Sorry for the report delay, but after 2 weeks of vacation, I've been slammed with home and work duties since my return late Sunday. Anyhow...
The crew from Holly Tree Campground (Gerry [hammer], Jimmy, Tom, and myself) headed out bright and early (4:00 AM) to launch from Quonnie, RI. Loaded up and ready to roll, we launch the boat and head out the breachway in search of fresh bait (Bluefish). Well, we boated a grand total of 1 Bluefish there, after casting around for a good 20+ minutes. With no signs of fish, we jetted, heading for the CIA grounds.
On the way out, we saw birds working like crazy, in huge numbers (mostly Shearwaters and Petrels), so we chased the fish around and boated another 6 or 7 Bluefish for the livewell, and off we went with 8 livies (along with 8 frozen blues, a flat of mackeral, and flat of butterfish).
Cruised our way out in 64* water, then right near the CIA mark, the temp jumped to 66*, so we backed up and set the gear up for the drift. Chum bag in, and off we went. Initially had a real nice drift and good wind around 5-7 kts. After about 30-45 minutes, fish on. Small Blue Shark, but nice to start off with some action.
That was it for a while, and then in the later morning it got a bit nutz for a while, with constant takes and hook ups with the ol' Blue Dogs (we were using 12/0 circle hooks which work very well, but are a real biatch to get out).
Da Boyz in action...
Just waiting for the Tag Shot...
Around 10:30-11:00 AM the water went flat and the wind just died off, completely. We fished hard the whole afternoon and the wind NEVER picked back up, it was like Lake Atlantic out there, unreal. Turned into Blue Shark fever, and while we had decent water and great clarity, without the wind and chop, it was the recipe for a doggie day, and it was. We hooked and boated soo many Blue Sharks, I can't even count, literally.
Can you say Cheeeeez?
This leetle fella snapped the FireLine on our pitch bait Spinning setup, and came back for more. Eventually grabbed the line and cleated it off, but it snapped again.
Free swimmers everywhere once they found us again, and they did, in big numbers.
Birthday boy with fish on....
This was our water condition, all afternoon, and even on the entire run back in....we power drifted ALOT on this day.
After a long day on the water, and a few big fish on deep, who either snapped the line or just came off, we called the ball at 20:15 and made the 35 mile run back to Quonnie. We hauled ass in Gerry's 23 Hydra Sport, running at 32-36 KTS the whole, that is, until we got about 4 miles from Quonnie and we spun the hub on the stainless prop. Having another prop on board, the choise was change in the dark, or limp in at 7 KTS, so change it out it was, in the dark (good moon though).
Our skipper on the job...
Well, the changed out prop, the aluminum that was on just days before, lasted all of 60 seconds, until it spun as well...what's the odds? So limp in we did, and were quite grateful that the breach way was almost dead calm, since we were limited to our screaming 7 KTS.
Anyhow, we had one hell of a time and alot of fun, but no love from the beasts we were looking for. There's always next time, and there will be.