Viking Fleet Fishing Report- June 30, 2008

Monday June 30
Offshore Report from Noreast.com 3 Day Charter
Wow! What a trip!
Trips like this are made when a combination of things come together and we had them all, great food, great weather, and really good fishing.
Monday 1pm we left Montauk under partly cloudy skies and sailed southeast of the point to make a few drifts for fluke to be used as strip bait for the tiles. After a few drifts and putting enough keepers on board to have enough strips for everyone, it was time to get underway for our long steam out to the grounds. Joe Benzie nailed a 5 lb mini doormat to start his trip off with a bang and win the fluke pool.
At this time everyone started bringing out the unbelievable buffet for everyone to feast on. We started with cheeses, pepperoni, deviled eggs, striped bass ceviche, lbs and lbs of fresh shrimp, then started with the hot food of chicken, sausage and peppers, kielbasa and kraut, penne ala vodka, Maryland style crabcakes, etc. While this was going on, a table full of desserts was staring everyone in the eye, of which some were already tapped into. I can't describe how many desserts we had but it looked way better than any bakery you have ever seen! Needless to say, everyone packed on a few pounds this trip!
Now on to the fishing. We awoke Tuesday a.m. to gorgeous flat calm seas. Soon after hitting bottom about 575' down, bites started to come and fish started to come over the rails. At first there were lots of hake and cusks, as well as some cod, and soon some tiles started to appear. We repeatedly made the same drifts and there were fish to be had on every drift. A few pretty decent tiles came up hitting over 25 pounds. Later in the morning, with everyone putting a lot of meat in the coolers, a huge 38 pound Golden Tile came up. We even saw a tilefish on a jig, and it was a double header with the other fish a COD!!
As the day wore on, the winds gradually picked up and by 5pm it was virtually unfishable. the winds were kicking a good 20-25 knots and using 4 lbs was barely holding bottom. We tried, but enden up calling it a day as everyone was pretty tired already. We then all enjoyed a prime Rib dinner a la Kobe!
After day one, guys were practically giving away hake and cusks to the crew and whoever else would take them because they wanted to keep room in their coolers for tiles and wreck fish.
Day 2 we awoke to beautiful seas and cloudy skies. At times it was pretty foggy and other times it looked like the sun wanted out but never really came out.
Our day 2 game plan was to hit approximately 4 or 5 deep water wrecks to see what was home. After hitting the first three wrecks with minimal results (more hake, cusks, some pollock, a few cod, a barrel fish and tiles) we decided to bag the last two wrecks and head to more tile grounds, some of which we've never fished before. On the tile grounds, we ground away at putting a good catch together. Every drift produced the elusive hake but each drift usually had a real good tile mixed in.
Day 3, Thursday, we again awoke to calm seas and this time sunny skies. Our goal was to hit 4 wrecks, two really deep ones and two just regular deep.
We had sailed all night from Weds to Thurs morning and by 4 am were at the first wreck. A beauty in over a 1000' water. It looked like a Christmas tree on the scope. By 530am and with enough light, we couldn't wait to get down there so we gave it a shot. Rods started to bend, but not with the urgency we were looking for. About 10 minutes later, a few of the endangerd hake popped up, some with popped out eyeballs from the decompression. Some large hake came up here, along with a bunch of mystery bites that looked really good. Oh well, we will try it again!
The next wreck was a little shallower, between 800-850' This one had nice life on it. We made about 4 drifts with each drift producing tiles, hakes, pollock and a few barrels. We had 4 barrels total for the boat. Richard Kaminski on this trip nailed an offshore tri-fecta of barrel, tile and wreckfish.
Time was pressing so we headed for the much anticipated wreckfish wrecks. Everyone was jazzed due to the fabled stories from guys that were on last year's trip. The first one produced some tilefish, hake, and wreckfish on the first drift. The second… was SOLID wreckfish. They turned on pretty good and we landed around 40 on this wreck!
The next and last wreck produced even more action with wreckfish! We ended up with around 90 total wreckfish between the two!
In total, we had well over 100 tilefish, around 90 wreckfish, 4 barrelfish, tons of silver hake, a lot of cusk, a nice handful of codfish, and some large pollacks as well.
At the pool weigh-ins, the wreckfish pool was tied between George Soroka and Joe Benzie(who won the fluke pool!) with 20lbers. Way to go Joe and George! The cod pool was won by Joe Firman with a 10 lber. The edible pool was won by John Brisciana with a nice 30 pound hake. The tile pool was won by Ryan Hickey with a 38 pounder.
Congrats to all of the pool winners!!!
Thanks to everyone for coming, and Mark for putting this trip together. We look forward to doing it again!
Half Day Fluke AM Trip
Fishing started off slowly but as the sun came out so did the fish. Bernise McCann was the pool winner with a 7.05lb Fluke.

Viking Fleet Fishing
Montauk NY New Bedford MA

Tarpon Springs FL
www.vikingfleet.com