Oregon Inlet Giant BFT, YFT and Spearfish on Succession 4/24

[Succession]

What a day of missed opportunities and surprises. Headed out to slick rolling seas till we hit the warm water where it bumped up. Lines in at the 590 and after getting lines out get a mark and call down when 6 of the 8 lines out go down. We hold on to three nice 40# class YFT. Circle around a couple of times to get 5 bites and hold on to one more nice one. Most bites are just behind the hook, dam! There was a great bite about 5 miles North of us with the Fleet on Big Eyes, BFT, YFT, Mako’s… Next thing I hear the flat pop from the tower and Lee (Mate) jigs the flat and hooked up! Put Melvin in the chair and the fish comes quickly to the boat LIT UP! First Lee calls a Wahoo, but it has a fin and I think it is a lit up Mako, then look and see it I see it is a MARLIN! Lee gets it and we have an Atlantic Spearfish in the 50# class, which is a nice one. If you are not familiar with this fish it is because they are rare and even more rare this time of year for any billfish.

We get 4 bites a third time hold on to one on the spreader bar, which gets broken as we get the fish in. Man that is my B/W Wanchese bar! So we drop our spread to 5 lines due to the BFT opportunity. We troll around hooked up boats and with all the kite bites think about breaking mine out, when we go over a nice mark and we drop the jigs. Miss one bite then Little Frank hooks up with a fish that before we know it has us down to the mono backing in no time flat. All we can do is charge backwards as fast as possible to gain line and try to keep from other cutting us off. This fish stayed on top of the water doing what ever it wanted. We backed down for a mile in a half before getting it up and down with half a spool. This was at 11:30 AM. We go thru everyone twice and Big John was on the rod for 2 and a half hours. Finally at 3:45PM and 6 miles of chasing a fish that we could not budge from its pattern going up and down from 130 to 80 feet up and down. I tell the guys it is late and the wind and time are against us. It is time to get this fish up or break it off so Lee gets on the rod and we get the fish up finally to see a true SEA MONSTER. Lee hands the rod off and starts the leadering process and he gets it on top of the water on its side just behind the boat. Everyone looks and says HOLY $hit. Frank, Little Frank, Big John and Norman (Who Booked the Boat) all have seen and caught Giants on my boat this year and the class of fish we have been getting and Yell “This is a MONSTER”! and it was. It was well over the size of the 93" incher we released in size and legth and would not have fit threw my transom door. I would guess low to maybe mid 500's. While getting it to the door it makes one more run and breaks the leader as the knot grabs Lees gloves as he tries to hold on, for Successions 6th Giant and I mean GIANT for the year. We had to release it anyway and it did it healthy. I really hate letting these monsters go and swim free for some Japanese table someday. Battle ends at 4:05 PM and everyone is stoked and ready to head home.

Man what a great day of action and surprises!

[austin ensor]

nice report!!!!

[Big Jay]

You got a 93" fish to the boat on that Okuma jigging rod? If so...wow...that's unreal.

[PurpleCedarPlug]

Great Report..
Gongrats on a great day!!

[perfectscore]

What a day of missed opportunities and surprises. Headed out to slick rolling seas till we hit the warm water where it bumped up. Lines in at the 590 and after getting lines out get a mark and call down when 6 of the 8 lines out go down. We hold on to three nice 40# class YFT. Circle around a couple of times to get 5 bites and hold on to one more nice one. Most bites are just behind the hook, dam! There was a great bite about 5 miles North of us with the Fleet on Big Eyes, BFT, YFT, Mako’s… Next thing I hear the flat pop from the tower and Lee (Mate) jigs the flat and hooked up! Put Melvin in the chair and the fish comes quickly to the boat LIT UP! First Lee calls a Wahoo, but it has a fin and I think it is a lit up Mako, then look and see it I see it is a MARLIN! Lee gets it and we have an Atlantic Spearfish in the 50# class, which is a nice one. If you are not familiar with this fish it is because they are rare and even more rare this time of year for any billfish.

We get 4 bites a third time hold on to one on the spreader bar, which gets broken as we get the fish in. Man that is my B/W Wanchese bar! So we drop our spread to 5 lines due to the BFT opportunity. We troll around hooked up boats and with all the kite bites think about breaking mine out, when we go over a nice mark and we drop the jigs. Miss one bite then Little Frank hooks up with a fish that before we know it has us down to the mono backing in no time flat. All we can do is charge backwards as fast as possible to gain line and try to keep from other cutting us off. This fish stayed on top of the water doing what ever it wanted. We backed down for a mile in a half before getting it up and down with half a spool. This was at 11:30 AM. We go thru everyone twice and Big John was on the rod for 2 and a half hours. Finally at 3:45PM and 6 miles of chasing a fish that we could not budge from its pattern going up and down from 130 to 80 feet up and down. I tell the guys it is late and the wind and time are against us. It is time to get this fish up or break it off so Lee gets on the rod and we get the fish up finally to see a true SEA MONSTER. Lee hands the rod off and starts the leadering process and he gets it on top of the water on its side just behind the boat. Everyone looks and says HOLY $hit. Frank, Little Frank, Big John and Norman (Who Booked the Boat) all have seen and caught Giants on my boat this year and the class of fish we have been getting and Yell “This is a MONSTER”! and it was. It was well over the size of the 93" incher we released in size and legth and would not have fit threw my transom door. I would guess low to maybe mid 500's. While getting it to the door it makes one more run and breaks the leader as the knot grabs Lees gloves as he tries to hold on, for Successions 6th Giant and I mean GIANT for the year. We had to release it anyway and it did it healthy. I really hate letting these monsters go and swim free for some Japanese table someday. Battle ends at 4:05 PM and everyone is stoked and ready to head home.

Man what a great day of action and surprises!

a very rare occurrence))

[Black Rose]

You got a 93" fish to the boat on that Okuma jigging rod? If so...wow...that's unreal.

Big Jay, this doesn't surprise me. That is a great jigging rod; a 500 pounder on any jigging rod is incredible. I like the Cedros because they're e-glass, which seems less succeptible to catastrophic failure (my customers beat them up pretty bad). And for a price tag of $110, that's frightening to the market. It's not glamorous, but it works.

Capt. Rich Antonino, Black Rose Fishing Charters, Green Harbor, MA

[gameover]

Kevin, sure has been dialed in this year...

He has seen his share of the big girls down there. pretty work an good fishing beside you and Bill on saturday.


Taylor

[billfish76]

Which reel are you pairing with that rod????

[frankypettolina]

Nice catch-

just curious, what made you decide on Atlantic Spearfish? i would have called it a white, maybe roundscale spear (which i guess is pretty similar). I have caught a few longbill spears and they looked a bit different to me- maybe it is the photo angle? I am not trying to be an ass, I am trying to learn.

Again great catch- I can see that I am going to need to speed up my learning curve on this jigging thing too!! Guess i need to buy some more equipment.

[Skipjack1]

Another banner trip out there!

Franky, I was thinking the same thing... and agree, because the longbill spearfish dorsal fin should be taller all the way back like this one, and the pec fins should not be so rounded or square (look at that anal fin):

http://www.rarintgo.com/images/taxidermy/spearfish.jpg

Maybe its that hatchet / white /spearfish thingy?