Spinning gear tuna~Jeffries Ledge

[Dads Dream]

NOAA forecast looked good for Fri Oct 2nd, had been watching both Thurs & Fri as the day to splash my 22' center. Crew of 4 guys, 2 guys were tuna rookies and had not even seen a tuna in open water (their near shore/offshore experiences included a whale watching boat and a cod trip off the Cape many years ago.

Seth is always my first pick for crew. But today I had invited some new guys to see this tooona event~ Jeremy and Greg are guys in their late 20's and both in great physical shape. Both had been prepared via email and light cell phone talk about gear, clothing, seas conditions, food/ etc.

Everyone is ontime and we push off the Eliot town docks at 0558 ahead of only one other boat. Down the Piscataqua River- appears to be a light westerly as evidenced by the stacks from the PSNH power station. Dimly lit river with sparkles from some dock lights and I95 bridge- its a dumping tide and we're heading out.

Plans were to meet "Fortunate" 'Maine Priority on SFC', Jeremy, who's upgraded this year to a nice 305 Albemarle w/ twin diesel IVECO 400 something-or-others. Jeremy's ontime and we steam through the Isles of Shoals and get a bead on The Cove and points just north toward Jeffries.

Seas are picking up as we clear the lee of the Shoals and I'm realizing this westerly has not dropped since Thursday??? ((Thanks NOAA for the 1-2 ft seas or less..winds shifting W to S-SE by afternoon & picking up late day)) We're at cruising speed but every 6-8 waves the bow takes a dive as we barrel down the backside of a steeper wave~ and I've got to back down on the throttle~ luckily with the following seas we're not taking spray.

When we hit Old Scantum we find birds working and there's a few small CC's jogging about the area~ but it looked like we were late to the party. We jog around with Fortunate for maybe 10 mins and decide to push onward. Before we reach the Cove, we're seeing busting fish in what has become 2-3 ft seas with the occasional 4 fter mixed in. Several boats in the area becomes a bigger assembly but they're all moving to our north and east~ we deploy a single line off the stern (it's on a 70 and we rig it with a Williamson top water plug (what the heck's it called??~ it matches the size of the juvie herring we'd seen the previous week)~ and it allows us to put this thing WTFB and run at all speeds while chasing the busting fish)

Oh, it's important to mention, this season on Jeffries, I've become one of those cowboy yahoo 'run & gun' guys.....maybe not one of the one's you HATE, but, I am definitely one of the guys that expects his crew to be good with toona fishing as a 'full contact sport'. Yes, I'm courteous, I'm not running up on a pod of fish if I see a boat on the troll moving in the same direction. If there's 2 pods busting, I'll chase the pod which is 'away' from another competing boat BEFORE I'll fish a pod in competition with another boat. Enough said

So, we learn quickly that surfing downwind is easy and we can get to busting fish....but turn W-NW and face the seas in my little boat- get ready for a pounding. For the first few hours it was a little bit fun, stand on the bow box (I should have had video for this)...but try to visualize....holding the bow dock line which is cleated off, centering yourself and leaning aft~ boat is throttled into the 2-3-4 ft seas.....it was like snowboarding for me~ your legs are like 2 ft long springs (up& down)~ spray didnt matter....you take that in the face....you saw fish 100 yards away and closing....getting the bail open on your reel was tricky~ having 3 guys standing down the starbd rail with their spinning gear ~ all at the ready!

Splashing into position, the first angler gets his cast off and he ducks down, the 2nd guy is supposed to slide forward into position and cast directly over the head of angler 1, angler 1 slides down the port side and begins his retrieve....and angler 3 repeats the process until we get 3 good casts on the busting fish.....all of this is easy when you've got the preferred FAC conditions......but its a whole lot trickier with seas like we had.....and tuna rookies.

Reels get bashed on the rails, anglers slip & slide, people fall, constant crashing shoulders-to-shoulders......I think you get the picture (and doesn't a simple 5-6 line spread with trolling gear sound more appealing now?) For me? Ahhhh, that was sooooo Fall of 2008.......its busting pandamonium this year & this method has given us a lot of great hookups

So, with the approach "I'll keep doing it until it hurts" mentality....we begin what becomes 4.5 hrs of this insanity. Our first hookup is our tuna rookie Jeremy who felt the joy when some fish were tight to our starboard- and this fish burned off a lot of line quickly before I was able to coach him on technique and retrieval methods.....he was more than 2 mins into the fight and the fish ran toward the boat allowing a little slack ~ and that was all it took to drop the fish.

