Deep Sea Fishing in the Red Sea

Deep sea fishing was an amazing experience. It was definitely something new and fun. 

Me and my dad set off at 12:00 to meet our guide. As we walked through the busy streets of Dahab I speculated what it was going to be like. As we got to the shop we saw that our guide was ready in his truck. So we got in and set off. As we loaded up our equipment I noticed that all the reels but 2 were electronic. As I wondered what they were for we had set off. After a short boat ride we dropped the two non-electronic lines. They had 6 inch lures set for skipjack tuna and other tuna. We trolled for about 15 minutes before we got a bite. They let me reel in the fish. At first it was not as hard as expected. As soon as the fish saw the boat it got a whole lot harder. I had to watch the still running motor so the line did not get cut and I lost the fish. After a minute or two of this I got the fish close enough to have someone gaff it and it turned out to be a meter long skipjack tuna. After that we had no more bites so we started to head back to a buoy where we could fish for Calamari and Pomfret. We finally found it was not the easiest to find because it was blue. Though we did find it it took a while. Once we settled down we baited our hooks and dropped  our hooks. This took about 20 minutes to drop. We dropped them to 750 meters where we started to jig. There were three ways to jig, 1 use the reel this was not recommended because it would’ve been really hard so no one did that. The other two options were to use a little nob that when turned it would turn on a motor that would bring up your lure. And the third option was to hit a little button that would jig for you. We caught the calamari in a range from 800 meters to 500 meters. In the beginning the best spot was 700-600 meters. And near the end it was 540-600. My father definitely caught the two biggest calamari ranging from 1⅓meters to 1 meter. But in the end we caught over 20 calamari and one pomfret but the pomfret got a Little eaten by calamari. But over all that was probably one the best fishing trips ever .  

Additional research.

Swordfish

Swordfish are incredible creatures. They can dive up to 1640 meters. That's the deepest a sword fish has ever dived we only now this because it was recorded on tagged fish . They tend to be deeper in the day and shallower in the night. They have the ability to heat and cool their bodies. They are closely related to flounder and other bottom fish. They eat squid and other small fish from the twilight zone. Swordfish hunt by swimming through a school of fish or squid and whipping their bill around and that stuns the prey. Then the swordfish quickly snaps them up in its jaws. Their bill or sword is an extension of their skull. Though some swordfish ancient relatives of the Swordfish had both jaws elongated. One such species was the Xiphiorhynchus and yes that is the actual name. It was the size of a great white shark, so it likely preferred open waters. Swordfish and Other billfish are part of different families. The swordfish are part of the Xiphiidae family and bill fish are part of the Istiophoridae family. Their sword also helps reduce drag and helps with their amazing speed. They also have micro holes in their bodies that produce oil to slick their bodies and also helps with their speed. With so much talk about speed let's say it. That speed is… an estimated 100 kilometer burst. 

Yellowfin tuna 

yellowfin tuna are found in subtropical and tropical waters. they're easily capable of traveling 1000 kilometers in a season. They can weigh up to two hundred kg.  Their preferred water temp is 30 degrees Celsius to 15 degrees Celsius. They have a preference for open water. They like to stay near the surface. though they have been found diving up to 1000 meters. Speed is 21 m per second. They generally heavy tackle fish but technology has allowed new types of fishing to catch them. When fishing for tuna, look for birds.  Like  swordfish, tuna can reheat  themselves making them one of the few warm blooded fish. They now face severe overfishing. They can also pull the fins into grooves to reduce drag.

Bonus Fishing Photos from Sri Lanka

Fishing in Sri Lanka was a lot of fun. We did some deep sea fishing up to 80 meters and this was all by hand. we caught a Skipjack tuna and a bunch of snapper. I also go to try stilt fishing which was a lot of fun. and one day i even got to pull in a huge net. this was so hard and I can't imagen what be like to do it ever day. and below is a visual of all of these.