Bittersweet mako mania and mako fever

[sportfishingusa]

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Well the weekend was eventful to say the least but a strange one at that..

started out saturday with great macks, large pananesca squids and great chum but no bluefish oh well..

decided to make a run southeast to the triple wreck area and got stopped short on the cornavalus with 30-50lb bluefin clearing the water all over the place.. water was perfect 68/69 crystal clear, had squid marked and plenty of life so we made the stop.. started out drift of the cornavalus and it looked good but nothing was happening after sitting in the drift for 2 1/2 hours.

brought up the sat weather and found a small piece of water way inshore so i made the run to the west back towards barnegat and stopped on a good old faithful spot i have always loved!! made the stop around 1130 and chummed heavy for a few and then lightened it up.. 1230 the switch flipped and the short butterflied mack goes off... we know it is no blue dog expect it comes right to the boat.. i looked down and saw a nice 200++ makoe right next to the boat not even knowing he was hooked.. NO WAY in hell i was grabbing that leader but had the flying gaff in hand and the .45 hollow point ready to fire away when it got just in range to stick and shoot he realized he was hooked and off he went... little did i know the drag mysteriously got tightened up and snap shes gone!! SONOFABIOTCH!! well it happens so back down in the water the lines go and no more then 25 minutes later we have a nice little guy around 120-140 show in the slick and after the 368 being weighed in did not think it was worth taken a shot a killing a little guy on day one so i made the decision to let the smaller one go in hopes of that 200++ hanging around the slick waiting to dance one more time.. Well needless to say she did not show back up and that was day 1.



We got back to the dock and smacked myself in the head knowing that smaller fish could have been a money fish but of well.. We were dialed in on em and knew they would be there sunday.

Broke the inlet sunday and ran down se again to the same spot making our way out slowly in a tight 3-5 we made it down there a little later but still had to wait til 11am to get it started... we had a small mack sitting next to the boat in the water while i rigged some other crap and a blue shark came up and chomped on our chum bag and damnit if he didnt decide to eat that damn mackeral and take off.. fish was a nice blue so it was fun for a few minutes and then we cut em off and away he swam...

20 minutes later i see a fun off the 2nd line from the boat and 5 minutes later it makes it deeper and takes the bait.. The fish is stuck good and about 20 minutes later its along the boat and grab the leader and she decided to say hell no and give me the finger and take off hard and break off.... OH well.. fish was around 100 or so anyway.. not the fish we wanted or needed..

a little lull in action for 20 minutes or so when the 2nd line starts creeping slowly and our outside deep bati decided to scream... as the mid line gets picked up and hooked a HUGE 500 or so thresher comes clear out of the water about 200ft from the boat and screams... The mid line had a little 100-120lb mako which came right at the boat... the swivel touched the tip for the release and we cut him off and went after the thresher even though i wanted to cut it off and let it go we decided to play it out.. i was unfortunately on the rod for the next 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 hours until the fish finally came up to the boat for the third time.. He was about 5-10ft outside of gaff range and slowly coming towards us until he decided to take that hook and littler throw it at me! the hook pull out and came right into the boat as another way of saying to stick it up your you know where!!

All in all that was the action for the day and we made the run back to crystal point to clean the boat and relax.. We lost some money with those fish but had a great day with a lot of action and the weekend was great to say the least!!

We did well and if there is a tournament next year maybe it will be our time.. if not oh well still fun to be out there!!

many boats ran deep and ran all over trying to find fish.. i know the 368 was caught around the fingers and there was a bigger fish seen there by them the same day but nothing else for the rest of the weekend but small frys down there...

Happy to say we stayed within 20 miles or so from the beach and less then 35 from manasquan and it was sure as heck full of life!!!

got some video of the smaller makos and i got some pics i got to get from the guys on the trip with us and i will post them whenever i get them!!

good weekend, good laughs, good people!!!!!

[Deep C]

Good on ya Vinnie... I knew the story before you told it and not from you. So the nay sayers can go pound sand on that issue...

I was slob fishing. I know we probably had rats tiptoeing by us but I wanted zilla. Funny though the one rat bastard we did catch hammered an 18 pound bait!

[Scoundrel]

more bs......

[bigfish4me]

Nice report Vinnie

[Captain Fred Archer]

Woim,

Good report. Too bad about the lost ones, but at least you were among 'em.

Be nice, now...be nice!

[sportfishingusa]

Originally Posted by Captain Fred Archer

Woim,

Good report. Too bad about the lost ones, but at least you were among 'em.

Be nice, now...be nice!

Thanks fred! it was either make a move like deep and run for zilla which was either going to be a score or a disappointement or try for a smaller fish to get atleast in the money.. we took the inshore approach and it paid off for smaller fish and for action..

wish i could have chased zilla with paul but oh well!! it was good times!!