6/23 Down with the Sickness (Tuna Report)

[Riptide Charters]

This trip was sick in several ways. None of which were good. All day Friday Mike C, Jr and I spent hours rigging Offshore Inovations Green Monsta bars at my house. We took a few breaks for other fishing related chores like getting a recall handled on the new Etec and picking up a few 8# lobsters to feed our tired souls .




At times the house looked more like a lure factory than my home, but thats not always a bad thing. Around the time the big crustations showed up Shaun Ruge rolled in, conicidence...... you decide!

I've had a nasty cold/flu/sinus thing for about 10 days and it's had me dragging butt just trying to keep pace with my schedule. While on Thursday while OTW Mike C took a swig out of my Gatorade bottle by mistake and for most of Rigfest 2007 he was whining about a sore throat. We told him to man up about it and keep rigging. A few Corona's would kill any bad things that made his throat hurt. Boy would we feel bad about those comments later.

When we finished rigging at 2300, we decided the plan was to get up at 0400 and head out. Mike and Jr ran to their Cape house and Ruge and I crashed at Casa Riptide. At 4 bells the phone rang, it was Jr. Apprently Big Mike was down for the count and had no voice now. THey would not be able to make the trip. Dispite my feeling like garbage, Ruge's Christmas Morning excitement causeme to roll out of bed and get a move on. We rolled out and headed to Chatham.

At the ramp the wind was cranking and we were the only trailer there, a sure sign of things to come. We ran the bay out to the cut and found ourselves in 3-5's as soon as we cleared the cut. We ran out tothe far edge of the other days numbers at a modertate pace letting the big hull push the slop out of the way.

Finally we found birds and bait and a few whales. It look good but not great. We went line in anyway and began to push East as we followed the line of life. After an hour or so things really started looking super and it was't long before one of the newly made bars got smashed. WE were tight and Ruge was on the rod. A fast aggressive fight had the fish to the boat in short order. I sunk the gaff on the fish and the tale of the tape showed 45". Small by the standard of late, but we were on the board and based on the radio that was something in and of itself.

We kept working the area and we hailed in a few buddy boats to join in on the spot. With some of the larger boats commenting on how "sporty" it was in the now 4-6's we were definately working hard in the slop.

I decided to spice up the spread a bit and make a change that I hoped would get us some thign bigger and help pick up the pace. I brought out the North Carolina special and rigged a sweet horse ballyhoo on a Wahoonbox modified Blue and White Ilander. I sent it out on the shotgun and we prayed for no bluefish. Before the next hour went by we heard a reel screaming. Nothing in the gunnels was bent so a look up to the shotgun in the T-top confirmed the meat got eat!

Ruge's the rod man for the day and he gets to work on number 2. This fish is easy at first and he figures another 40ish fish. Then when it gets near the boat it dumps a bunch of line at FULL drag (30#) Ruge work him hard and in about 15-20 minutes I get the gaff shot on the 58"er. We were happy and the size was definately up over the first fish.

The morning went on and the seas began to lay down. A bunch of us knew each other and were chatting bad and forth to kill the time. One of the larger sporties we knew took great pleasure in teasing us with stories of sofa's, naps, hot coffee, and Hot Pocket's in several tastey flavors. Finally they even offered to heat bag a few Hot Pockets and float them to us for a sort of marine drive through. But we told them to keep their tastey microwavable goodies, we were hard core and we would stick to wet, cold brownies, pop tarts and warm Red Bull. We were no sissys it was all about the fish!

As morning turned into afternoon everyone talked about the tons of bait and the tons of marks down deep, but that the fish were not coming up. We continued to pound the area with only a few big blues to break up the troll.

All day we had gotten to watch whales and dolphins put on a hell of a show. The dolphins REALLY liked our spread and would at times lift up the Ilander on their nose and "carry" it before moving off to a bar to play with the teasers. they seemed to enjoy playing in the spread and we enjoyed watching them skillfully toy with out lures.

Around 1430, Ruge said "look another dolphin behind the right rigger. I looked and saw deep brown, but no dolphin blowing. I went forthe reel and threw it into freespool them locked it up and reeled like mad. BOOOM! The TUNA came up and blasted the bar... FISH ON! Them another rig went off for a second before the fish came off. Ruge was on the rod for number 3. A fast fight and we release an estimated 45-47" in the water at boatside.

A short time alter I see gannets hitting the water a ways off, but no whales. I figure if the whales are not keeping the bait up high tuna must be. We troll over and as soon as I turn us down sea the rod goes off. Ruge handles number 4 quickly for another in the water boatside release.

Now it's 1600 and time ot call it a day. Final tally for the day 4 tuna in 5 hookups. The one that came off was due to a broken mainline on the bar. I run light lines on my bars for better action. I run 80-100# for the teasers and 130-150# for the mainline/hook bait. With bluefish around the mainline has to be checked constantly. This is what happens if you miss a small nick in the line. I could run heavier line, but I love the action the lighter line give the lures and we try to keep up with the maintenace but sometimes we miss a small nick during the day. After a trip everything gets a thorough going over and a re-rig if needed. The fish we got ranged from 45" to 58" all came on Offshore Inovations Green Monsta Bars except for the 58"er. It ate a modified blue and white Ilander Jr. with a horse ballyhoo and 3/8oz weight added to keep the bait skipping propperly in the conditions. We fished water from 200' to 250' most of the day. Speed was 6.8-7.8 mph and the bars were hit close (short corner, short center) the ballhoo was on the WAAAY back.

Overall a good day of fishing, but at days end I called Mike C to check on him. He was in the Emergency Room! Turns out there was a little bit more to the issue he had than just a sore throat. After 4 hours at CCH, he was finally able to get back home. He's a little better now and we wish him the best. Especially after we called him a sissy durring the rigging. I expect he will work through this quickly and be back OTW by next weekend.

BTW (no pics of the fish due to the sea conditions and being a short handed crew)

[WAHOONBOX]

I MUST SAY THAT THIS EPIC WITHOUT PICTURES IS BY FAR ONE OF YOUR BETTER ONES TERRY!.....I COULD LIVE EVERY MOMENT AND FOLLOOWED THE COOL TIMELINE SO VERY WELL! I TIP MY RIGGERS TO YOU FOR SUCH A COOL READ...


CONGRATS TO OFFSHORE INNOVATIONS ON DOING THEIR JOB ON THIS ASS KICKING DAY IN DA CHATHUM

BUT TI USE THE EXCUSE OIF FOUL WEATHER AND NO PICS???HAAAAA!!! NO EXCUSES PAL!!! I GO THROUGH CAMERAS LIKE DIET DR PEPPER! TAKE THE PICS MAN! A CAMERA IS THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICIAL LAMB...I MEAN TUNER ....TO THE GODS...