Off to another pod, and Seth is tight, sporting his Thunnus reel and Local Hooker rod.....he's into this fish good. No coaching necessary here~ only we're struggling with boat position and the seas~ we had parted leaders on 2 fish the previous week so we were prepared to finesse this fish. We're not taking any bragging rights about a fast fight and boatside release on this fish. We had color in 20 minutes and the fish looked like it was done almost surfacing but it was seeing the boat for the first time and it dodged the prop on the o/b by a foot or so....that was close.

At 40 mins we have color again but Seth is still patient and hadn't started to lift the fish (his original sighting called the fish in the 60" class, but that would prove to be a case of saltwater magnification hopefulness~ LOL)....the last 10 mins would see Seth bring the fish tight~ I had a quick gaff shot to the gill plate and the beauty was onboard. Seth & I exchanged a solid guy hug (although we've put several fish on my boat in the last 2 yrs~ this was Seth's first BFT~ we've been chasing these beasts for 5 yrs together) ~ now where's that tape measure....ok, ok.....and it's......49") It'll fit in our fish box by about 8")

Our day continued through about 1230 with stats of 1 for 4 fish. Sure we should have had 2 other fish but our stats stand strong on a tough day in a small boat. Our dedicated trolling line produced nothing and I think I'd try a weighted sluggo or a plain small cedar plug next time

{Pics of Seth fighting and Seth with the fish, then Greg with the fish (that didn't get away)~ there's always next time, Greg!}

Dads Dream out~
~Rich[/SIZE]

[gman]

Rich,

Great written report as I felt like I was there, congrats for getting it on that tuna on the deck in bad conditions ... it always makes it more fun that way LOL. That 3 man slide in the bow is the way we do it as well and is a very effective way to cast at them. I may have missed it but what were you throwing at them?

It isnt about how quickly you land them its about the thrill of the hunt and landing your fish mission accomplished. I heard Jeffries Ledge has been holding some fish lately

Glenn

[paul708]

nice report.
that size fish is fun.

how is the boat traffic up there.

[parmentj]

Nice work Rich, way to get it done!

[Parapapam]

Rich,

You are having a good year. Keep it up!!!

Mike

[Dads Dream]

Rich,

Great written report as I felt like I was there, congrats for getting it on that tuna on the deck in bad conditions ... it always makes it more fun that way LOL. That 3 man slide in the bow is the way we do it as well and is a very effective way to cast at them. I may have missed it but what were you throwing at them?

It isnt about how quickly you land them its about the thrill of the hunt and landing your fish mission accomplished. I heard Jeffries Ledge has been holding some fish lately

Glenn

Gman- Glenn
Seems Jeffries has had fish all summer.....you're right

There can be a lot of boat traffic, however, as the area is soooo huge....plenty of open water and the fish have been all over (unlike NWC in every way)~

I'm sure a lot of lures are working on them but we've been casting mostly 2 types......3-4 oz crippled herring (silver or blue mack)~ change out the single hook to a toona-worthy 4x; the other lure has been a MegaBait...similar length/weight combo

Its been frustrating casting over & over into the pods with no takers....and then realizing we're too big for them~ we need to go smaller (probably a Deadly Dick) with a bigger split ring and diff hook choice

A function of weight/ casting distance/ and target bait....I'd rather have the ability to hit the fish at 50 yds than have the perfect offering (there's gotta be a stupid fish in there somewhere).....

[AlloyToy]

Nice job Double D.....awesome report. I know your frustration with chasing fish......seems like all I can do lately on the bank......is chase

Keep up the good work...only a few weeks left

[shoefish]

Great job Rich! I'm glad you were able to get tight- we were out on Friday and got some nice shots but they weren't liking our mojo. We saw quite a bit of bait out there still, so hopefully they'll stick around for a few more weeks. Congrats again on the catching!

[dunn6253]

Nice job Rich. Sometimes those 2-3-4 footers make the story when you tell it over and over. Everyone can get it done in FAC conditions. Hopefully you get another shot this year..........

[Col. Kurtz]

Nice work Cap! We were out on Friday as well (mid-Bank) and played a bit of run & gun ourselves while trolling. No hook-ups on the spinning gear for us, but good to know that tactic is working with these slightly "smaller" fish.