Brother John had trip scheduled for Thurs 10/12 out of ORI Fishing Center on the High Return but remnants of Ida had other ideas, so while I was out rockfishing on Sunday he got the call at his home in NJ from ORI to reschedule (fourth try to get this trip in from 3 previous blowouts) and move up to Tues 10/10. He had to scramble and ask people to move work around but came up a little short on crew, so he called me to see if I could fill in. Of course, if there’s ANY possible way to go, “put me in coach”! So brother John, me, Ken, Chad, and Ben got on the High Return and headed out at 5:30 AM Tues with Capt Dave at the helm and FM Heath in the pit toward the 100 fa curve in the vicinity of the 630 line in choppy seas in search of a YFT limit. Part of the spread in the water at 7:30 AM and we get a cut off from a wahoo. Spread in and not five minutes later one line comes tight and Chad steps up first for a mystery fish, did not see the bite and reeling in its acting like maybe a YFT staying deep and sounding near the boat, but when we get color it is the wrong shape AND wrong color, it’s a sailfish, his first ever, and it’s a big Atlantic sail! Get that fish released, high fives and back to our regularly scheduled program, but we get covered up by popeye baby bluefins. Bring them in for releases and have to re-bait every hoo, and we leave that area, but next up we get into schools of FA’s and we’re reloading the hoos again and releasing a bunch of FA’s. So far its non-stop action, but just not the right kind! But we know there’s life here and then we see THE TICKET! Off to our northeast is the hardest color and temperature break I’ve seen, steel gray water on one side and clear dark blue on the other with 72* on one side and 78* on the other, OH BOY this is it. As we swung in for the first pass we come tight on one rod and miss on two others, brother John up on the tight one, but it turns out to be a small Mako. But from then on the fish were the right ones and we smacked out our limit of 15 from 9:20 AM to noon, all cookie cutter YFTs in the 28-30 lb range, and losing a few next to the boat from pulled hooks or “long distance releases”. What a blast. Just after getting our limit we sit back and relax for a few minutes before beginning the process of getting the gear in, when we got another wahoo cut off. Just for fun Heath ties on one of his homemade “Hoochie Momma” red daisy chains which hasn’t caught much this season and puts it out on the right short rigger. He jigs the line a half dozen times and it is inhaled by another YFT taking the line right out of his hand! We release that YFT and “just for fun” the Hoochie Momma goes back out. What happened next was amazing, something I’ve never seen. A couple minutes went by and Capt Dave said we’re pulling in the gear in two minutes when the left flat gets clobbered and the only one to see what happened was John, he yelled sailfish on, and no sooner did he say that and two more lines went down and three sails were airing it out behind the boat. One of those sail strikes was on the Hoochie Momma chain not two minutes after redeploying on the right short!! John got one, Chad the second, and me the third sail, meanwhile I look up to the bridge to congratulate Capt Dave and he is trying to feed sailfish #4. He had seen four more sails in the spread after the third hookup. No #4 came tight, and we systematically brought our three to the boat for quick in water pictures and releases. All of these sails were the biggest class of Atlantic sails I’ve ever seen, and they fought harder than any I’ve been on the rod for. As we headed back to ORI the winds laid down and by the time we hit the inlet it was N 5 mph and all but flat. What an ABSOLUTE blast this trip was, my best trip ever off the US east coast. Capt Dave was really ON IT the whole trip and was such a great Capt to work with. Heath in the pit was phenomenal, he was working his butt off with the constant action we had, and I think we went through 6 or 7 dozen ballyhoo with all the popeye BFT, FA, and YFT strikes/short strikes. Heath also ties some really great looking Sea Witches and his purple/black and "Green Lantern" witches were en fuego!!!You can’t ask for a better trip, better Capt and FM, or better boat. And if you thought the YFT action off of ORI was winding down or done, you would be WRONG.
great trip Doug. We saw you guys out their and heard of another boat getting covered up with sails. It was sure a fun day to be on the water. Capt Dave is a hell of a capt.
Thought I saw a post title from you on the BVSFL board, going to read it now, something about a "smack down". I need to take you up on the sale offer on a couple of your squid teaser chains, could have used them Tues!!!
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