This is a trip that has been over a year in the making. As many of you know my daughter Joelie has been my shadow and hunting and fishing buddy since she was born! She started shooting and hunting with her own rifle at the age of 3. She is a very accomplished hunter already and works very hard to achieve her goal.

Starting last year she has been saltwater fishing with me and late last summer we made our first offshore trip together on our boat the Ollie Dora. Since her first trip she has been hooked. Up to this point she has caught all the popular bay fish as well as most of the popular saltwater fish. She has landed Kingfish, Shark, Red Snapper, Ling, Grouper, Wahoo and Dorado prior to this trip although many of them were smaller examples of their species.

For her birthday this year I had a custom built harness and rod and reel to help aid her in catching these fish completely on her own. This allows us to strap her to the boat with safety lines as well as strapping the reel to her harness giving her all the leverage possible on her small frame.

Well, we have been on the billfish pretty good this year and last year and she has begged and begged to take a shot at one and I finally felt she was ready. The forecast was calling for calm seas and we were fresh off tournament wins and very successful trips, so we loaded up and headed to Port Aransas.

Disclaimer** I kept these videos pretty short for posting on the web. I have full continuous video from 2 different cameras of all fish we caught! That way some day when someone doubts her story she can show them!!!! What I am about to tell you seems almost unreal.

Long story short, the first day was the best day of billfish I have ever experienced out of TX! Shortly after 9 am she got her first shot. We were using all circle hooks on our bait rigs so me and my crew were handling the hookup and then passing the rod to her in the chair. I hooked the first fish off the shotgun and quickly passed the rod off.

This would be an epic battle between a strong willed 6yr old and fiery white marlin. This fish put on an impressive aerial display broken up with long deep runs. The fight lasted around 53 minutes according to our video cameras. Our captain and crew did a great job and just before 10 am Joelie had her first billfish beside the boat. She was exhausted and full of adrenaline when we landed the fish. Being her first fish we brought the fish up for a quick picture but, she panicked and ran in the salon, later telling us she had no idea how big he really was. We quickly released the fish which swam away strong but, he was in the 80-85 lb range, which is a great fish in TX.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afWFPGX3NMo






I am very proud of her and even though she is my daughter I don�t know of many 6yr olds that have the mindset to hang in a battle like this for this long. She is a warrior and fish should be scared!

Almost immediately after we got our spread put back out we hooked a nice sized dorado and she quickly brought him to the boat. We were fishing light leaders and in all the excitement one of our guys messed the gaff shot up and we lost him.

Minutes later we were hooked up to another good dorado. Joelie needed a break so we let one of my buddies 12yr old boy Jac (pronounced Jace) bring this fish in only to be lost at the gaff again! Don�t worry we gave them plenty of grief and will continue to do so for a while!

After a good series of thunderstorms the weather cleared again and we were off to the races. Joelie was still tired when we hooked up our second billfish of the day so Jac hopped in the chair and we had our second white of the day hooked up. He did a great job and landed his first white marlin!




Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRO0iBXtGNE






Not 30 minutes later we are hooked up to a sailfish. Joelie hops in the chair and I pass my rod to her and he immediately thrashes and spits the circle hook. Dangit!

At this point the guys were still clearing lines and another sailfish shows up 30 yards off the transom chasing the lure on the flat line they are clearing. A quick drop back and we are hooked up to another sailfish. We quickly get the rod to Joelie and she makes extremely short work out of the sailfish on the 50w! Matter of fact this fish whipped my buddy he was so green.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDqh7ufqDXo


[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1041.jpg[/img]


About 30 minutes later 3 more whites show up in the spread and we get hooks in 2 of them. Joelie was going to stand up with the fish I had on and Jac hopped in the chair. We lost Joelies fish in a serious of incredible jumps but, Jac kept his fish hooked up. He made short work out of this small white marlin but, he still had a blast!

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWABg1KelZ4

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/th_JAC_White2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1047.jpg[/img]

Things seemed to slow a little and then out of no where we have sailfish in the spread. We hook the first fish and Jac climbs in the chair. As soon as I get the bucket harness snapped in I hear a real start scream and turn around and grab the rod and a few seconds later we have a double header happening! These fish went ballistic and Joelie told me to catch this one as she wanted to watch me for once. I made short work of my fish while Jac fought his. We released both fish and decided to call it a day as we planned to be back out the next morning.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba8AiH9sfmU

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/th_Quad_JAC_Sailfish-Dbl.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1058.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1061.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1063.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1069.jpg[/img]

At the end of the day we had to uphold a tradition of anyone catching their first billfish going into the water. Well, this didn�t set well with this 6yr old. I refused to just chunk her in so we talked her through it and she decided it was good to have tradition and she got in the water with us���briefly but, she got in! She is very courageous but, this was pushing her limits. She would later tell me thanks for talking her into it but, at the time she wasn�t too happy!

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1074.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1076.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1077.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1078.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1079.jpg[/img]

We were officially 6 for 9 on billfish with 2 nice dorado that we ummmm released! The best part is that we had hooks in 8 of 9 fish we had shots at and 8 of 10 fish that we saw in the spread! That�s a pretty good ratio in my book.

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1089.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1084.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1088.jpg[/img]

Remember the guys that �released� 2 dorado??

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1086.jpg[/img]

On the way end we got stopped by homeland security. They were plenty nice but, man what a waste of taxpayers time and money. I would think it should have been plenty obvious after 5 minutes that we were ok. About 45 minutes later they let us go. They almost made us late to the fuel dock!

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1081.jpg[/img]

The next day was not as exciting, the weather had changed and it was pretty choppy going out. We had a couple of shots as fish but, they were not really aggressive and couldn�t get hooks in them.


About the time we were taking naps 5 rods go off at the same time. You know what that means��.tuna time! We ended up landing 3 of them and after an amazing run of about 250 yards Joelie finally landed her blackfin!

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1092.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1094.jpg[/img]

After giving this area all the time we could stand we decided to make a move and it was a very good move!

About 20 minutes into the new spot we hooked up another sailfish. Joelie quickly landed this fish. She was a veteran now and it saved us from having our first trip in over 2 months without catching at least 1 billfish!

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4sspszTNG8
[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/th_Joelie_Sail2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/IMG_1103-1.jpg[/img]



It was an awesome end to a great trip with my best buddy. Neither of us will forget it anytime soon! She is chomping at the bit to do it again and says she wants a shot at a blue marlin next!

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o63/qzillapower/DSC00095.jpg[/img]

Awesome report, pics and video...
Thanks...

Dude..the fish should be scared. That one there has the 'look' in her eyes. The one that says "No dad I out-fished you remember?"

Thats really cool man! What a way to introduce your girl to offshore fishing haha!

Wow! Incredible! Fantastic!
Congratulations young lady.

Could you say what guide you used? I've been looking for one.

pretty amazing story, pics and vids.