Rats...

[Deep C]

Been waiting for months for the season of making life miserable for the cobalt missiles of the north Atlantic... The sat shots showed though that the water was already twenty miles past the "fence" for the South Jersey Shark event.
I believe some where around 180 boats went to work and though numbers were good the size just didn't match up to the hype...
In fact not a qualifier in the fleet of roughly 200 makos released. I saw two fish air out that may have made the grade and I heard reliable sightings from a couple others of the same thing but chatter didn't include near miss stuff... We laid in on the "A" spot and the first bait was still being let out when we had our first bite. As dinky of a mako as you'll ever see. Maybe 30-40 pounds soon was at the transom and let go. Thjat kinda bugged me. I had laid out a bait ment for a pig and the little brat got it first...
I figured it was gonna be a busy day but it stayed quiet for quite a while. We moved a few miles setting up on the "b" spot and it wasn't long before things improved. A good steady pick was to be had and when it was done we had tallied four more releases, a couple duskies, then the "last" fish.
As it was flopping around out there I noticed a mark on it... Is it? Yep it is... A tag... Got the fish on the leader. Time was up for the day. There had been so many fish reported I didn't feel we were in the running for a release trophy and we were pig hunting anyway.
I went for the tag. The fish went for me. He won that one...

Doinking the Deep never has a good ending for the doinker. Add a hungry crew, a gut hooking and needing to get that tag and in keeping with tradition it got a top sider shampoo on the deck.



Day two started hot with two more out of the gate... Then went dead. We saw or played with no more...
Next shot is in a couple days with JCSA then Mako Mania...
I hope to see you there...

[Deep C]

I also want to take a second to thank my all star team for some great company... NautiDog, Proheat, Vixen and Rob B... Its guys like you that make the trip great... The fish are a bonus...

[babalaza]

close call

[Deep C]

Not the first or last... Only flesh... It'll grow back...

[Vixen]

As Always Deep a pleasure fishing with you We had a stellar crew with all the right ideas just wasnt our time we will get um next time good luck to you next week

[Proheat]

Deep- I had a good time! Even when the fishing was slow, the humor kept going on and on!

Looking forward to next year or maybe a few this year too......who knows!!

[sportfishingusa]

Hey paul,


you going to be at the jcsa captain meeting?!?!

[Deep C]

Yep I'll make that meeting... I'm gonna be running out of Barnegat I think so I'll be too late to make the mako mania meeting but my crew for that one will be at that one. Fishing one boat Friday for JCSA then switching to my usual ride for the mania...
May fish Wednesday locally....

Pro and Vixen. The pleasure was all mine. With a crew that fun it makes life go by quick even if Nauti Dog was "poisoning" the slick...

[dman25]

Hey Deep can you elaborate on exactly how you got bit so I can share it with my crew. i spend alot of time warning my crew exactly how nasty they are even when they appear to be dead. Even the most experienced of us can make a small mistake that puts us in serious danger. I've got a few small scars myself from encounters with rats. Our captain even lost a fingertip to an acrobatic bluefish that jumped 3 feet off the deck snapping at his nose.

[sportfishingusa]

He likes to JUMP over the side of the boat and wrestle the big old cobalt missles!! he doesnt take any prisoners and doesnt use a gaff!! he tries to bite them back! lol