No baby killed on the Tammy Rose

[alltackle]

Pretty Work Eric! Congrats!

[fin-chaser]

Great story and Rich, Joe and Kevin are great guys. Nice to see them reap the benefits of such a nice opportunity !!!

Hope some of that charm will rub off on the rest of us.

Eric,

Nice catch !!!!

Dave

[stew]

We left out of Stage Harbor on Friday the 11th and headed to Nantucket for the first annual Nantucket Bluefin Blast Tourney. I had been chartered by Joe and Rich Record, Kevin Simon and Jimmy Tomaiolo . The forecast for the weekend was anything but good, but it is a tuna tourney in the NE in the fall, this is how it is. We hit Nantucket early with high hopes of a few beers and a few laughs and an early bedtime. I have the best crew I could ask for with my brother Matt and son Corey in the cockpit so all we need is the weather to back off a little bit. We had some fun and I hit the bunk around 10pm and listened all night long to the 30 kts of wind and driving rain, I didn’t sleep a wink. I got up when my cell phone rang and it was one of my buddies and we decided that we would all run out together and we decided to leave at 5:30am and wait for the tide to change and come with the wind. It was a long slow ride out but far better than what I thought we would face.

When we hit the grounds there had already been a few bites so I was hot to get one in the boat quickly. My plan was to fish my big fish spread which consisted of two bally-hoo on the long riggers on the 130 rods and three splash bars on the 70’s, two on the corners and one in the center rigger waaaaay back there. I picked the “Chameleon” for the center rigger because it has been my go to bar all season long. The “Fatal Attraction” hooked up and landed a nice 66 inch fish right in front of me and another boat, the “A1A” had a 66 inch fish on ice too. The leader board was setting up so we needed something in the mid to high 60 inch range or we had to just release it. We finally got tight on the bally-hoo long rigger and had a mid to upper 50 inch fish which we released on the leader. We had several more bites on the Hoo and a couple of bites on the center rigger splash bar. The “Reel Therapy” had one on deck around the 66 inch mark so things were shaping up and we knew what we needed. All of a sudden the right rigger clip pops and Matt is on the 130 reeling hard, but he never comes tight. Ah, we missed him. Then the 130 just doubles over and we are tight and the line is dumping pretty good. This is a good fish, not a giant but definitely upper 60 inches easy. This is the one we need. We get on him hard and move the rod to the post and we have him tight. Kevin is on him hard and he has got him about 50 feet out and all of sudden, donk, the hook pulls. Been, there, done, that…. Here we go again. Nice fish for sure. So back on the troll we go. A few more misses and it is starting to get late but hey it’s a two day tourney. Around 2 pm I here my brother yell center rigger and I here the sound of the rigger clip exploding and I turn to see nothing but whitewater where the splash bar was. Matt is yelling “big fish, “big fish. I saw the whole bite!!” The Penn 70Vs is screaming. Big Joe gets in the harness and steps up big-time for what will become a battle of a lifetime. We are clearing all the other lines and I here “DACRON” and I watch as the hi-vis green Dacron goes flying off the reel. I am so pumped; we got a good fish on here, a big fish, not a schoolie but a tourney wining fish for sure. Scary to have that kind of pressure on you from the git go, but hey that is what it’s all about, brother!!!

Before I can even blink Corey is yelling that the fish is not stopping and we are losing the line very quickly. I had the “Tammy Rose” in reverse and the RPM’s were coming up. At my shop we load our reels with a black mark at 200yds left on the reel and a red mark at 100 yds left. I have never seen the black mark, not ever. When the black mark left the reel I knew we were in deep trouble. Corey was yelling that we were getting spooled and that we had to get on this fish. The turbo’s were screaming and the black smoke was pumping and I had that boat spinning around in seconds, it must have looked like something out of “ESPN’s Billfish X-treme Release League”. I got on the radio and told a boat near me that we had a very big fish on and that we had well over 600 yds of line out and we had to go hard after the fish. I had the boat spun and we were on him at 7 knots with a nice big belly in the line. Joe was reeling like a mad man. My focus was not to over run the fish and get the line in the props. For the next 45 mins. all we did was chase the fish. I would get the line back and turn the boat and put Joe in the corner and the fish would just dump us. I can not say enough about Joe as and angler. We was so on this fish and never once stopped the pressure or cranking. He was a stud. I could have not had a better effort. We finally got the fish stopped at the hour mark and had him up and down. One hour of shear madness. All of a sudden we started to get him up and we saw color from the squid bar but we never got a good look at the fish, just a shadow, a very, very big shadow. This fish was just eyeballing us, just checking us out and he was not on his side, he was swimming straight up and we hadn’t even begun to hurt him yet. On the second pass I swear I heard the fish laugh at me because he looked up and saw us fighting him with a stand-up rod and a 70. He then took off and we would not see him again for the next 4 hours.

