7/19 JSEAS BlueFin Tuna Report

[Albatross32]

Crew for this one – Capt Jim O’Brien, Chris Walsh (Birthday Boy) and his 13 year old son Brian, Tim Wood, Norberg and Me.

The plan was to head out for a day of Tuna fishing in the area of the BC bouy East of Chatham. The alarm went off at 0230 hrs and after about 20 minutes of slapping, yelling, pushing, and shoving Timmy Wood who was in a blacked out drunken state sleeping on the RipDog (docked next to JSEAS) we were able to get his sorry ass up and were finally ready to go.

We enjoyed a beautiful ride through Nantucket Sound, around Monomoy and eventually made our way up to the North East towards the Tuna grounds…

We arrived at roughly 0530 and the area initially looked pretty dead. There were a few pods of shearwaters and a couple random whales here and there but it sure wasn’t crazy in terms of overall life. We decided to go lines in and just start pounding the area…

After about an hour or so, the life finally began to appear and so did the boats. At 0645 we had a humpback breach completely out of the water about 20 yards off of our port side….After I saw this I knew it was just a matter of time…

At 0700 the right short “Cotton Candy” bar gets rolled on and ran off a little but didn’t pop the clip….At first I thought bass so I grabbed the rod and snapped it out of the rigger and gave it one good pop to make sure the hook was set….The fish then woke up and started running off with some serious steam…..NO Line-Sider here …..I tried to pass the rod off to the birthday boy, but he declined the offer so I settled down with this fish and slowly started retrieving line that was now into the backing of a Shimano 80.

Got the fish to the boat after about 30 minutes and Chris locked the fish up in the starboard corner. Norberg and I exchanged Rod for gaff, and I hit the torpedo looking thing in the head with a gaff shot and dragged his fat ass through the door. Game Over. High fives all around ……Fish taped out at 66 inches.

We quickly got the spread back out and continued working the outer edges of the large fleet that had assembled. :At 0800 we had a fish come up and hammer the right long “Hot Tomatoe” (Scott Clay custom) bar but didn’t connect……so we pressed on and for the next hour Chris, Norberg and I cleared weeds off the spread relentlessly. The weeds were really a pain in the ass out there but they definitely kept your head in the game all day.

Finally at 0900 during the slack we got another chance……Chris and Jim screamed down from the tower “RIGHT LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!”……A huge boil again on the “Hot Tomatoe” bar but it didn’t stick..... I quickly took two cranks, let it sit….took one more crank and the fish piled back all over the bar……zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………… ….Norberg got belted in for his first ever BlueFin Tuna. I made a clean rod pass and he did a really nice job battling this fish. He had it to the boat in about 25 minutes or so and we were able to release the fish boatside while still in the water. Didn’t get an accurate length of the fish but it looked to be a cookie cutter 65 inch fish. Great teamwork and boat handling by Jimmy! Congrats Norberg and welcome to “Tuna Fever”…..FYI - there is NO cure!

After that, we worked the area right up until noon time. We had one other massive boil on a pink and white ilander with a ballyhoo that was behind a bird way long down the middle. No love though….So I guess we finished 2 for 4 on the day.

Overall it was just a great day spent with a great crew. Big thanks to Jimmy for taking me out there and also to Scotty Clay for letting us use his gear. Those RipDog custom bars flat out catch fish! Looking forward to the OBMST this weekend!!!!

Few action pics below….Tight Linzzzz boys!

Brian Droney
Albatross on the JSEAS

[slapshot]

Great report as usual Droney and thanks to all for not just leaving me at the dock! Too many drinks for me this weekend but i need to get into drinking shape for OB.

Those pictures are awesome of that tuner swimming up next to the boat. We could not have had a better or cleaner release.

See you all in OB.

[southport05]

Nice job guys!! Saw the "Rip Dog" in Edgartown last night while having dinner at the Atlantic. Sweet lookign rig!

[Capt. Terry]

THATS A NICE REPORT BRO.............CONGRATS ON THE TRIP.

THOSE 65" CLASS BFT'S ARE A BLAST!

[Albatross32]

Great report as usual Droney and thanks to all for not just leaving me at the dock! Too many drinks for me this weekend but i need to get into drinking shape for OB.

Those pictures are awesome of that tuner swimming up next to the boat. We could not have had a better or cleaner release.

See you all in OB.

Dude - you better get yourself into fishing shape and leave the Captain and Cokes for the party on Saturday night....Jimmy said to keep you and Skippa Clay away from the boose until Saturday at noon time

[chumtini]

Great pics. Love the ding pic!

[JSeas]

Brian:

Nice report. Can't wait for this weekend.. Game on!

Jim O (J Seas)

[LongRigger]

You have an contacct info on how to buy some of those custom bars?
I might have a friend who would be interested.

[johndtuttle]

Great job! Landed one (yum) and released the other, Kudos!! Way to finish a great day on the water. A release always means there's fishing tomarrow.

Thanks for the post and great photos.

[Albatross32]

You have an contacct info on how to buy some of those custom bars?
I might have a friend who would be interested.

LRigger - I keep telling my friend Scotty that he should take a vacation from his vacation from his vacation and get into the spreader bar business but he has no interest at this point. The bars he makes are just for us at this point. Good luck!

-Brian