Blameworthy again...

[Deep C]

First of all I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to those who did well at MA500. Next I want to go out of my way to thank the absolutely awesome crew I had for the event. On short notice we were very fortunate to get the guys that we did get! Mike, Dave, for their single day contributions ...Joe, Joe, Jim for riding the whole thing out... Ken for going way beyond the call of duty as owner and my mate Colin for wworking his arse off!
I would be remiss if I didn't burn another paragraph on saying thatnks to the great people who really made me feel welcome back in Cape May... Cuck and his first class shop, Mary- Chucks best kept secret! (what a sweetie!), John- our fearless leader, A second chance to spend time with Todd reelhope, Sterling mike who joined us a day but stayed by our side the whole time...
Day one we chased the water showing on our high dollar reports. Yes it was pretty but I have seen more life in a morgue... We chased a weedline that held nothing, crossed a few dozen breaks with nothing, then around the 500 of the Wilmington we hhad a 250 class pile on my Bazooka lure designed for big fish. A moment of bend then it stood up straight. That was all.
Day two we went south and I found some really good lookig water. Bait, whales and even saw a half dozen big eyes launch on squid a quarter mile from me. THe low barometer had the bite going slow then they unloaded. We had a white try to eat the Bazooka which was about 10 tikmes too big for him. My mate reeled the rigger up along side and the white did the switch. Two clean shots and dropbacks never drove the steel home and the fish switched again to the swimmer pitch bait I broght into play. It piled, I dropped, but when I came tight there was nothing but hook left... A few minutes later I was taking another pass at the area and cleaning up after the train wreck. A blind hit on the flat ran back to our shotgun bait and gave our man three clean shaots and even took drag twice but no solid bow up... I turened to make another passs at the area but weeds had me blocked. A bertram slid along the path I wanted to take so I had to swing wide so I wouldn't get in his spread. As I just got past him I looked to see a bill the size of my arm unload on one of his baits. He decked the winning 699 blue an hour and ten minutes later...
I sent the boys on a tour of the local bars and taverns to "find them selves" for our lay days while I re rigged all our stuff.
Day 3 found me fightingsmall mahi and tons weeds in the Vries canyon and then hammering the Baltimore bight. We raised and got a bite out of a small billfish. I would say white but the fin was pointy. Spear? Sail? Rat Blue? Who knows? That one didn't stay stuck. Oh well... The closing bell came and we had failed...
I Had failed. Finding and raising is only 2/3 of the job. Getting the fish to stay stuck just wasn't in the cards. Yes its tough to catch ratty whites on blue marlin baits but still there must be something I did wrong. This is not a "poor me" speech. Rather its a "I suck" blasting of myself. I'll just have to replay all the bites in my head and figure what went wrong... Any way, Again a big thanks to my crew and to all those great people I got to meet and play with in Cape May!

[WAHOONBOX]

OKAY NOW.........A VERY GREAT REPLAY HERE...........BUT WE ALL HAVE BAD DAYS..................AND A BAD 3 DAYS , 0-1, AS I WAS IN OCEAN CITY

I KNOW YOU ARE NOT USED TO IT, BUT SHAKE HER OFF DUDE.......YOU'LL KILL EM NEXT TIME OUT

AND AS IN THE BOX'S TRADITION, I TIP MY RIGGERS TO A GREAT STORY, HONESTY TO THE NUMBERS..........AND DOUBLE TO TO AND I QUOTE YA:

" sent the boys on a tour of the local bars and taverns to "find them selves" for our lay days while I re rigged all our stuff."

THIS IS WHAT ALL FIRST CLASS CAPITANOS SHOULD DO

[jawz12]

we all forget the old saying..."can't win 'em all"

aint no big deal bro,you gotta let it go! wack 'em next time!!!

[John Rogers]

Hey Paul, ya can't say you didn't try. Theres always next year.

[OffTheHookB&T]

Hey Paul, it was tough fishin lately, and you gave it your best, sorry the whiteys didn't cooperate, thats fishin! Now as a certified tackle shop owner, my prescription for what ails ya, is go kill somethin with fins
It was great meeting you and getting some of your world class lures.
For all who haven't met Capt Paul he's one class act, you can learn more about fishing from talking to him for an hour, than reading any fishing how-to book. See you in Fla this winter Paul

[LadyAngler]

You definitely know how to make a girl blush w/your compliments

By the way, thanks for stopping by and sharing some of your "secret squirrel stuff" w/us. Timmy actually picked out another one of the rigs after you left, and Chuck can't wait to try out the "mistake" next time he gets out! Wish we could have spent more time w/you while you were up here, but we are definitely going to make it down to Jupiter again this winter!

[AhiSlayer]

Aloha! Paul

You Eastcoasters have the toughest marlin tournaments in the world to figure out.

So much money for a white marlin that hooks up best on a bait at one speed then throw in the mix loads of cash for a big blue marlin that hooks up best with an entirely different presentation both hangin around the same clumps of weeds. Add sporties coming up on a fish you may have just raised

Ya'll have the toughest tournaments in the world in my opinion

Hope ya get some time wit yer girls after all this stress.
cheers
ahi

[Deep C]

John:
You got to see some of the rubber hook syndrome at Bimini... As you can see some days just get like that. We had a few like that at the wrong time this year. As you can see here. Bowing up on the practice days was simple...

Chuck and Mary... Thats a first class store you have there and more importantly the atmosphere to "keep em comming back". I crawled through every bait freezer in the whole cape before I found good enough stuff to drag and I found that at your place. With yiou guys it is definately customer first mentality that will keep you leaps and bounds ahead of the pack...

[Deep C]

Ahi
I think you hit it... It's not like going just blue marlin fishing. We have to keep a spread of stuff that can can take those antichrist picky sons of b$%^*#s they call whites and three species of tunas as well. If you lean more blue they still raise but hooking gets next to impossible. If you gear down to small hooks , 60lb leader, 7lbs of drag to accommodate the white ones; youare screwed when a zilla blue piles on that offering...
The crowds out there can be a bit tough to deal with too...

[fiftywide]

Hey capt

Glad you guys got in it last minuute and I am sorry I could not do it with you gentlemen but you know how it is. After such a tough tourney this year, you guys will be bound to make money in next years. Count me in huh. Enjoy Fifty.