day one a portion of it. The first two
days a couple of ten to fifteen pounders were caught with me catching a
few three to five pounders. I had never caught such fish before.
Fishing in freshwater the biggest thing I ever caught was a good sized
catfish although Dad once caught a five pound bass but none of that
compared to the fish we were catching. We returned to Bimini at the
end of the second day, again had dinner at the hotel which had a small
reggae band playing so we listened to it while we had a couple more
beers before turning in.
Just
before the trip I bought a new
Polaroid SX-70
camera which made instant prints. It was an expensive camera at
$150 (about $500 today) and a film pack costing $7, but it was really
cool to be able to take pictures and see them in minutes. A nice
feature was the cameral could fold flat making it easier to carry. What
also was kind of neat about the photos is there was a white space at the
bottom of the photo to write about it.
The third day we again
left at sunrise for a half day fishing before heading back to Florida
when we were not having much luck, so the Captain move to a new spot and
we got into a school of Amberjack’s. I had never seen such large fish, a
several twenty pounders were caught and a couple of 30’s. We all had
our lines out when the captain announced, “Pull in your lines, time to
head for home.” At that moment a fish hit my line, and my reel started
screaming as the line rapidly played out. Everyone else on the boat had
pulled in their lines, I was the only one with a fish. The fish I
caught stopped going out, my pole bent over almost in half as I started
reeling the fish in, I could tell it was a big one. With no one else
fishing, they all gathered around me and watched when, with about half
the line back on the reel, the fish took off on another run, the line
screamed as it played out but not as long, nor as much as the first
time. The fish stopped running and I soon was again reeling the fish
in. Being the only one with a line out as helped as the captain
maneuvered the boat so that my line didn’t get tangled in the propellers
when the fish dove under the boat. Soon the fish started to become
visible in the water,
I
pulled harder, the fish rose to just under the surface and people were
saying “it’s a big one” when the fish took off on another run. Tt was
tiring and didn’t go far when I reeled it back to the surface and then
to the side of the boat where the crew, using a long gaff, hooked the
fish. It took two of the crew to pull it out of the water and onto the
boat where it was weighed. 52 pounds, I won the pot for the day and the
big pot for the biggest fish of the trip, a $150 total.
Updated: 03-14-2023