I rolled into town short of my custom chum I like to get. I had inspected but the stuff my supplier had was sub standard. I got to my favorite shop of all and I could feel it was game time. Chuck and Mary had an impressive supply and range of baits and I bought up a supply...
I reintrodiuced my self to Todd (Nauti Dog) who is the secret one I fished with and ran through proceedures with the rest of our crew. Scallops at Mayers tavern made life good after the captains meeting.
WE lit the tripple mercs aboard the pro-line 35 and soon we were roaring at 35 knots to the secret spot... It seems one of my students from last year had paid attention to my style as here he came roaring along side at 36 knots. I couldn't help but envy the 36wa Contender with the grey power on her stern. We eased off and let their chunky helms man run on by and continue with his fiberglass spleenectomy of our own Lucky Lady.
We set up on great structure. Temp was good but color was a touch off. We were hunting the big she makos this year. No numbers fishing this time. The "other" boat had the same game plan. An hour into it Iwe picked some blues but zilla evaded us. Then we watched a 300 class fish air out between our two boats... Still no taker.
In classic fashion it was as I bit into my samwich for lunch that the 80w sounded out... Good steady run off and 8lb bait tole me this could be a good fish. My angler reared back and swatted again and again. Line poured off and I figured it was game on. The fish crossed the spread and came up top. She was a pigh... Money fish... Zilla... I've caught enough missiles to be comfortable calling her 400 class. ... We cleared the spread and prepared for combat. Maybey ten minutes in she faced us and just spit the bait back at us...
As if that wasn't bad enough she started playin games. Torturing me. She ate balloons before pretending to be a white marlin... She pounded bait after bait without eating a single one. She disappear and come up in random order. This went on for close to two hours til she got bored with the game. We picked off a single blue shark and missed a couple other shark bites at days end and prepped for day tow.
Day two the wind had switched. I had not been able to get a good sat shot aqnd we arrived to cooler but still good temp water. This batch was threrady going from clean blue gree to dirty green and back. Blues were thick and kept me chin deep in line cuts for hours. I looked up at one point to see that that contender had set up in a way to be directly ion our drift path.
They moved we moved and the bluefish tore us up! The wind was cooking at about25 now. The ocean getting sporty and the blues thick. Late on I decided to do a hail mary and splashed four live 12lb blues... The end bell came and we hung our heads. It was not for a lack of trying. My crew fought to the last minute working had. As we brough in the spread one of our blues was bascally just a set of lips. It had been drilled but no clip let go or line ran out. We had been smoked.
I'm not used to going to the awards at ashark event and not picking up a big cardboard check or trophy. Oh well wasn't my night. Ran into Chris K ands his very sexy "Kelly " sidekick... She was looking good and we all had a great night of sharing stories... Night grew dark and I faded north to do combat today.
Todays run was with old friend Billy... We ran to some prime ground south of Barnegat and north of where we fished for the SJ... Blues were less abundant and water was bluer but cooler yet at 63.6... We caught two small duskies and a small blue before calling it a short day...Supposed to head south again for tomorrow tuesday and wednesday...
Though we didn't light the world on fire we did have a ball both in the tourney and today. Good friends, anticipating, that "special" bite, sharing moments and lives... Just doesn't get much better...
Deep C sorry to hear you didnt get your weighin.But at least you tried and had A good time.It was A pleasure to meet you at the capt meeting and hope to see you again in the future.
You no focus? You need N3 and roo boinker aboard to win big money. oh well, nice try! Are you entering mako fever during mako mania? We are running out of Barnegat for mako fever tournament.
I'm doing Friday for the Fever with Double D... Then gotta do the Dad for the Mania...
The fish that we had was a duplicate bite and come up top like our Mania win... Longer than the one we had and about as fat... I'd love to get back fishing with you and the Roo and all the rest, I really miss the Intruder and that special comradery...
Defiance
Stuf happens... I found the "one" didn't deliver. Hit the wall, crashed and burned... Oh well... Not the first time... Comes with the turf... Not very often for me in Shark events but it does can and did happen. Just gotta get back up and dust myself off and go do it again... Every day for the next couple weeks... Weather permitting
Deep it was a pleasure fishing with you like you said it was not a lack of trying the fish just out played us this time around but we will be at it again and next time we will hopefully get the upper hand.Good luck to you in the up coming tourneys .Thanks again for good trip it was a pleasure meeting you
Capt. Joe
oh well cant get em every time. i wrote you an e mail wanted to know what boat you were fishing on. i fished saturday we catch a Mako not bigenough to stick a gaff in so i let him go. i should have fished the SJ sounded like a good time. oh well how long you in town for ??
Paul,
I feel your pain! Our first day ended about the same! We managed 3 sharks 1 Blue that went about 160, then a small Tiger about 130 & then a small Dusky. The second day I had to do a charter for Flounder but the crew did a little better but just couldn't find the big Mako, they caught several Blue dogs 1 small Tiger and the Mako went about 100lbs. Well we have 2 more in Cape May, Jim's & Hinch's!
Deep, I am still medicated since that shark spit the hook!!!! Besides not getting our picture with the big check we all had blast! Can't wait to hit the water with you again soon! Let's get a crew together!
Todd
Again that crew made it a pleasure... We worked every minute from lines in til 4:30 each day. There was no quit in anybody despite the bluefish and weather they stuck to it and even at quittin time I could see thwy still didn't want to give up.
Great company makes for a great trip...
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I couldn't help but envy the 36wa Contender with the grey power on her stern. We eased off and let their chunky helms man run on by and continue with his fiberglass spleenectomy of our own Lucky Lady.
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