"Tuna Fever"- The Hook-Up!

[stew]

After having a few days off I am back out east for the next two weeks with a very busy schedule. I only have two dates left if anyone wants to fish with me on "Tuna Fever". I have Tues. July 13th and Sat. July 17th and that's it. Today we fished with Ken McNeil and his three daughters who ranged from age 9 to 19. The ride out was awesome and the seas were flat. I hoped that I could get through the full-moon fever and put them on some fish. I hit east of Chatham and found birds, bait, whales and bass everywhere. Did I mention Bass? We tripled up on the bass and I was worried. After getting the spread back out I trolled up to the north and as the slack came the tuna started to pop. I went from school to school without a bite and resorted to my best tricks and I finally got a bite on the right short rigger, Red Iquana Splash bar. Ken got on the rod and we did battle with this fish for over an hour. Corey had the leader at the 40 min. mark and the fish was big, big enough that I wanted to get a good measure on him. The fish went ballistic and off he went. We got him two more times on the leader only to have to let him go again. Finally at about the hour and 10 min. mark we got him subdued and tapped him out at 71 inches. Tagged, swam, and released. Nice big fat fish and an awesome battle. We had one other tuna bite and a couple other bass but our day ended with out another hook-up. Lots of fish around but the bass were thick too. Nice day out there with a great charter. I am in the shop tomorrow and then I am out fishing Tues. through Sat. Good luck. Capt. Eric

[backman]

so that's where the life and fleet was. It sure as hell wasn't at the sword today...