Rip TIde Bait and Tackle NJ Fishing report- 8-10-08

10 Aug 2008, 8:42 AM
Thursday night and I was lying in bed and I heard a knock at the door. It was John Hand with an invite to go tuna fishing on Friday, he said be at the dock at 4:00 am and I said I would be there. We left the dock at 4:00 am sharp. It was the Full Moon a 40' Jersey with Capt John Ferguson at the helm and 6 other anglers including Cobia1 Don G. It was a strong west wind with off shore reports of 2'-4' and "supposed" to lay down in the afternoon. We headed out to the Spenser and started to put the lines in just shy of the 40 line. We had a smorgasbord of baits behind the boat (13 lines) and we looking for anything and everything to catch. It was a slow start but we did hit our first yellow fin tuna in the first half hour then a 45 pound bull dolphin landed on the deck after that. We trolled to the canyon and the seas were building. Once we found the water we were looking for we crossed back and forth looking waiting for the reels to scream. We did have a white marlin swim through the spread but could not entice it to bite (I knew I should have had my Berkley Gulp). We trolled for another two hours with nothing and started to head back. On the way in the waves were now at 4-6 with an occasional 8 thrown in for good measures. We were getting POUNDED and then the line started to scream and as fast as we were moving my first thought was a Wahoo and I was actually correct. A 6 foot Wahoo was next on the deck. That really was a nice treat to see that mouth on the fish he really was not happy until Walt smacked him with a wrench a couple of times to get the kinks out of his neck. As we headed back the seas were not kind to us and just short of the Lobster claw we found a nice school of 30-40 pound yellow fin and boated three more. We had to leave the fish while they were biting to make it back to the gas dock before it closed. The trip home was the roughest ride I was ever on. We were thrown all over the cabin for three hours and it felt like I was a sock in a spin dryer. I can laugh about it now but man o man was I hurting the next day. I found that the more fish I eat the less it hurts and I couldn't picture a ride home if we didn't catch. The funniest part of the trip was 10 minutes after Cobia1 told me how glad he was to wear that patch behind his ear……….. Oh yeah I forgot I told him I would not say anything about it…..sorry. I guess I will let CHUCK1 I mean Cobia1 tell you the rest and hopefully he can post some of the pictures that he had taken during the trip. We had a blast and I would like to say to anyone out there, if you get a chance to get out and tuna fish, it's well worth it.

Captain Andy
Riptide Bait & Tackle
Brigantine, New Jersey
888-848-8898
www.riptidebaitandtackle.com