The Spoils

Here is our full team with all the winnings:

A close-up of the good prizes:

And the custom-made marlin lures, which are about 14'' long:

Just as in Palau when I caught a huge marlin to win a tournament for a boat I was on through lucky circumstances, I was not much interested in the prizes (it was $1500 in Palau, which is why that captain was happy to invite me back). I was kinda hoping for the tin of peanuts and maybe a couple of the $20 steak house gift certificates, but I was more interested in getting some of the fish to cache for the winter. The fishing season here is best between April and July, so I'm keenly aware that I should be fishing hard if I want 'free' fish the rest of the year.

Last night I went to pick up some marlin and discovered a little mutinous feeling in the team because the prizes were apparently doled out thriftily. So since the team members are the cooks and staff at the restaurant and in charge of the freezer, they were happy to give me more fish than I could actually carry home.

I didn't have space for the fish anywhere, but there is a big freezer on Aka that is used for their fishing co-op. The girl who works there commutes from Zamami every day and she's my friend. So I went to our fishing office at 11pm and stashed the frozen fish in an empty cooler on their steps, then retrieved it this morning and sent it across on the boat today. And tonight, it's back to the kayak.