Sea Splendour Ocean/Viking Shootout Report

[whitey]

Day 1 we fought our way to the tip of the Baltimore in 6-8 foot seas. We dropped the line in on the tip and worked our way all the way down the west wall without a bite so we turned towards the east wall. As we were crossing the canyon a Wahoo bit off a large Stalker Instigator teaser and we caught a couple small mahis. We then worked our way up the east wall and back towards the tip. When we arrived to the tip we saw a large cargo ship drifting in 350 feet of water so we decided to do a drive by. We made 1 pass and marked piles of bait under it so we came around for another circle. As we passed the bow on the 2nd pass a dirty white boy came out and piled on a Island Pro/horse bally combo. We tried to switch him off to a dink bait but he wanted nothing to do with it. He then faded back and took a swipe at the right long rigger but I wiffed him . After a few tense seconds and some words that can not be posted were said, the left long started screaming as he came back and hung himself. After a quick fight we were on the board. At the end of the day we found out that we had caught 1 of only 3 whites caught by the whole fleet.

Going into day 2, we knew we would have a good chance at winning this thing if we could get a 2nd white early in the day. After looking at the temp charts we saw a new piece of Gulf Stream water that had broken off and was sitting in the deep of the Norfolk.

Day 2 we made the long trek from Cape May to the deep of the Norfolk. We dropped the lines in about 15 minutes late due to the long run. We then pushed our way offshore looking for the water. At 9:30 we found what we were looking for. A 3 degree break, weeds, bait and blue water. As we entered the area we caught a couple of small mahis and had an 80lb class Yellowfin air out next to the boat. We knew it was only a matter of time before it would happen!! At 10:30 as we were changing up some baits, he came in and piled on the same Island Pro/Bally combo as our fish did on the first day. Again we tried to get him off of it, but this wasn't happening. I went to grab the right flatline to drop it back, but the only thing on it was a swivel flapping in the breeze . We were able to get the left flatline over in time. As the Island Pro was pulled out of the water, he inhaled the dink bait 5 feet from the transom and the fight was on. Vanessa had the fish to the boat in under 2 minutes and we got the early release we needed. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful except for the small Mahis that were under anything that floated.

It was a long ride home since we were too far south to hear what the other boats had caught all day. It wasn't until the awards dinner that we found out we had won the White Marlin Division.

Our whole crew of Capt Ron, Marty (WAHOONBOX), Vanessa, Doug (Double D), Irv (Big I), Adrian, Andrew and Wayne did a great job and kept us in the game the whole time.

Next stop is the White Marlin Open which we still have 1 more open spot for.

[POON MAN]

Nice work Cappy and Crew !!!

[gradywhite273]

Great Job to whitey and crew, they were the only boat to score a marlin on both days.

[SeaBiscuit]

Thanks for the recap Whitey. Nice job and congratulations to the Sea Splendour crew. You guys are headed into the WMO on top of your game! Good luck!
SeaBiscuit

[paul708]

Great job out there andy and crew.. way to go..

[Sterling]

Nice work Sea Splendour crew! Catching 2 out of the 6 whites for the total tournament deserves another award in itself. Your team certainly added to the event, on and off the water.

[O-SEA-D]

Great report Whitey, thanks for sharing.

Congratulations to all of you guys. Pretty work

[Cowboy]

Whitey I thought your next stop was the IRBA tourney to clean-up, you didn't get sceeered off did ya
Good job in the shootout.

[whitey]

Whitey I thought your next stop was the IRBA tourney to clean-up, you didn't get sceeered off did ya

We figured we would give someone else a chance to win so we are going to skip it. Marty will be fishing on the Foolish Pleasure.

[Squidnation]

congrats andy and crew.