Best day of the year out east and a couple memorable moments.
The Ripdog regular crew was off knitting or perling or something so Scott grabbed local color including myself as backup.
Steamed out at 4; lines in at 6:30 and Scott ran up top 2 miles before the target; steamed past the numbers, turned and started yelling. The boat went to full throttle; turned hard and dropped to idle. Birdpile 100 yards ahead and breaking fish everywhere. We got the spread out; circled some bubble feeding whales, turned back into the breaking fish, now 10 yards to port. Herring and halfbeaks were getting knocked 10' in the air by slashing fish or all sizes.
The boat approach was perfect; fish at 9 PM; crossing the stern tight at an acute angle, fins and tails visible, body sides flashing as the school cut right by the stern corner. The right short went down; then left long - doubled up 10 minutes after lines in. One chafed off, likely on a whale; but the other met Christian's dear friend Lily Irons a few minutes later.
While tail rope and bleeding out I spotted smashing fish 1/4 mile away and turned in that direction. We never got there as a rod went down again; and all 4 of us played "no you take the fish, no you take the fish". Captain J.C ended up on the fish; the bus driver on the rod for the 1st time in years.
Old dog's don't forget and 15 minutes later we slid a 60" tuna aboard; introduced him to his late Uncle Henry; lying dead next to him, tagged him and slid him back to swim away. 8 AM.
Lots of smashing and crashing fish throughout the morning; but we could not get the baits on top of them. Halfbeaks were being sprayed; herring being knocked and tuna were flying everywhere.
10 AM or so and we had a massive crash, swing and a miss, a 2nd miss. The 2 seasoned ex-giant fisherman said 4-500# fish. Who were Scott or I to dispute.
Noon and dead; fish everywhere but uncatchable. Scott changed up the spread and added a naked ballyhoo way way long. Ignore that for now, but keep your eye on it.
Out of no where Scott called out a hit and 15 minutes later we tagged and released the 2nd fish of the day. 1PM and 3 for 5. A stellar day. We muddled about; fish had gone down and it was time to pick up and go home. All bars and lures, rods and reels stowed; lock and load for the 2 1/2 hr ride home.
"Save that naked ballyhoo in case we see breaking fish!"
We did as told; 10 minutes later JC calls "holy shit - we have acres of breaking fish" and the pit tyrant takes over - "slow the boat - give me that ballyhoo; right, turn right, right, right" as Christian ties on the lone rigged ballyhoo and drops it back 100 yards; line in his fingers, jigging, jigging , jigging.
Scott warns him - "be careful - you'll lose your fingers!" as he continues to bark orders to all of us - ""Pay attention, turn right, right, into them, slow down, speed up, right, right, I'M HIT, I'M HIT, BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
as the line and ballyhoo is ripped from his fingers by another 60+" tuna he's hand jigged up.
This one is tough and we almost lose both Christian and Scott at the leader before JC throws in his 200#+ of muscle and a 3rd fish is cleanly released.
Now we're done and what as day - to quote Captain Clay
Nice job Lawrence....just got off the phone with Scotty.
pissed I had to miss that one today....for the record - i was on the 40 yard line 15 rows up last night - not "knitting or perling"....haha....nice work guys!
Good call on going east... South was fun, with a few more fish. The difference was that all of our fish combined didn't add up to one of yours.... and you got four!!!
We had a great day looking for the magic ono or white, but couldn't hook him. Seems like the bite out east is going strong!
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