Widowmaker - 20 Fathom Troll...8-30-09

[MAKO19]

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With the canyons being dead we did what we have been talking about for the last few trips and that was to stay inside and look for Dolphin and Wahoo. I tied up a custom mix of Cape Lookout lures in all the Wahoo's favorite colors consisting of Blue/White, Red/Black, Black/Orange, Black/Purple flasher, and Green/Yellow all with Mustad 7691 8/0 Southern tuna hooks and a 12' piece of #8 wire to try and be as stealthy as possible and get the snap swivel away from the bait. I finished the rig off with some beautiful large Just Rite ballyhoo and we were ready to roll. We started trolling 29 miles from our slip in 20 fathoms with pretty decent 79.5 degree blue/gray water with only a few flying fish in the area we seen for bait. After an hour or so we got our first Dolphin bite on a green machine spreader bar and he went into the box. We continued to work north up the 20 line and got as far as 34.5 miles from Cape May inlet where we were able to put 5 more Dolphin in the box, released a few False Albacore, and missed a few other bites on the Purple/Black Yozuri Bonito Plug, spreader bar, and ballyhoo baits. Two of the fish were barely gaffers and the others were on the small side but still meat for the box. The water got as hot as 81.0 degrees Sunday and was pretty consistent in color. We only seen 1 boat all day and talked to one other boat on the East Lump who had a decent Dolphin and some False Albacore bites.

I really hope something turns on after this long NE blow. It really can't get any worse out there. I had some friends who were trolling the inshore lumps and ridges and were having fun with some False Albacore and with offshore being dead and Flounder season closing this Friday that seems like the only game in town right now. It's amazing what a good night of sleep does to you though. As frustrated as I was I am ready to give it a shot again.

Game on after this blow .