Boy w/ a Gaff? OI Sun 5-20-07

[HIT N RUN]

Boat: Reel Fancy
Crew: Hammerhead (Boy w/ a Gaff) AKA Little Bryan, Brian, Bert, Joey, John, Becky & Me

Since the tuna fishing has been so hit or miss we decided not to beat a dead horse this weekend. With the dolphin stacked like cord wood along the rips we agreed it would be the perfect weekend to give little Bryan a crash course on gaffing. He graduated with flying colors. Thanks alot Bryan for your awesome work. You didn't make any mistakes! You can gaff for us anytime!

We started in the am at the 400 line at the gulf stream break at about 17f. The temp was 75.5 current was about 3.7k. Gulf stream blue, pretty as you want w/ flyers everywhere. Grass was edged up pretty good from the SW flow and most of our bites came from the hot side. We had pretty steady action w/ a real nice class of gaffers all day using right at 7 packs of ballyhoos. Lot's of rigging, sorry Joey... For the first hour Joey did not even have a chance to move off of the cooler to get his glasses or even a drink because he was in a constant state of rigging. Nonstop!!! We played musical rods. 13 in play while running 8 and still couldn't keep up with all the popping clips.

We managed to work 2 areas with tuna marks and scrapped out 2 out of 3 but the tunas were finicky and the current made it tought to stay on them. : Alot of great quality fish including Brother John's biggest YFT and Dolphin to date! :clap: 26 Lb Doplhin and although we didn't weight the tuna we are approximating him at mid 50's to 60 lbs... A big fatty full of fliers!!! His brother put a hole in the short rigger but never came tight. Way to go John!!!

Brian capped off our second box with a 38lb Bull that finished off our 7th pack of ballyhoo at the 510. Congrats on your citation, what a beautiful fish!!!

Final tally:

41 Gaffers
2 YFT
2 Packed boxes

The dock shot does this catch no justice at all... Hopefully Brian's shots will come out better...

[gradywhite273]

nice work little bryan, its great to see kids with a gaff, not a gameboy.

[O-SEA-D]

Nice job guys on your fishing. Sounds and looks like you guys had a wide open day.

Pretty work

[Becky]

Wow... That about sums up my thoughts... I am so proud... My boy can do it all... Check this out...

He can prep hoos



He can rig them now too thanks to Bert!!! He's such a good teacher!!!



He can crank em' in... Although he still needs a little help standup style...



He took Learn to gaff 101 this trip by none other than "Girl w/ a Gaff" This was his 1st one



And then he was on his own...









Yep, I'd say he's got the hang of it now!!!



And we learned from last trip he can clean the fish up nicely too!!!



Yep, I see a mate in the making!!!

Now here's some fun pics from the day!!! And a side note... I HAVE TO GET A BETTER CAMERA... I USED BILL'S AND BRIAN'S ALL DAY AND IT'S VERY HARD TO GET GOOD ACTION SHOTS W/ THESE CAMERA'S... I'm going to have to run sale's on Becko Paraphelanelia or something to invest in a Nikon!!!

Enjoy the pics...































Becko!!!

[Becky]

Oh yeah, hot baits of the day were:











I was looking for a picture of Bert's christmas tree bait but I couldn't find one... Sorry Bert!

Thanks Bill for an awesome trip full of fish!!!

Thanks to the crew for teaching little man the ropes and for helping Bill w/ the building project!!! You guys are the best!!! :yes:

Becko!

[slip slidin]

Great report and great pics. Congratulations to everyone,especially, the folks that have taken the time to teach this young man and have taken him fishing. You should be proud of him. Looks like he is hooked.

[babalaza]

great pixs!

[BigMike's8o9]

Blood up to the elbows!!
Great pictures.
BigMike

[Tuna Taxi]

Great report and pics. Way to go Bryan, that's the way to put the steel to them!

[Squidnation]

great job everyone. sounds like a great trip