2011 Big Game Bash Review

[JoeyM]

Thanks to Capt. Eric and Capt. Damon and all of their crew for organizing a great event!

My wife and I showed up Friday afternoon, checked into the hotel and made our way down. Immediately we saw the two bars with free Sam Adams flowing, we registered and got free hats and t shirts and went in.

There were a bunch of relevant vendors there, including SoLo, LD Marine, Raymarine, Shimano, Penn, Okuma, Isla Seca, Buzzards Bay Yacht Sales, and others I am forgetting at the moment.

Then there was a virtual "The Hook Up Store". That was very impressive, it's as if they moved their entire store into the Marriot. There were two lecture rooms, one giant room which was the main lecture room, then the smaller adjacent break out room. There was also a 3rd room playing Castafari Monster Club videos.

So on to the lectures, first off, we fish RI and the canyons. We do not fish the Cape Cod bft, but that fishery is something we always wanted to try. So luckily Capt. Eric told us about this seminar. I have to say, for us, the lectures were perfect. You basically had experts in the 4-5 ways you can recreationally fish for bft on the cape.

Capt Andrew Cummings went over vertical jigging. You know we've seen it on tv, we own a few of the rods and jigs, but we never made a commitment to really try it. It was very helpful to learn about the technique straight from someone doing it so successfully locally. It's much better than talking to someone in FL jigging for grouper.

Capt Terry Nugent, went over top water casting to bft. Also an excellent lecture where we learned a lot. He went over pretty much everything. The lures, gear, and techniques. He had a lot of good info on how to run your boat and approach the fish as well as how to find the fish in the first place.

Capt. Len Belcaro, went over "Using Science and Technology To Find Fish". Even though we have been doing this for a few years now, we still learned a lot. We were able to learn the reasons to some of the patterns we have seen ourselves. It was really very informative. It's more complicated than just finding a temp break.

Capt. Damon Sacco went over live baiting bft and also trolling the canyons. The live baiting for bft was all new info for us, so we learned a lot. He went over his whole kite setup as well, which is different than other kite setups we have seen as it incorporates tag lines. Then he also lectured about bluewater trolling. This was something we are more familiar with, but again we still learned. We have been to the Canyon Runner seminars, and as a result our trolling patterns are similar to what we learned from them, tweaked for our boat. Capt. Damon's canyon style is different. He is obviously successful with it, and we are anxious to try to meld the two different styles together.

Capt. Eric Stewart went over tagging and handling bft boatside, bft trolling, tuna chunking, and outboard bft fishing. He mentioned how some of it maybe basic, but as the bft trolling is new to us we learned a lot. It really is much different to the canyon trolling we are used to. And I realize that if we hadn't gone to this seminar we would have made a lot of mistakes.

There were other lectures also. I caught some of the great white lecture which was pretty interesting. He had awesome overhead shots of the great shite sharks and seals. The end game lecture with Capt Kevin Glynn was particularly helpful as we do not have much harpoon experience. We learned a lot there and it changed the way we rig our harpoon. He also had a good shark lecture. My wife and I actually had to split up to catch everything as the stuff in the break room was also good.


Anyways, I just proof read this and I guess it sounds repetitive. But really the lectures were very good and the event was very well run. Everything happened right on time, and the itinerary gave enough break time to relax, eat, and wander around.

There were a lot of deals on gear. There was a 36 yellowfin center console just outside to climb over and check out. The food was good and there were always free snacks and drinks available. There was about $12k worth of raffle prizes! Basically, I go to lots of similar conferences for work (not fishing), and this was very well done.


So to summarize, if you have a chance to go next year you should. Because if you are like us, and don't know too much about the Cape Cod BFT fishery you will learn a ton. Even if you know a lot about fishing the Cape Cod bft, odds are you aren't an expert in all the different techniques (these guys aren't either and they all have their own specialty).


If you are already a fishing god and know anything and everything about fishing for bft, you can still have fun, win prizes, and drink free beer.

[LuckyLady]

Wow great review thank you for sharing the results with us... I was trying hard to get out of the office but business is busy so sadly I am stuck in the office but due time with spring I certainly hope to be playing just a tad!

Added a Sticky to your thread !

[On The Edge]

Stew does put on a good event. Sounds like a good time as had and a few things learned.
Congrats Stew and Damon on what sounds like another great event.

[chumtini]

Great write up.

Did you win anything?

[cape_rover]

Sure sounds like you learned alot! With all the great tips you posted I'm sure you be catching alot more fish this year. Please keep us updated on what works...

[JoeyM]

Great write up.

Did you win anything?

my wife and i have the worst luck with door prizes. there was a guy sitting next to us who had to leave early, and he gave us his tickets, which doubled the amount we had. we still didn't win anything. but that's the status quo for us, no surprise here.


yeah, hopefully i'll be able to post up successful fishing reports this season. we're really gonna give the cape fishing a good try this year.

also just closed on a new ride and can't wait for the season to start!