Riptide Charters

Today was proof that good thinks come back around full circle. Here's the story. I got off work today at 0700 and Mike C, Jr. and Shark Girl Melissa arrived at the house. We had decided to go sharking and we had an eye on the IGFA Jr. Female World Record for Thresher Shark. We've been looking for a shot to get Melissa World Record number 2 and today seemed like a nice day to do some sharking.

We loaded the boat and ran to Falmouth Bait and Tackle. They have always helped us out with great bait and chum and our last record came using their chum and oils. Since we were looking for Threshers we went with all bluefish chum and some fish oil and milk. We went to Falmouth and splashed the boat. We ran out and at the mouth of Falmouth harbor dispite the fog we were able to find a few small groups of rat bluefish. We landed 5 of them and decided that we could do better closer to Gay Head. So with only 5 blues in the well we headed off.

As I ran down the sound on radar I noticed a boat had fallen in behind me and was running in my wake. It was a 40ish' go fast and the guy was on my tail for several miles. I finally slowed and pulled aside and let him come along side me. I asked what he was doing. He replied "Following you". I asked where he hoped to end up in the fog. He replied "Falmouth". Then your following the wrong boat I said, we are heading south of the Vineyard shark fishing. He replied "Thats OK as long as we get home safely, my GPS isn't working". Stunned by his response we all realized that if we didn't help this idiot he would likely hurt or kill himself, his girlfriend and whomever was unlucky enough to be struck by him. I told him to follow me at a safe distance, stay in my wake and I'd get him to Menemsha. There they could wait out the fog and have lunch.

We ran past several groups of birds and blues but couldn't stop due to our new found tail. I finally got him to Menemsha safely and we joked that he'd have been in trouble had we made the canyon run we intended to make. He said he had plenty of fuel and he'd have followed us to the edge and back. Darwin Award Nominee 2007!

With our "friend" safe and sound we ran toGay Head only to find a bunch of boats and no blues. With only 5 fish in the well and one nearly dead this might be a VERY short sharking trip. We decided to try anyway and see how things went. We ran south of MV and set up shop near a wreck I found on my Navionics Fish N Chip Chart. It looked like a promising area and I power chummed for about 1/2 a mile. Mike got the rigs ready and we fileted the dead blue and sent out a live one on a balloon. In the 120' of water we were in dogfish were a real fear.

In about 15 minutes the deep bait straight down began to move slightly. Mike told Sis it was probably dogfish, but to put the rod in the harness and reeled it up anyway. She did and as the bait neared the surface Mike yelled "BIG THRESHER!!! FREE SPOOL THE BAIT!" Sis dropped the reel into freespool and the bait shot back down. This angered the thresher and he grabbed the filet and began to run off line. Sis pushed the reel to Strike and cranked hard on the reel. When the line was tight she set the hook hard. The thresher went nuts and began running off line and it shot under the boat. Unable to move freely with the safety strap attached Sis unclipped the strap and gavechase around the boat. We all cleared lines as she raced around the hull several times. The fish got the line behind the motor and I was able to trim up just in time to save a break off.

After 10 more minutes we got a good look at the shark. It was clearly going to beat the existing record of 87.1#. I got the flying gaff ready and Sis cranked the fish near to the rod tip with the Basil Wind On leader. No need to leader this fish. When it was close enough I took my shot and planted the flyer right in his gills. The fish instantly went airborne 5' from the boat and nearly came into the cockpit. It hit the gunnel and launched again. I held tight to the gaff line as Mike C got the second flyer head ready. When the second gaff head was ready to go Mike took the first gaff line and I sunk the second flyer into the fish. This pretty much sealed it's fate. After a few minuted to let the fish calm down I slid a tail rope on it and the fish was ours.

After some celebrating, we took some good field mesurements and found the fish was 66" tothe fork of the tail and 123" overall. By the charts that would put the fish at 150#. Clearly enough for the record. We stowed all the gear quickly and I headed for Falmouth.

En route we finally got cell coverage and we made the call to Capt Eric Stewart of The Hook Up. Eric and crew handled the last World Record perfectly and we were not going to take any chances with this one. Eric and his manager Dan assured us that they would have everything waiting for our arrival.

We trailered the boat and headed to Orleans. Since The Hook Up is and IGFA Certified Weigh Station they had all the paperwork ready and a certified digital scale waiting along with a block and tackle and a crowd of people anxious to see the shark.

Dan and I hoisted the shark and we watched the digital scale. 149.5#!!!!! Right where the table said the fish should weigh.


We took a bunch of pictures of Sis and her family along with some video.



Riptide and Melissa with the Thresher


The proud angler and her prize!


The potential SECOND IGFA World Record Shark weighed at THE HOOK UP!


Special Thanks to the Crew at Navionics for all they've done to help us this season!


Final tally, 1 Thresher Shark and a potential new IGFA Jr. Female WORLD RECORD!

Overall a great albiet short day on the water. We helped a person out that was surely going to hurt someone or at least himself. The Kharma came back around quickly and we were rewarded for our good deed.

Once again Congratulations to Melissa Ciolek for landing an outstanding shark.

__________________
Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

pete

that's great, congrats to shark girl and crew!!! very nice fish.

pete

BadaBing

Great job!

zimmjas

Did your "buddy boat" even bother to look at his compass? Congrats on the shark!

Riptide Charters

Compass and charts on a 42' Go Fast Not likely

__________________
Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

On The Edge

Nice job Terry, Congrats to you and sharkgirl, Let us know when it is written in the books..

__________________
Catch um up

1999 proline 2202 wa
1999 200 merc

ChuckA From "Land of the Lost"

Awesome , Congrats to Terry and the Crew to land a world record fish.WTG .One good deed deserves another .Great pics.