Oceanographer 8/23-8/24

[keithj]

Had a chance to fish oceanographer again returning yesterday. It was crowded out there with a tone of boats. We didn't do great on tuna, ended up keeping only two yellowfins, although both were nice 70lb fish. Dropped in last night around 630 and picked up one yellowfin before nightfall. Drifted in the deep overnight. Wind was a bit sloppy until 1AM then slacked off. Had a sword slam the shallow bait three times with its bill then watched as it acsended into the hydroglow light below the boat with the sword light trailing behind it. Reeled fast but never came tight on the fish. Next night bite we thought was a sword. Turned out to be an 8 foot tiger which we cut the hook on boatside. Morning troll hit another nice yellow. Had a take down on the senior wide range long rigger that turned into a line evoparating blue marlin that looked about 400ish as it greyhounded away from the boat. after 5 minutes of non-stop running captain's knot broke. I felt pretty bad about that one. Things slowed down on the troll after that and we worked our way southwest and came upon a gold mine. Floating log covered in nice mahi. We came off the troll and bailed big mahi on everything from chunks to the fly rod. Ended up keeping a pile of big mahi's. After a couple hours of that mayhem we called it a day and ran in. Not a great trip, not a bad trip. Some boats out there did much better on tuna than us, but the mahi were fun and i haven't seen many of them at all this year, so I'll take it. Now to decide if I should pull the boat or not....

By the way, I'm no expert at this but if there's one thing that has been great for me these last two seasons, it was committing to running a senior wide range on the long rigger. Purple over pink has worked the best for me. In a total of 7 trips leaving that thing out there no matter what the rest of the spread looks like, we have had 3 blue marlin hookups, 2 wahoo hookups, and 3 white marlin hookups, plus an assortment of big tuna on the big wide range. It may not get bit every time and you may miss a couple tuna that you otherwise would have had, but it certainly results in some interesting fish.

[The-Avid-Angler]

Nice report Keith, sounds like a good time.

[tyfletch]

Way to squeeze a trip in before the "Big storm". I pulled my boat today. I guess we will wait and see if it was the right call. Keep the blue girl mojo going.

[ChrisMa]

Keith,

You have enough fuel on your CC to get you to Oceanographer plus 2 days fishing? Or do you have a bladderbag?

[Defiant]

Way to go !! Hopefully Irene pushes the water closer.

[keithj]

Hi Chris,

I top off on Nantucket on the way out and arrive back at the dock with roughly 60 reserve. Figure I'm back in the sound with at least 80 gallons and could always slip back into nantucket to gas up on the return if needed. Good range on my boat.

Keith,

You have enough fuel on your CC to get you to Oceanographer plus 2 days fishing? Or do you have a bladderbag?

[Fffiisshh0]

you put your time in Keith, thats for sure !! Some days its an "Offshore Investment", other times we get to take a withdrawl!! We did Welker Fri, no tuna, but 20+ mahi out of the cornfields!!! Should be interesting to see what next week brings!?