I could go on and on about the next 4 hours but Iam not going to. I tried every boat tactic and trick I knew but I could not get this fish up. At the two hour mark, around 4 pm we started to think about the weigh station rules and that we had to be inside Nantucket Boat Basin by 7:30 pm for the fish to count. The clock was ticking. WE were an easy 42 miles from the dock. Joe reluctantly gave up the rod with the hopes that fresh legs could get the fish quicker. Kevin jumped into the fight and we bumped up the drag and went as hard at the fish as we could. Kevin went has hard as he could and we but huge pressure on this fish trying to break him. He went big but the fish never slowed. We put my 20 year old son in the harness and cranked up the drag even more and Corey went 1 and a half hours kicking the crap out of the fish. Corey had to swap out harnesses so Jimmie jumped in and he took a little tuna tango around the cockpit and got to fight the fish for about 15 minutes. With the other harness and with gloves on Corey was cranking down on the spool stopping the fish from running and putting huge drag on the fish! My “BFT” rod was incredible! That is one strong blank that Seeker makes. It is a kick ass rod. No doubt. But we still were not winning. I looked at my brother and at 6 pm, 4 hours into the fight, we made Corey put the rod in the gunnel rod holder, I am so glad I fish short bent butts, and dropped the reel into free spool and cranked up the preset and Matt went “Old School” on his ass. Corey did not want to come off the fish but we had to try something else. With gloves on Matt would stop the fish from running and all I could think was we are either going to get him or break him off or break the rod trying. But, I am not fighting this fish into the darkness. No way. With the short rod in the holder I had to make the "Tammy Rose" dance like she has never danced before. It was the hardest I have ever had to work at the helm on a fish. Thank goodness for twin engines! At 6:45 I could see the fish down on the fish finder at 50 feet and he was just hanging there and he had been there for over two hours. In desperation I tried two deep “Poon” shots but never even came close. On the second shot I think I spooked him because he mad a quick run and then we got a ton of line back really quickly and I watched as the fish came up on the fish finder from 70 feet to about 40 feet and then the line just started to come up and there he was, 50 feet from the boat, he just bobbed his head. What a freaking slob! Corey had the "Poon" and I started to back down at the fish and Corey was ready but he went back down. Two more circles and he started to come back up. I jumped from the bridge and grabbed the “Poon” and had Corey get on the controls. Corey spun the boat and backed right down on the fish as Matt cranked hard. I watched as the fish just sat there at the surface and I was ready to take the shot, suddenly the fish began to twitch and slowly go down so I threw the “Poon” at him and at first I thought I missed him as I franticly grabbed the dart line and once I pulled in the slack I had him good. Matt was on the leader and I was on the dart line and Corey and Kevin came on the tail and before I could say another word he was tail roped and ours! 5 freaking hours and at dusk the most epic battle of my career was over. The fish was big! The hugs and high fives flew around the cockpit and when it all settled I knew that the 7 of us would never forget this day! It's 9:05 pm so I will finish this story tomorrow afternoon but I have to get some sleep because I am fishing in the morning! Capt. Eric

[chumtini]

Part 1? Keep those two fingers typing. Great read.

[starrfish]

way to go cap and crew.. good to meet you guys on the rock, hope to see everyone again next year for round #2..
the good fishin is just about to start !

[dunn6253]

Nice work Stew and crew. Looking forward to part two of the story. Hopefully it will be the first of many big fish to die over the next couple months.......

[Rhinoke]

Great Read and an even Better Catch!! Congrads Capt!

[johnnywalker]

Great job Stew and crew, way to stick it out, Congrats

[squids]

Eric, congrats on a great fish. A true tale of what to expect when fishing with such a great capt. and crew. I have fished with Eric and his crew every year for the past 7 seasons. Their is a reason I keep going back, class act all the way around (capt., crew & store).

Again, Eric congrats on a great catch. Hopefully the fish gods will be on our side this week end.

Steve

[CindyLou]

Congrats again Eric/crew...sounds like a HUGE team effort. Great recap of what we all dream about, and few get to experience. Can't wait to hear more...