Matador overnighter 10-1 and 10-2

[LeftOar]

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Sorry about the late report, had to wait for some pictures to come my way. Saw Jake's post, he covered the basics. Now from the side of one of the crew. Speaking of the crew, it was a walk on trip with my buddy Brett and me, Aaron and TC from OCMD area, Frank from Norfolk, and of course Capt Jake and FM Ben.

We had Plan A and a Plan B again. Plan A was to go for whitey either due east or NE of Rudee's, but thanks to good intel from Bill Pino on scene to the NE we opted for Plan B, which was to go south off ORI for the tuna bite.

I love when a trip pops up on short notice, its like icing on the cake. The good part of this trip is we saw the weather first, starting out NE 10-15 but going to variable from mid-morning of Thurs through noon or so on Friday. When you book a trip ahead of time you sit and hope for weeks you picked the right weather days. And so we left Rudee's at around 0815 and tried for more live bait to use for AJs and on the night chunk, but apparently the winds and high pressure of the previous couple days scattered the bait fish. Another couple boats there were having the same problem making bait. And so we headed for the South Tower in NE swells of 2-3 feet. Jake said the fish living there this time of year would be bigger and meaner, boy was he right! Every fish we hooked and fought it was a struggle keeping them from getting back into the underwater structure, but we did land a good number in the hour or so we were there, and just about everyone came away with paper fish.

Off to the south we went in search of a tuna trolling bite. When we arrived at the 800 line the boats were complaining that the tuna were not biting all day. We were in the area with several green sticks, so we thought we were in the ball park. So, with no good prospects right then, Jake decided it was a good time for fishing for tiles. It didn't take long and we were on our way to getting our 15 fish limit. These were decent fish, mostly in the 7-10 lb range, and cut skipjack was doing the job. Pulled one citation fish out near the end of our 1.5 hour tilefish gig, and then put out the trolling spread. We fished in and around hundreds of pilot whales, at any one time four or five pods of them were visible in all directions, but the tuna marks were few and far between. We tried stopping and jigging on some marks with no luck.

Setting up at night we got two sword baits out, some jigs, and some bait rods. Not much action going for the first two hours and then a 6 lb triple tail wonders under the light and falls to a single hook with some cut bait on it. That is something I have never seen way out that far, used to seeing them while fishing the Keys around channel markers and lobster pots, but offshore?? Shortly after that the small sharks covered us up for a while and we brought small duskies and black tips in and released them. Had a couple run offs on the large head bait but none of them came tight, may have been smaller sharks with eyes bigger than their mouths. But after midnight the story changed, and the head bait went screaming, and Aaron put on the belt for an awesome display of brute power from a 300 lb plus hammerhead on a Penn 50W. Brett got a piece of this big boy also, and he did not want to come any where near the boat and gaff length. Jake cut the leader after the fish was brought close enough to get a good look and a few pictures. At about 3 AM finally a ball of bait (looked like silversides) found the light and we had a few squid make an appearance at around 5 AM. Just after the squid showed up we had one bite on the outrigger cut bait that popped the clip but we didn't get the slack out quick enough to get a hookset.

On the troll in the morning we had one blackfin out of three come tight so we thought we were going to get great action. Had a few more short strikes in the 850 area when we heard the 900 line was the place to be for the YFT bite so we trolled up that direction. But you know when the whole fleet is heading that way you are either going to be in the hornet's nest or trolling on the edges, Jake opted for the edges, and soon we had other short bites and then our first hookup on a 30 lb YFT. We had more chances trolling through and around schools of bonito, but just couldn't find the right mojo. Then we stuck a 60 lb YFT just before the action slowed for the whole fleet around noon. After that we trolled for a while and put out one rod with a small spoon on it, and it never lasted more than about 30 seconds before it was hooked up to bonitos. It was fun bringing in these speedy footballs waiting for a strike from the bigger tunas. We hated to bring in the gear, but we had a long ride back home and the seas were building again. After we left some of Jake's buddies found the bite picking up after the fleet pressure wore off. The YFTs were hitting the naked or sea witch/hoos on the WTFB lines and not really coming to the spreader bars.

We had a good time being out there, and were right where the action was on some good grade of YFT, as always you want more on the line and in the box, but we had a good variety of fishing and meat in the box to share, great weather, a good crew, and fun being on Jake's new ride. If you want to fish with a great and easy to get along with captain and mate, Capt Jake and Ben are the ticket!!!

LO

[capt. jakeg]

Thanks for the report Doug. Just an FYI... the shark in the picture was not going to be killed with the gaff. It was just a lip gaff to get some photos of the fish. The fish ended up being too hot to get up-close photos and I popped the wire and sent her on her way.

[chumslicker27]

Sweep Report and Pics fellas..

[SeaBiscuit]

Nice report and pictures. Captain Jake seems to understand that opportunity fishing is the way to keep a charter happy and has mastered the art of mixin' it up.
SeaBiscuit

[LeftOar]

SB- Well put and I couldn't agree more. Capt Jake comes prepared for just about everything, and he has the spots and knowledge to go after everything that swims. This is my second trip in the last couple months with him and he is fast becoming my "go to guy" in the VB area. He leaves early and comes home late, and he will make sure you leave for home with meat in the cooler. This trip I got two more citations, and that is always nice to frame and hang in the office (in my case cubicle) at work.

LO