Brrrrr....

[captdom]

Friday's trip saw just a touch of surface activity, and was extremely slow on the tuna, but very productive on the big stripers and alligator blues, so at least plenty of activity and excitement. We did manage to get one solid bite, but an Owner st-66 treble straightened out, yet another gear failure. That was it in the way of tuna bites, and a nasty ride back across the bay to top it off. I am still in Green Harbor and wont be able to post much until Tuesday, after 7 days in a row.

Yesterday was even worse, in that the morning was extremely slow again. Switched gears and actually put the big rods out and the outriggers down for Al and his son Joseph, trolled all over creation trying to find a bite. The worst part was the fish were there, marking down deep all day and not much in the way of any bites for the fleet as far as we could tell. The afternoon saw TONS of fish of all sizes, up on the surface sort of rolling and jumping, but not crashing. Saw one boat hook up on the spinners right in front of me, and at that point I had enough and we tried to no avail to hook one on a spinner, but 2 hours of chasing them around with no love forced me to head in with no love.

I guess it is good in that I saw more fish Saturday on top than I have all season, and couldnt buy a bite, while the first bunch with very little signs and hard getting a few bites ended in blood on the deck every time out....

Today was another day of horrid conditions. No better than 100 yard visibility on the tuna grounds, wind against tide in the rips, NE winds sustained at 14-15 knots with gusts to 21, and hordes of hungry blues and bass to get in the way of the tuna rolling with them.....Had a great bunch of new guys on todays trip, from bookfishingtrips.com, and it was a great day in nasty crap due to their enthusiasm and passion, and hard work..... These guys cast their fool heads off. Andrew, Jonathan, Chris, and Peter, thanks for making a tough day an awful lot of fun.

Chris came tight on a big fish, which unfortunately snapped his line. The take was impressive, and he laid into the fish, but it was ripping away to the left, and popped the line. They did get to see a few fish crashing right in the rip while we were tooling up on the stripers, so they are pretty much new members of the afflicted core of nuts already into this fishery.

So The incredible hot streak I had going has officially grown cold, 3 in a row with no blood....but I am still happy that under very difficult conditions, we hooked a fish on two of the three. The best part of this sport to me is that even on days when you get no fish, if you see them and get a bite or two, it is still a pretty good day. Those are the days that keep most coming back rabid. Its the fish I lose that haunt my world, not the ones I catch.

Back at it on Tuesday, cancelled tommorrows trip due to the fog and SE winds I know are coming. Today's forecast was for 5-10 winds, partly cloudy skies, and seas less than 2 feet....weathermen have the greatest jobs in the world, always wrong, and still paid weekly. I would love to work between the 40-60 percentiles, you are never wrong.

[Verbal]

Nice to see that I wasn't the only one that couldn't get those fish to bite on Saturday. Makes me feel a little better reading your report. We worked them all afternoon and then finally around 5:30 we found a bunch of fish that was a bit more active. We got 3 bites in the 3 casts we were able to make to this bunch. 1 pulled the hook in the first 3 seconds and the other 2 were total misses that knocked the baits into the air. After that another boat ran them over and they went down for good.
Very frustrating afternoon but still had a good time.

[Dads Dream]

on the edge of my seat reading your post, Dom

good job keeping the faith, brother~ I'm sure your charters feel the energy and determination.......! ~Rich