The Hook-Up!"Tammy Rose" east.

[stew]

Hello fish fans,
It has been awhile since I posted an update. I have been out straight with the shop and fishing. It has been a different summer with some ups and downs for fishing but I just checked my log book and I am just a little behind last season for total number of tuna to the boat. Last year at this time, Aug 20th, we had caught 53 bluefin and this season we are at 50 fish to the boat and we have run a few less charters. Many people have had more down than up but I am here to tell you that the fishing, on a whole has been pretty good with an exceptional June bite that kicked things off early. It has slowed down considerably but there are still fish to be caught. We had an awesome trip offshore last Friday and we went 2 for 3 on 70 inch fish and we fought and lost a true giant. We doubled up on the troll with splash bars and I have never felt so helpless as I watched my Okuma 80W getting spooled and there was nothing I could do about it. The other fish was a 70 incher and he didn’t want to come to the boat. We finally got him under control and released and by then the giant had 450 yds of line out and I was looking at the black mark on the Dacron signaling to me that we only had 200yds left on the reel. I will never know how big this fish was but trust me, it was big!!! I figured we easily had 45lbs of drag on him at this point in time and it was all my customer could do just to stay in the boat. With the other fish out of the way I swung and backed the “Tammy Rose” down hard on the monster and gained back a bunch of line only to have him run again. I have been here before so I knew that this fish was big. We chased him for another 10 minutes when I watched in horror as the rod tip popped up and he was gone. We pulled the hook, actually the hook came back straightened!!!! WOW!!! A 10/0 steel VMC… holy cow! The same style of hook we caught the 775lb bluefin on last year. We must have had him hooked in the roof of the mouth. Guys if you fish long enough you will bend or break hooks, that is just part of the game. If it hasn’t happened to you yet then guess what…. It will!!! This was just not going to be our fish. Friday the 13th will be the chapter in my book on that fish story. We did hook up later and tag and release another 70 incher. Tuesday we fished out east and we went 2 for 3 with some smaller fish. We kept a 53” fish and tagged and released a 48”. Good fishing and some meat for my guys, not too bad. Thunder and lightning and rain but the fish were biting!! For me the best colors on the bars in these last few weeks have been the Keywest Special and the Red Iquana, they have been hot with the giant biting the Keywest way long rigger and multiple fish on the Red Iquana up tight on the short rigger. Wednesday we went 3 for 4 with a double header. I watched the fish march across the Raymarine E140w and before I could say anything to the mates the two rods exploded. Really fun when that happens. Thursday the wind shifted to the SE and pushed warm water onto the grounds and we only got one bite. Wind from the east… fish bite the least. Today was a great day. Nice westerly wind. First boat on the grounds, lines in and 5 mins. later doubled up!!! Kept a 51 incher and tagged and released a 53 incher. Nice way to start the day. We ended up going 3 for 5 with another 48 incher T& R. The full moon is next Tuesday and that will bring another slug of new fish into the area. The only question is when? A couple of days before? During? Or after the bright nights? I have had some of my best days just before the full moon so… be ready. I have some dates in August open and I am booking up the few open dates in Sept. fast so if you want to go fishing with us this season book soon. The fall is just around the corner and the best part of the season is ahead of us. Get out there and go fishing. I have the Hyannis Anglers Giant Bluefin Tuna Tournament available and I will get back to you on the pricing. This is a three day fishing event. The dates are Oct.8th-10th with the captains’ meeting the night of the 7th. Call me if you are interested in fishing this event. Good luck. I have enclosed a picture of the hook and a nice fat 70 incher getting tagged. “It’s All About The Bite!” Capt. Eric

[silver sided]

I straightned the same kind of hook a couple of years ago trolling the NWC. It was just about dusk when I saw a boil what looked to be as big as the infield at Fenway park on my long port rigger. My brand new pink squid rig dissapeared into the depths and the line came off the reel faster than I have ever seen in my life. My boat could have never backed down that fast so I sped forward to chase it down at an angle as my buddy reeled in line. Well this went on for about 40 minutes the fish never stopped! The same thing happened rod tip went up and pop. Got the hook back straight as an arrow. My guess is it was a thousand pounder but we will never know.