TUNA! SLAM! TUNA! SLAM! TUNA! SLAM!

[Riptide Charters]

RIPTIDE CHARTERS
On the tuna board (CASTING) for 2008!!!!! Details after I wash the blood out of the boat

[Dave Sikorski]

Hot damn. How much water are you all fighting these pigs in?

Glad to see they've made the journey once again.

Give em hell while you've got em.

-D

[Tunaman40]

Thats what we like to see.. bloody decks . Great photo

[giantfan]

SWEET!!!!!

Congrats.

Thats a great way to start off the tuna season.

I wish you many, many more.











Ooops, sorry about the football thing. LOL

[Riptide Charters]

[WAHOONBOX]

HOT DANG! RIPTIDE IN IS DA MEAT!!

[Riptide Charters]

Today was a HALF DAY BASS CHARTER with Brian, Brian Sr., Ted and Ted Sr. We splashed in Sandwich at 0530 and headed out to the same areas we've been hitting the bass. We got on site in the FAC water and found nice bass rolling on the glassy water. The guys went to work with the light rods and 5" Yo Zuri's. The bass were picky but the guys did a nice job of teasing them to bite.


After a couple hours of doubles and triples the bite slowed and the boat traffic went through the roof. We tried to get away from the traffic but there were too many boats. We decided to run a ways to get on a bite that Capt Jeff Smith was on and was nice enough to share with me. But as is my luck we got there just as it died off. While I was planing the next move with only an hour and a half left in the trip I got a call from a buddy on the VHF. It was Capt Nat Moody from First Light Anglers up on the North Shore. Capt Nat told me that the "other" fish were GOING OFF!!!! Well Capt Nat is on top of his game and when he says it's hot its HOT! I looked at the crew and asked if they were willing to bag the rest of the trip looking for bass and see if we could get a shot at a tuna. They had landed a ton of bass and blues so they all aggreed it was worth a shot. We had a LONG way to go but the water was still FAC and the big Contender can stretch her legs like a racehorse when the need arrises.

I plugged in the numbers and we were off. I got about half way to Capt Nat and I hit him up on the VHF to make sure it was still worth the long ride. His response "GET HERE NOW!!!!" I know that tone so I pushed the throttles to the pins and now we were screaming towards Nat at 50 KNOTS!

As we got closer we began to smell the bait, then we saw some birds, then IT WAS ON!!!! The tuna were blowing up EVERYWHERE!!!! I mean it was lights out, full on blitz in every direction. My sports had never seen anything like this and they were just blown away.

......let me backtrack a second. We were on a bass trip, that means no tuna gear on the boat. So I had to improvise. I grabbed a St Croix Premier Tuna Spinning rod we were using to snag pogies with, mated it to the biggest spinning reel I had, a Penn 560 Liveliner. I dug out a spare spool for the reel with a 250 yards of braid on it from my rigging bag, tied in some 50# flouro and tied on some special tin. The other two rods we put into action were the Penn 975 Leverdrags on the St Croix Musky Sticks with 50# braid.

We were clearly outgunned for the 75-300# tuna that were crashing the surface. I adjusted the drags to the highest smooth setting I could get and told the guys were were definatly going to have to chase most any fish we hooked. With that I began to set the guys up on the breaking masses of fish.

We had several dozen casts into the fish without a sniff. Then finally the right cast in the right spot and Ted Sr. yells "I'm IN!!! I'm IN!!!" The St Croix is doubled over and the poor little 560 Penn is giving up line like there is no tommorow!! I fire up the Verados and start to turn the boat.

As as turning the boat the guys on the bow are yelling "WE"RE GETTING SPOOLED!" I hear that allot and on the 950 Penn's it's never really happening, while on the little 560 it was and it was happening FAST! I told the guys to hang on and I told Te to crank like crazy. I pushed the throttles up and gave chase. Ted yelled back that we were STILL lossing line and we didn't have much left. I got a glimps of the spool and it was THIN! JUST ANOTHER REASON TO NEVER USE BACKING TO SUPPLEMENT YOUR BRAID, you never know when you might need EVERY last yard.

We finally gained back some line and the fish was making shorted runs. After about 25 minutes Ted Sr let Ted Jr take the rod to feel the power of the fish. With a fresh angler we got on the fish as hard as we could. Since the fish was done with it's big runs I gave the reel a bit more drag to keep Ted from having to palm the spool and with no long runs in the future the drag could handle a little extra presure without sticking.

The fish began to tire and Ted put everything the little combo could give on the fish. At the 35 minute mark I saw the leader. Of course being on a bass trip, NO TUNA GAFF. All I had was my trusty Top Shot Lip Gaff. As the fish came past the gunnel I lunged over the side and grabbed the leader. Not seeing any way to handle this fish to get a clean lip shot I swung the lipped into the fishes side as hard as I could and burried it to the hilt. The fish went nuts and ripped the gaff out of my hand. The gaffs safety leash around my wrist was being pulled to its limit. I pulled at the fish with the leash and the guys helped by hanging on to me. I got the fish against the gunnel and we gave it a heave ho and dragged it over the gunnel where it hit the deack with a mighty thud!




Everyone was out of their minds excited. I was SO happy that we landed the fish. It's my earliest tuna ever and a damn nice one at that. This was the guys first every tuna on spinning gear and they did it with one arm tied behind their back. After high 5's and a ton of pictures we cleaned and preped the fish and stowed it in the fishbox for the long ride home.

Final tally a ton of nice bass, a few big blues and one stud of a tuna on the lightest combo you'd ever want to tangle with one on. The rod we used for the tuna was my regular tuna stick a St Croix SW Premier 20-40# with a Penn 560 Liveliner reel.

Overall it was just the most incredble day OTW. A half day bass charter that ran long and ended in fantastic fashion. All of the thanks has to go to one person and one person only Capt Nat Moody and the guys at First Light Anglers in Rowley. Capt Nat and I share info and have done a bunch of seminars and talks together. He and his crew at First Light at CLASS ACTS! They are great to work with and they ALWAYS think to call when they are on the bite. It's this kind of give and take information sharing that is so hard to find and so valuable when you do find it. Nat my sports and I truely appreciate the call you are the BEST!

[Tunapursuit]

Nice day of fishing, great story, cant wait to go, I will be back to the cape for 3 weeks July 4th.Tight lines......

[Nauti Natured]

VERY NICE!!!!!! Cant believe they are up there already. They made a mad dash through NC. Guess they were in a hurry to get up there.

Pretty work!!!

[ElMar2530]

Great Story!!! Got my blood pumping.