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Here is our report from the monster shark tournament.
Tuesday morning (ride up) - Departed for Martha's Vineyard at 3 AM in our 31' Ocean Master "American Mustang" - gorgeous weather and a rolling south east swell. Took a course that put us a little further offshore off Long Island to look for some bluefins for sushi and bait for the week. In the vicinity of the Coimbra wreck had tons of bait on the surface. Deployed the trolling spread and picked two small bluefins in the area. After the bite had slowed continued to work through the bait pods in the area along the 30 line looking for our big fish. Got the right hit on a spreader bar on the outside, freight trained into the dacron quickly on a 50W. As soon as we picked up the rod the fish was gone. Oh well, still had sushi for the week.
Wednesday - decided to pre-fish some areas along the 20 and 25 lines. Tons of neon greenish water around with more blue dogs on the surface then I have ever seen. Set up in a spot with 71 degree water and did not get a touch. Moved back toward the break in 68-69 degree water and caught 9 blue sharks in about two hours. Not the water we were looking for on the inshore spots.
Thursday - took the day to relax after going out Wed night. Saw Mary on the contender boats. They all looked like they were having fun. Saw Glenn and Dom and crew at the captains meeting. Enjoyed food and booze and took it easy.
Friday (Day 1) - We felt we needed to go offshore a little bit to get the right water. Looking at the satellite shot, I saw a great area of break over good structure about 45 miles offshore. Looked to be different water. Got out there and saw dramatic change from inshore. Water went to clean and green. Shearwaters everywhere, bait, porpoises. Water temp 68 and right on a significant break. Set up in this area with a 0.7 knot drift. Had tuna busting almost casting distance from boat. Had chum deployed right at 7:00. Saw a thresher come through the slick and grab the short bait right about 7:55 AM. Our angler set the hook and we stayed on top of the fish in the leaning post before bringing her boatside. Total fight time 40 minutes. Took a nice easy ride back and were the first boat in to the scales. Thresher weighed 335.
Sat (Day 2) - No question we were going right back to the same area. Sloppier seas and increasing winds made for a tougher ride out, but not too bad. Had a much faster drift so we set up further up the break in 71 degree water. Drifting 1.5 knots. About 8:20 AM we had a freight train hit we did not see. Bait came back without a mark. We suspected it could have been a thresher tail hit which didn't stick and spooked the fish. Drifting back across the same structure we went from 71 to 65 degrees over the course of the drift. 18 blue shark releases was all we had to show for our efforts.
Due to the relatively low amount of sharks landed, our 335 thresher stood up for 5th place. The whole tournament was an awesome experience and this was just the icing on the cake.
Glenn, Anthony, Capt. Dom and Brian - great hanging out with you guys - really made it a blast. Congrats again Anthony on your second straight Junior Angler award!
Mary, nice seeing you there.
Waterdog - sorry we didn't get a chance to meet up. Hopefully next year.
Thankfully we had such a nice time, cause the ride home to Manasquan Sunday was absolute fear. 180 miles of ass whuppin - 4-6 going to 5-8 in some spots with better then 10 foot sets, and a very confused sea state. 12.5 hours (it took us 7 last year) along with a snapped antenna, a crack in the tower and a dislodged tower leg. Not good times!!
Pics to follow.
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Originally Posted by Sorry Charlie
