Tail Hooked - Report from the 30 Line to the Wilmington 500...8-15-09

[MAKO19]

Saturday I had the opportunity to fish with Capt. Bill on the Tail Hooked out of Ocean City, NJ. We were joined with Greg, Geno, and my Dad for a day troll and opted to try some areas between the Claw and Trunk on the 30 line where we had the real nice bite last weekend that dumped a 50 and also where some Yellowfin and Dolphin were caught. As soon as we get there we get a nice Bull Dolphin on the WWWWB B/W skirt with Select hoo, then shortly after we boxed a nice cow around the same size. It was nice to get a couple quality Dolphin in the box early to take the stress off the crew and I really thought this was going to be a good day. There were scallop boats, half a dozen big whales, turtles, flipper Dolphin, slicks, chick birds, rip lines....you name it we seen it. We saw everything but tuna fish. I can't explain what is happening. We had structure and most importantly bait but the tuna are just not around. Even with the warm water I thought we could definitely find some Yellowfin or even a Wahoo but it was nothing but Dolphin in this area. After a few hours of no more bites after the first few Dolphin we opted to head out to the Wilmington and see if we could manage a few tuna bites out there or even a Marlin but it just wasn't happening. There was a big crowd and everyone we talked to and heard reported the same thing, some gaffer Dolphin and a few White Marlin bites. We had one decent size Dolphin come out from under a ball and crash the Sterling Tackle Green Magic machine bar but he must of hit one of the hookless squids because he didn't come tight. We worked all the way out to the tip of the 500 where the water cooled to 76.5 degrees and was a bit cleaner but it was void of any life. We worked back into 30 fathoms where we were in the morning and gave it a few more hours but nothing was going on.

As we all heard before, the unsuccessful days give you more of a drive to get back out there than the successful days. I think persistence will pay off for us one of these next few trips and we will find the fish but we just have to keep working hard at it. Thanks again to Capt. Bill for the invite I had a blast and so did the rest of the crew, I can't wait to do it again. It was nice getting back out on a center console and reminded me of the good times I use to have running my Dad's 20' Grady White inshore with my buddies some years back. Here are a few pics from our day.


Geno with one of the Dolphin. The cow was about the same size.



Our friends on the Outta Hand. Bill I am not sure you are a SFC member but if you are send me your e-mail. I have a lot of other pictures of you guys from this day.

[Capt. Terry]

THAT WAS A GREAT REPORT.......AND A VERY SIMILAR ONE AT THAT FROM OUR LAST COUPLE OF TRIPS AND MANY OTHER CAPTAINS THAT I TALK WITH. NICE GAFFER MAHI IN THAT AREA HERE LATELY AND NO TUNA FISH.......OH WELL YOU HAD A GREAT TRIP AND GOT SOME GOOD EATS!