So there are literally hundreds of mahi mahi schooling around the boat right now. Our junior engineer caught 5 of them in about 15 minutes. He's been beheading them and then rinsing the blood off the deck with predictable results.
Those results being that I just got to watch a rather large whitetip shark (I'd guess it was 8-10 feet) come rocketing up from the deep and eat one of the larger mahi mahi that was swimming around in our stern lights. That was some serious National Geographic shit!
Your story almost (ALMOST) makes me wish I still lived on a boat. Your boat life is likely very, very different from the one I lived but I do recall anchoring off of the Yucatan peninsula when the tropical flying fish were spawing (this type:
http://eol.org/pages/207280/overview)
Naturally, it attracted every predator for miles, including Blue Sharks that would circle the boat and join in the smorgasbord.
We were actually fishing for food at times and that's a different story all together, but I finally got tired of seeing the sharks circle and only eating the shit bait fish (not the fliers, another species I wouldn't identify even if I knew because of bad memories from eating so damn many of them) and worked with the Chief Engineer to fashion a large hook from 1/4" aluminum, in order to catch one of these sharks.
After we finished the hook, I asked the boson to help me knot a nylon line strong enough to hold a good size shark. He recommended an eye splice in 1/4" nylon. Watching and learning to tie that knot (and many others in my time on that boat) gave me a great respect for mariners, above and beyond what I already had.
I tied a 15' line to a pole on this boat, baited the hook with half a fish and tossed it over.
a 5' (maybe 4-1/2", my memory embellishes by the half foot) blue came by and nibbled the fish. As soon as I saw him try and swallow it, I yanked on the rope to bury the hook and then let it go.
He was hooked and done. I celebrated with my compadres and let him tire himself out for 5 or 10 minutes (not nearly enough, btw) and pulled him on board.
I'll spare the gruesome details between how I caught him and how he ended up on our plates, but after soaking the meat in milk for a couple of hours, I enjoyed the best shark I have ever eaten.
Long winded story but, ECH, your tale made me miss the water. For a minute, anyway, and I'm glad I read TT.
