First for 09

[fish4stripers]

Had my buddy Bill and his son on board today. Hit SWC before 1st light. Start of the corner didn't see any life so kept going. Saw some birds , then marked bait on SE side so we jigged and cast but only got 20-30 lb stripers. Pulled the plug after 1/2 hr and ran quite a few miles looking for life but not much the whole way.

Finally after a long ride found lots of bird activity and started marking bait. Got 4 bars out and started trolling. Was rigging up a bally for a 5th rod when the long right rigger pops. I go to the rod since Bill was driving and then the short right pops, doubles!

Billy grabs that rod and I'm on the long rod. Bill starts clearing the other rods. We can tell Billy's fish is small so I let him work his in while I just hold mine steady so we don't cross up lines. He gets it boatside in 10 mins, we get a lip gaff in it and haul it in.

I start working on mine and it takes awhile to get it boatside. We were thinking maybe we could release the first fish and take the bigger one. By the time it got close and we're getting in gaff range, we're not sure the 1st fish would come back so I said let's release the second one. Get the fish boatside and get a lip gaff in him. We swim him for a bit and after awhile starts kicking and we release him. He was a decent fish in the 60's.




We measure Billy's fish and he tapes out to 44". Nice to see some small fish around.



Large fish hit an Orange FO bar with green/yellow stinger

Small fish hit black bar with glow/pink dots stinger


We trolled some more in the same area but couldn't get another bite. We then looked for stuff to cast to but only found bass and blues. When we headed back in we saw a couple fish roll on the surface. Cast in that area for awhile but no takers so we headed in. Great day on the water, got the skunk off the boat for this year!

[shoefish]

Great report, and that first pic is killer! Congrats on beating the skunk off!

[hotreels jr]

Nice job! Great to see a small fish being taking!

[Bearboat]

nice pics, thanks.
great to see different classes of fish around

[Dads Dream]

What a Great start to your summer!

Awesome job going 2 for 2! Great pics and post!

[Verbal]

that might be the smallest tuna i've seen caught on the bank in two years. Congrats on a great day. Good to know that the little ones are still there.

[southport05]

Way to go! That first pic is awesome! Glad you got your first, and way to work for it!

Not raining on your parade, but two things...

1) I'm pretty sure (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) it's illegal to cull bluefin tuna. I.e. - you can't land one, and then land a larger one and throw the smaller one back, even if it's a short time in between the landing of the fish. Also, I'd have doubts on the survivability on a fish that had been on the deck for 10,15, or 20 mins or more while you were fighting the other fish.

2) You probably already know this, but I'll put it out there, the retention limits are 1 fish 27-47" and 1 fish 47" to 73". So with that first fish being 44", you could have kept the second fish in addition to the first fish.

Again, way to go on your first ones of the season.