Mass Bay Guides Tuna Report

[Massbaytuna3]

Sorry guys, going to make this short...

I ran the Fortuna for my father today with one of my good friends from MMA (Bob Whit) as a mate. We ran East of the bank and had livies in the water by 7am. We hooked and landed a nice 68" fish around 8:30.

We moved about 6 miles North from that spot to go Cod fishing. By 11:30 we had about 20-30 cod, half a dozen of which were between 15 and 20 lbs.

At 11:30, decided to head back to tuna fishing. We moved back to our original spot, had a couple boils right away, and then things slowed down.

Heard there was a pretty good bite back where we were cod fishing in the afternoon. Fish up top, multiple hook ups, etc. A lot of guys broke fish off and pulled hooks today...frustrating.

Back at it again in the morning. Fishing with Donnie on the Labrador.

Catch em up!

-Bry

[Col. Kurtz]

Did you guys get out again before the seas hit today?

[Captain Greg Sears]

I am catching up on some older trips with some literary value I will be posting these not necessarily in order.

Sept 3 2009

04:30 The Charter shows up and reminds me of my guarantee on their last trip and puts the pressure on right away. ( I gave them a half day price for a full day fishing because they did not catch a fish, "one of my past posts when I was looking for my gun".)
04:45 Depart Scituate Harbor: already got one guy making demands before my second cup of coffee. I am going to call him "Ace"
06:00 Arrive on the bank lots of whales and birds at the BE.
06:02 The charter picks the first guy on the rod, they pick one of the guys who has never been fishing ( I will call him New Shoes because he was wearing brand new $300 sneakers and afraid to get his feet dirty)
06:10 Bob on the Wakeup Call calls me to say he is hooked up 4 miles from me.
06:11 I make the call to move to that location.
06:30 "Ace" thinks we should do something different because we have not caught a tuna in 5 minutes. ( I hope I forgot the bullets)
07:30 Boil on the Balloon bait ( I love this Sh#!t)
07:32 Boil on the Balloon and he gets the bait.
07:33 Ace and New shoes are jumping up and down yelling we got a tuna ( I yell you ain't got nothing until its in the boat Start Reeling!!)
07:34 I tell the other guys to get in the Kite Bait.
07:35 I hear the drag on the kite bait screaming. I look back at the guy reeling it in and yell at him for hitting the drag.
07:35.5 He yells back at me saying he didn't hit anything.
07:36 I yell doubled up set the drags to strike.
07:37 Two nice fish tight!
08:02 "New Shoes" has fish number one to the boat.
08:03 I harpoon the fish and it takes off like a raped ape pealing 100 feet of rod and harpoon line.
08:04 Fish one has tangled with fish two I have the anglers do a dance with the rods to untangle ( This must be why New Shoes has new Shoes)
08:06 The dance is over they got untangled
08:12 Land fish One, a nice 70" fish 200 pounds
08:15 Fish two is at the boat we leader and remove the hook ( Nice release with a healthy 69" fish)
08:20 Kerry is washing blood all over New Shoes
08:21 New Shoes learned lesson number one
08:25 I tell the charter we have had a successfully tuna trip before 09:00 so lets go Shark and Bottom fishing to avoid damaging any more small tuna. They all agree even Ace seems Satisfied.
09:10 We are catching huge Cod averaging 20 pounds.
09:11 "Ace" asks why we have not caught a shark yet? I tell him relax we just got started the slick is only ten feet long.
09:15 A blue shark takes the bait.
09:16 Ace is on the rod and reeling like a one armed thirteen year old girl.
09:40 we release a nice ten footer.
09:45 back Cod fishing catching nice keeper fish and New Shoes is running around trying not to get his feet wet.
09:46 New Shoes lands a nice 30 pounder and it craps all over his feet. ( New Shoes learns lesson number 2)
09:47 Ace wants the guys to stop Cod fishing so we can fish more shark rods?? ( alright where is the gun?)
09:48 A Blue shark is sniffing around the chum
09:49 Shark on and three guys hooked up on big Cod.
10:15 We land a nice 8 footer who fights all the way to the boat plus four nice 20 pound Cod.
10:20 back on the chum ball and it is covered with Blue dogs.
10:21 Hooked another blue dog but he tail rapped and I am wrestling him at the boat.
10:45 Ace says he needs a challenge so I tell him I have a good one for the next shark.
10:46 we hook another Big Blue Shark I tell ace grab the rod ( a bent butt fifty) I don,t let him use a belt.
11:30 Ace is now satisfied, that just kicked the crap out of him.
12:00 We leave the Cod and Shark and go back for one quick shot at the tuna while Kerry fillets the Cod.
13:00 We have no luck on the tuna and no signs in the area we head back to the barn. "Thank God" Ace was harder to satisfy than my wife.
15:00 Just Sprinkle a little water around and get me a cup of Coffee.

[Col. Kurtz]

09:16 Ace is on the rod and reeling like a one armed thirteen year old girl.

Almost snorted coffee out of my nose laughing at that one! I hope "Ace" and "New Shoes" don't read SFC!!!

[Captain Greg Sears]

Actually they read it religiously every morning at work. "Great Group of Guys" they can take some heat.

[Fortunamate]

this report is a little late but a couple weeks ago i was the first mate aboard the labrador and we got 2 nice 68" fish and here is a couple photos of us taken aboard the fortuna of me and don fighting a fish

[oke30]

Finally the report gets out! Thought I was gonna get fired checking the site 15 times a day from work! Captain Sears, we're getting another group together to get out in October and I'm bringing the lucky shoes...though they won't be new anymore! First off, we had a fantastic time and an unreal trip...despite what you wrote, I've been fishing a ton and have never had a trip even remotely as successful as that day. Final tally was two decent Blue Fin early, countless Cod (to the point we weren't keeping anything below 30), and five blue shark (all 8-10 footers). By the end of the trip we were all beat down...to the point one of us, we'll call him Hair Helmet, called for help to reel in double header Cod. The reason I'm writing is to let anyone out there trolling the site (pun intended) for a charter know that Mass Bay Guides is top notch and Captain Sears and the Fortuna are first rate. We had Kerry as a mate and he was awesome, tons of energy, taught us a ton, and worked his arse off. Also, half the fun of the trip is talking to Captain Sears on the way out. Great personality and eager to teach, which is a huge help. As I said, we're coming back this year and have a huge group eager to set something up for next year. I think Ace got a bit addicted to the big fish action so the pressure is gonna be on for October, don't think he'll be satisfied unless we catch a market Blue Fin, a world record Mako, Jaws' big brother, a killer whale, a giant squid, and a Blue Marlin on steroids! Thanks for a great trip. I have nothing but great things to say about Captain Sears, Kerry, and Mass Bay Guides. However, the guys in the picture are not us. Ace would never allow everyone to waste time posing for a group picture when there's giants to be caught!

[Clint3240]

sounds good to me, this weather has been a *****! i sure hope noaa is right and you guys have not gone out either....

fortunamate, looks like one hell of a fight by the looks of that rod.

[Fortunamate]

oo it was it took 3 charter guys and finnaly no one else wanted to reel so i had to take over while we persuaded to get someone into the harness both fish were very fiesty that day going all over the place and gotta love the bends in the rod

[Captain Greg Sears]

Just a quick report: This week we have been trolling 4 to 5 BFT per day using squid bars. we have caught both Small and medium fish every day allowing us to take 2 tuna per day. The fish have been averaging 45 to 70 inches. The bite has been in the morning almost every morning this week has had a choppy sea and then has calmed in the afternoon. The bite has been while its choppy.

More reports to come: