Day 7 – Stam and the Mingos: A pleasant surprise and a meeting with destiny – Steve headed out with us this day to chase marlin, yellowfin and anything else we might find that wanted to fight. We settled in for the bumpy, grinding run out to the Hannibal banks again. Lumbars were punished, spines were compressed, faces were splashed with buckets of water and the sky was as blue as it could possibly be. We were in heaven. When we got out to the grounds Stam and I started tossing metal jigs on spinning rods since we needed 2 to 5 pound skipjacks to use as bridled marlin baits while the crew set out the trolling spread. Stam and I kept tossing jigs, picking up the odd skipjack and bonito. We came upon another school of what we thought were skippies crushing bait on the surface. I tossed my metal jig into the melee and got a very nice surprise…..





This bastard could really pull, it was easily one of the top light tackle dorado battles of my life……….



I’d get him up and he’d go right back down…..not the typical dorado battle at all……..





The gears on the spinning reel ground to a nauseating, clack-clack-clack halt as the fish sounded under the boat. The battle lasted at least 20 minutes longer than it would have if the gears had not burned out but it was well worth the grind. These guys can flatass PULL!!!!!





This battle was worthy of a double “O”……..



Nope, it needed the rare triple “O”



And then my bro Stam had a date with destiny…….a leviathan of the deep came up to crash the party and the battle was on! Stam posted some of these shots earlier. This was an epic battle.

Stam in happier times……..



He asked me to take over for a while so he could hydrate and rest……….



Then after 20 minutes of intense H2o and cerveza hydration, Stam came charging back to finish off the brute………….



The trophy of a lifetime came up to the boat as Stam ground it out inch by agonizing inch………the fight was brutal, it was down and dirty and worth every moment of agony!









Noni “El Beisbol” winds up and delivers a Sammy Sosa telegram……..





Victory lap around the boat……



Aggressive skipjack were everywhere…..I still can’t believe they would hit my big sailfish flies…..



After the celebration of the great tuna, Mrs. Mingo hit a gorgeous dorado and fought the beast like a champ…