Rare denizens of the deep

xenia

Went swording again south of Miami.  Conditions were perfect and we saw lots of life on the bottom.  First drop we hooked something not too big that turned out to be a 22 lb Pomfret.  First one for me.  Such a cool looking fish, and pretty tasty as I just found out!  Third drop we hooked into two mahi with the ballyhoo we had out, and during the mahi sequence we get a bite on the tip rod.  After a few bites fish is hooked and feels big.  Slow going getting it up, and it swam south as big swords like to do.  We managed to get 1000 turns on the LP and the fish stopped and we couldn't budge it.  We eased off a little on the drag, but it still pulled the hook.  That hurt.  Really felt like a big one.  A Pomfret and two mahi are OK, but the big prize eluded us again.

One of the mahi had an interesting fresh bite on it.  A perfect circle like someone scooped out a chunk of meat with a spoon.  Could this be a bite from a Cookie Cutter Shark?  I can't think of what else could make that type of bite.

cranker789

Nice ! Always good to bring something home to eat

John McKroid

Nice report, Thanks.

gogittum

Never seen a wound like that.  Wonder what made it ??  Almost like a giant Lamprey or something latched on to it and scooped it out.

conchydong

I agree with the Cookie Cutter Shark guess.

gogittum

Never heard of such a critter, so googled it.  Yep, could very well be a Cookie Cutter Shark.

conchydong

Coincidentally I saw this picture on the internet of a Pomfret that has Cookie Cutter marks. Very similar to those on Xenia's Dolphin.

xenia

Have to be some sharp teeth to cut through those scales.

cbenarroch

Xenia, last week I hooked a big sword, 2 hrs into the fight and pulled the hook 100' from the boat. It really hurts. We caught 2 more 

catchemup

"One of the mahi had an interesting fresh bite on it.  A perfect circle like someone scooped out a chunk of meat with a spoon.  Could this be a bite from a Cookie Cutter Shark?  I can't think of what else could make that type of bite." Xenia

Seems no question about it...bite mark of a cookie cutter shark per the info below:
Best known for biting neat round chunks of tissue from marine mammals and large fish,

Virtually every type of medium- to large-sized oceanic animal sharing the habitat of the cookiecutter shark is open to attack; bite scars have been found on cetaceans (including porpoises, dolphins, beaked whales, **** whales and baleen whales), pinnipeds (including fur seals, leopard seals and elephant seals), dugongs, sharks (including blue sharks, goblin sharks, basking sharks, great white sharks, megamouth sharks and smalltooth sand tiger sharks), stingrays (including deepwater stingrays, pelagic stingrays and sixgill stingrays), and bony fishes (including billfishes, tunas, dolphinfishes, jacks, escolars, opahs, and pomfrets).It spends the day at a depth of 1–3.7 km (0.62–2.30 mi), and at night it rises into the upper water column, usually remaining below 85 m (279 ft), but on rare occasions venturing to the surface.

Big Mak

Def cookie cutter, Xenia. Seen it thousands of times and even caught a few back in my sword/tuna fishing days. 

Pomfrets were always a welcome addition at the dinner table as well. Nice report.