Riptide Charters

8/1 East of Chatham
Today I ran East of Chatham with John and Chris. We had nearly postponed the trip due to the sporatic fishing as of late. However the guys were on a time line and they needed to get out now or never. With the best odds of getting tuna seeming to be out East we launched out of Ryders at 0500 and headed out to the cut.

For the second time this week I've been the mother duck. At the ramp a guy in a small CC came over introduced himself and said that he'd like to follow me out of the bay and through the cut. I guess I look like I can navigate or something.

We ran out the bay and through the cut and headed to where we had luck a little over a week ago. My buddy boats in the area said the reports had been mixed with hot one day dead the next being the theme. We ran at a moderate speed in the limited visablity. When things would open up we'd pick up the pace, then after a few miles it would sock down again adn slow our pace. We got tothe general area I was hoping to fish and found no life or signs of fish. We ran over some life, but included in the package was a ton of blues on top splashing around. Not wanting to shred my rigs I continued.

Capt Eric Stewart of the Hook Up was one of my buddy boats. He went lines in at the life I found and got blued up instantly. He made a subtle move from there and found paydirt with tuna. He gave me the call as we headed that way.

In about 15 minutes we were in the area and it didn't take long before the right short rigger blew up and the reel started screaming. Chris was first up and he did a great job onthe tuna. He'd landed YFT and other offshore fish, but never bluefin. The experience showed and the fish was soon at boatside. I gaffed and boxed the 46" fish. The guys were looking for the best tuna meat we could get, so we opted to pass of photos on this fish and get right to bleeding and prepping the fish. The guys brough a TON of ice and soon the fish was chilling in the insulated fish box completely packed in ice.

We went line in again and the guys did a great job getting the spread set. They wanted to learn adn requested no mate on the trip. They wanted hands on fishing. With the fog I was tied to the radar allot so they got plenty of cockpit time and as the day went on they were setting and clearing the spread like pro's.

In about 30 minutes we watched as the shotgun bird Green Monsta combo blew up. This time it was Johns turn on the rod. He's never fought a tuna or any other offshore fish so we put him in the harness to make his life a bit easier.

He did a great job and with some coaching he got the fish boatside in good time. This fish would be the biggest of the day and around 52-54". I lip gaffed the tuna and we released it since they were only looking for the one for dinner and sushi.




We went line in and we worked all around the area for several hours without a hit. There were a few other boats getting a slow pick..... and then there was Capt Eric who continued a steady pick of fish most all day. Dispite the slow mid morning for us I made a few changed to tease the fish up to the spread. When we got on some fish around the noon slack the teasers did there job and we had a massive take on the right short corner only 30' from the boat. Chris handled this fish quickly and another mid 40" fish was leadered and released.

As soon as we got the lines back in the left short corner went off with the bar sitting right over the teaser. John was ready for round two and with the prior fish under his belt he did a fantastic job of landing the fish with no coaching. Again the fish was leadered and released.

We had one more fish up in the spread boiling on the bars but he would not commit no matter how much I teased him with drop backs and speeding up the rigs. The final tally for the day was 4 for 4. The guys were thrilled that dispite poor reports we made a solid day of it. All the fish were taken in 190-250' of water East of Chatham. The lures of choice were Offshore Inovations Green Monsters in bars and behind birds. Big Kahuna teasers helped make the afternoon a bit more exciting.

Overall a great day OTW. The guys were great to fish with and I had as much fin as they did. I flet bad having them do most of the work including prepping the fish (with some instruction) but they insisted that they wanted to go hands on and hands on they were! I had a great time teaching them how to run the riggers and set the spread and by days end I would just ask for somethign to be done and it was handled without issue. They were fast learners and I have no doubt they will be hanging tuna on their own East of Chatham their next trip out.

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Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

Possum

Nice report Captain, and a great day for you and your client !!

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SEACAT

Great Report!!!!