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Well it was the first trip of the season to the edge for myself and a few newbies on the 41 viking happy hooker out of barnegat light nj and it was a good one at that!
Last minute party of 5 all thrown together and engines started at 1pm to roll out! hit the inlet and turn the boat towards the toms in hopes to find some tuners! With the warmer water offshore we decides to make an educated decision and start WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY inside of the 100 line!! What a good decision.. We slow down to the troll and as soon as i set the spread and turn around to light a smoke BAMMM covered up in less than 5 MINUTES!!
Only trolled 8 rods thinking it was just me a 3 newbies in the pit and i will be damned when 5 of those 8 rods took a bend and game on!! Got all 5 fish to the boat with a few smaller footballs just barely making the legal mark but still going back for another day!! we kept 3 of the 5 and set back on the troll.. We stayed on course and wanted to test the water on the 100 line and deeper and continued straight towards our mark when about 45 minutes later 6 rods go down again!
Set the auto pilot and come off the bridge and boat all 6 fish! what a banner day for percentages!! Once again with some smaller fish mixed in we kept another 4 and released 2 smaller 30" fish to live another day!
With the day turning into the dark we started to set up around the 100 line and decided to drift but had about a 4 kt drift in the toms and the wind and seas picked up tremendously out of no where!! got to love mother nature.. with the rocking and rolling along with the fast as hell drift we decided to come inside to the line where the troll was on fire for us and anchor up! Well the seas followed us and ended up in 300 ft of water putting out 2500ft of anchor line to hold!!
As the current seemed to be running around 8knots out of the back of the boat the anchor line was so tight the bow was dippin' into the waves and this continued for about 4 hours!! we set some lines out for the chunk inside and immediately about 30 minutes into get a deep line hit! Fought like a small swordy and lasted about 5 minutes on 40 flouro and came up SMOKED!!seems like a bill wrapped sword but in only 300 ft on the flats
confused! but who knows! haha..
After that little shot of action we went on throughout the night until about 4am when i decided the current was running so hard i rigged a split bill ballyhoo and sent it out the back and 5 minutes later GAME ON! Kind of strange but it worked.. Only to put someone on the rod and come up with a nice 150lb 6 ft dusky shark
Release it unharmed and set lines back out... decided that around 445 when we had some light we would pull the anchor until we had another ballyhoo on the chunk go off! Hooked into this fish and it was small but it was amazing! I wish i didnt forget the camera but about 150 football yellowfin completely engulfed all the chunks off the stern and were tearing all around the underwater transom light like nobodys business and looked like a bait ball!! it was incredible and sorry i dont have any pics because i just forgot the darn camera!!
We brought this little guy to the surface and his friends followed him right up making it an awesome sight! After a short fight and quick release on another 30" yeller we decided to spend the next 45 minutes getting the trolling gear back in order and begin pulling the 2500ft we let out before...
After an hour of grueling anchor line pulling we got back on the troll.... finding the skipjacks all over the surface and working them hard.. we started the troll around 7am and worked the inside again and found the fish fast...
We set the spread and about 30 minutes into the troll got covered up again but fortunately it was bigger fish! We went 5 for 5 again on the yellowfin all going about 40lbs or so! Got them in the boat and got back on the troll.. After about 45 minutes or nothing we decided to work north a little and after about another 15 minutes BAMM!! covered up again except this time 6 rods go down! It was insane.. not one fish, not two fish, but 6!! We came tight on all but had to leave one in the rod holder for to long and it bounced off but we did boat 5 of the fish and released 3 keeping another 2 for the box!!
It was about 9am and all the boxes where full and we had out 15 fish in the boat when we decided to head towards home but keep the spread out and troll for another hour or two.. Well about 30 minutes of trolling we got covered up again! we went 5/5 on yellofin agai and released all fish.. this left us going 27/28 on yellowfin which was awesome!! We kept trolling to see if we could maybe get something BIG and what we got was a big bite! lol We had out "WATER WHEEL" (thanks melton tackle!! they rock) aka. the AIR WALKER way out the back with a green machine on it when a big mako comes up and destroys it!! didnt want anything to do with the lure but ate half of the wheel on one side and never came back! we stopped and worked it for a few but he was no where to be found.
We brought it in and exchanged it out and now we are pretty far from the edge when a small blue marlin comes tearing through the spread.. He came on the short flat and slammed it out of no where, then disappeared and came flying thru the spread and smashed 4 lines within 20 seconds and before we know it buh bye mr marlin! brought all the lines in and headed for the barn with glassy sea conditions and not a rippled in sight! What a beautiful day.. i only wish i had a camera to supply pics!! always next time!
After all the trolling, chunking and more trolling we ended the trip back home around 1pm with a nice limit of yellowfin tuna and alot of releases! missed the mako, caught a dusky and missed a blue..
It was a good trip and can not wait to get out again!!
The spread consisted of NO ballyhoo hits.. they didnt touch it.. artificials outfished everything.. rainbow spreader bars where loved by all as well as green machine spreaders and zuchinni daisy chains and rainbow daisy chains!
The only hit we had on ballyhoo were the two on the chunk believe it or not! sometimes being silly and throwing bait you wouldnt normally throw while chunking works out! without that ballyhoo out there we probably wouldnt have gotten a nibble throughout the night..
IF ANY OF THE MELTON BOYS READ THIS I NEED A NEW WHEEL FOR MY AIR WALKER!! DO THEY SELL JUST PARTS!! HELP! THOSE THINGS RAISE SOME SERIOUS FISH!
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Originally Posted by sportfishingusa
