While on her dad’s boat the “Wicked Wench” Tea Desmond catches her 1st Billfish and it is a short bill Spear Fish!! One of the most elusive fish there is to catch. Billy Desmond the owner / Captain on “Wicked Wench” a 27 ft Grady White with twin Suzuki engines he bought from Suzuki Nick Scafidi in Florida aka Nick’s Creative Marine. Captain / Owner Billy Desmond is a member of the Golden Hook Fishing Club here on St. Croix USVI, and fishes most of the tournaments series with the GHFC. Today was a special day for the three on the boat, Billy Desmond as captain, Ryan Sneff as mate and Tea Desmond, Billy’s 17 year old daughter as an angler.
The Wicked Wench left Green Cay Marina at 7am, and it was an amazing day in the Caribbean, with very little wind. The seas only 1 to 2 foot. The morning fishing was a little slow, only 2 strikes from barracuda. At around 10:15 AM the Wicked Wench finally got a bite. Tea, Billy’s daughter who took the rod, the fish sounded, nearly spooled Tea! They all though it might be a tuna as that type of fish usually will sound when hooked up. Then about 10 seconds later a second reel started screaming, another hook up. Mate Ryan Sneff, who was hung over like a big dog, picks up the rod and begins to fight another fish. Another 15 seconds go by and the unthinkable happens BAM, another hook up, and it is a big fish too! This time Captain Billy was the only one on the vessel with out a rod in his hand. Captain Billy had to do some fancy foot work, he turn the vessel up into the wind. Captain Billy proceeded to pick up the 3rd rod and now EVERYONE is fighting a fish! Captain Billy had slowed the boat down from fast trolling, around 12 to 14 knots, to about 5 knots. Ok, so now everyone on board has a rod in their hands, no one driving the boat, and Tea is almost spooled. Tea could see the metal on the reel through the last few feet of mono as the line was pealing off the reel! The Wicked Wench was fishing the NE corner of St. Croix, about 17 to 20 miles off shore, and in about 600 ft. of water when all the excitement happened.
Ryan got his fish to the Boat, and it was a Wahoo 40+ LBs and caught on a light blue stubby bubbler from C & H Lure, only on mono! Billy Desmond’s wahoo is next to come in and it is on a green and yellow Billy Bate lure with a chugger head. Sadly, it gets the tail bit off right at the transom by a tiger shark. The Wahoo still weighed 30 lbs. Tea’s fish caught on a black, silver Rappolla magnum lure. The short bill spear fish starts to come up, and wouldn’t you know it, the fish goes from side to side on the boat and then in-between the twin Suzuki 200s, lots of pandemonium, a bit of yelling, all of a sudden Ryan the mate jumps on the swim platform to get the fish away from the engines. Ryan grabs the leader and wires the fish and it is a short bill spear fish! Everyone was so excited, as this is a rare fish! Ryan let Tea touch and take a photo of the fish before the release, of this amazing animal!
Poor Ryan Snuff was so tired after all the fish caught he had to lie down on the deck and catch his breath. Everyone was exhausted after that adrenaline rush; they decided 2 nice Wahoo and the successful catch and release of a trophy worthy short bill spear fish was enough to end a perfect fishing day. To team Wicked Wench: good on you team! For more fishing on St. Croix go to www.fishstx.com or visit our facebook page: Golden Hook Fishing Club.