Left Warwick at 5 am. Tried for an hr to catch a bluefish came up empty and started our run out.
Once out of Narr. Bay things got lumpy. Could only manage 20 knots. Stopped in area of Fairway Buoy and lines in. Had 1 knockdown in first 20 mins. I am almost positive it was a big bluefish, but it fell off anyways.
Then 2.5 more hrs of trolling with nothing. No whales, birds, dolphins, other boats. Nothing. Felt pretty lonely out there. Trolled all the way past everything (Acid Barge, Gully, Tuna Ridge, Suffolk). Got all the way to the NW corner of the dump. We were pulling in our lines to start our run to closer to shore to start sharking, then as I got to the 2nd to the last rod, pick it up, and I'm like, "there's a fish on this one."
Poor little
bft, couldnt even make the clicker go off.
Reeled him in, looked small, grabbed it by the tail and it measured out to 28 in. CFL. Wasn't sure if i should keep it, so I put it in the livewell. Lines go back out, another 10 mins pass and we get a nicer hit. Turns out to be a better
BFT that pulls my Boga grip to 30 lbs (measured 36 in.).
Look in my livewell, and find the little one not doing so hot. So we release the 30 lber. Oh well, at least we got a little meat.
Trolled the area for another 1.5 hrs. No more hits.
So we run up to the fingers and start sharking. After an hr. We have our first shark. Small blue maybe 5 ft long and had bite marks and a bad gash on him. Release him. Another 30 mins passes, we decide to go home, then another shark bites, turns out to be a 6 ft blue. Release him, then pack up and go.
31 knots on way home with the following sea. Back at the dock by 6 pm. 140 miles roundtrip, 130 gallons of fuel.
Final tally: 2 small
BFT (one 28 in. kept, one 36 in. released), two small blue sharks released.
