Sun Overnighter....Great shark fishing and lots of meat.

[capt. jakeg]

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After rounding up a great crew of Tommytuna, Doug Johnson, Darrell Nemuth, Steve Ryan, Steve Vang, and Marc Rietzel, we pulled out of Rudee at about 1130 am ready to make the 100 nm run to the 400 line. Normally I don't have to make a run this far, but I was taking Matador from Rudee to Oregon Inlet, where she's going to live for the next month. We had beautiful conditions and a nice run down there. At about 1530 on sunday we started fishing bailing some 8 pound bluefish on spinning gear and topwater plugs to be used for shark bait later in the night. We caught about a dozen or so and moved on to trolling. It was a fun way to start the fishing. There were acres of blues out there. The trolling reports I had heard from the day were very bad so I wasn't expecting much. We trolled around until almost dark along the hard edge that went from 54 degrees to 70 degrees at the 500 to 400 line with no bites.
We set up at dark in the warm water in 150 fathoms at the 430 line looking for swords and sharks. Our first drift was a very short one that was too deep, too fast (4.5 knots), and too warm. We moved into 80 fa at the 430 where the water temp was 54 degrees, which is a little cold, but the drift was the right speed and we were still getting good marks about thirty fathoms down. While setting rods out on our first drift here we hooked up on the 50 wide. We knew it was a shark and began betting on what type. Doug jumps on the rod and the battle starts. The fish immediately dumps about 400 yards and we knew it was a good one. The fish stayed really deep, so Doug had to take her on standup. We put him in a harness, tied Doug to the boat, and let him work. Doug was really giving it to this fish and the fish wasn't having any part of it. After an hour of give and take, Doug wins the battle and we have visual on the fish. Its a very large thresher and its hooked in the pectoral fin. I grab leader and we decide very quickly that this is going to be our killed shark for the trip since threshers are exceptional groceries. While the fish is banging around at the back of the boat, I go to stick it with the flyer and the flyer head pops off without going into the fish. One handing the leader on a pist off thresher, I reach down and grab my tuna gaff. I stuck him with this and he tried to pull me overboard and beat me in the head with the tail. Had a hard time holding him and saw that tail come at me a couple of times. A few seconds later, Tommy, Marc or somebody had a second gaff in him and it was done. Tail roped it, gutted it, a few minutes later, it was coming through the tuna door and was on deck. I'd estimate it at 250# and 9' long! What a whale of a thresher! Some of the other guys snapped a few pictures and we lopped the head and 8 foot long tail off so we could fit it in the tuna bag.
Minutes later we were setting up on our next drift. Minutes later, we hooked up and Darrell drings in a 100# class hammerhead. Our drift had slowed enough that we could sit where we wanted to be and not have to pick up until morning. We had consistent action all night and everyone got a chance on the rod. We had two more bites that hooked up that I believe were swords because of the way they fought, but both went limp after about 15 minutes. At about 5 am Tommy catches a 5 foot mako that was released. All of these sharks were caught while fishing for swords. They were all caught on flouro leaders and we did have some bites offs, but we didn't even have any chum out. There are A LOT of sharks down there right now.
When the sun started to crack the horizon in the morning, we started tuna trolling. With the bad conditions not changing much during the night, we didn't expect great tuna fishing. We went 1 for 2 on yellowfins very quickly after setting out, then trolled for two hours without a bite. Watched a cruising mako turn on our baits and take a slap at one, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. We decided to run about ten miles and go bottom fishing. Set up at the 280 line and immediately started bailing seabass. For two hours, we caught a nice mixed bag of sea bass, amberjacks, and triggerfish. We filled up a cooler in short order, I went down and cooked up some lunch and pointed her towards the inlet at about 1230. We got back into the new slip with no problems. Cleaned the boat and the fish and a short time later we were sitting at Hooters enjoying the scenery and some dinner. I did not take any pictures, but some of my guys did and maybe they can post up.
My crew was great and we all had a good time and did our part. Any of you guys are welcome on my boat anytime. I'd also like to thank Bill, Becky, Greg, Tom, and Kevin. Its a pain moving into a new slip and you guys made it an easy job getting a ride home for 7 guys.
Another note, I am available for charter out of OI until the first week of June and have some dates available. I will do whatever kind of fishing my group is intested in whether it be inshore, trolling, or overnighting like this trip. Either way, I always garauntee fish. For info, call 757-749-6008 or email to Matadorsportfishing@yahoo.com .


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[Squidnation]

you da man jake. sounds like a good trip. I'll be down their come eyeball time.

[capt. jakeg]

The eyes are already there. One boat on sunday went 6 for 6 on eyes in one wham. Other than one yellowfin it was their only bite for the day. Many of the boats that stuck with the tuna fishing down there had a shot at an eyeball. When that edge blends out and moves over the point and 650 hole, its gonna get crazy down there. Mark my words.

[Double D]

Great report Jake.

I feel like I am getting credit for a thresher I didn't even catch

[capt. jakeg]

Here's the pic. It aint the best, but its what I got.

[Legacy]

Congrats on the catch. Any other photos of the thresher? It looks like from the placement of the dorsal fin way back on the fish that you may have caught a bigeye thresher. The pectoral fins look fairly long as well, which is a trademark of the bigeye thresher. The more common species of thresher caught on the east coast are longtail threshers. The bigeye threshers are the ones that hold most IGFA line class records.

Night sharking produces at the canyon and the inshore grounds. Others should give it a shot this year.

[capt. jakeg]

We dont have any photos when the fish is in the water and this is how it layed on the deck after being drug in. The tail on this fish was as long as the body length and the eyes were comparable to a mako of the same size and round, not ovular. I'm not saying it isnt a bigeye and going by the reports that I've heard, I haven't heard anything about bigeye threshers being caught there lately, but I know that several of the common threshers were landed in the same area. From my understanding, the bigeyes are usually found in much deeper water with much warmer surface temps. I was in 66 fathoms of 54 degree water. I am by no means a scientist or anything like that, but I thought it was the common thresher not the bigeye thresher. I wish I had a better picture.