Saltwater Seminar at Mass Maritime

Relentless · 01-25-2008, 07:49 PM

I just finished putting a few things together for my presentation at Mass Maritimes Saltwater Fishing Seminer scheduled for tomorrow at 0800. Speakers are Dave Pickering on Bass Fishing, the one and only Terry Nugent of Riptide Charters and myself giving a presentaion on STELLWAGEN BANK FISHING. Also Massachusetts Envronmental Police and Division of Marine Fisheries will also be putting something on.

If you go to this I will have a table set up all day, so please stop by. Mine will be the one without a sign but lot's of photos. I can not find my old RELENTLESS CHARTERS sign.

I am looking forward to meeting anyone from the site who may be going.

Respectfully,

Captain Dave Waldrip

CaptDom · 01-25-2008, 08:04 PM

Hi Dave,

I will be on the AC all day, or I would stop by. Hope you and Terry have a good presentation turn out. How was the smelt races

, err.. I mean smelt fishing?

Dom

mcleaves · 01-29-2008, 12:42 AM

I'll try to make my first real post here somehwat useful. I play over as THT and had posted this after I attended the seminar.. I'll post it here also for anyone who is interested:

I attended this seminar Saturday and I thought it was a great take. All three speakers put on unique and interesting presentations. All had excellent NO NONSENSE advice. They boiled it all down to basics and minimal sets of gear. It was refreshing to hear you don't need to mortgage the house to start chasing tuna.

Some thoughts:

Dave Pickering - Absolutely insane. He fishes 300+ days a year and is pulling in keeper striper's as we speak!!! The man is an animal. He is fishing tonight!
Terry Nugent - (RipTide Charters) Hard core and mister variety. I can't even count the number of fish he discussed catching
Dave Waldrip - (Relentless Charters) Very detailed seasonal "hot spots" revealed. Great information on rig setup and choices for a variety of species and conditions. Seems to have absolute consistency with his efforts on the water..

It was actually great to spend some time with Dave one on one. He is a nice helpful guy and generously shares information. After hearing these two speak I'd book a trip with either guy in a second, depending on what you are after. Dave is the groundfishing guru and Terry chases the fast swimmers..

Bad news; Saltwater License is on the way. Not sure yet which agency it's coming from (feds or state). The reason given is to create a registry so they can contact fisherman and get better data on harvest. The problem is the data they get now comes from very spotty checks at the docks and blind phone calls to RANDOM phone numbers, most of whom are to people who don't fish. I expressed a need to have a boat license so a one time guest can drop a pole in the water without having to buy a license and prepare in advance with red tape. There was some concern that it would defeat the purpose of tracking each persons catch. I told them a one time fisherman, like say, my mother in law, isn't going to help them anyhow. They'll ask what she caught and she'll say "I don't know it had fins". I suggested the data for all fishing on the boat could be kept by the captain and would be more reliable. He actually liked that idea and asked I attend the public hearings to bring it up. I'd urge others to do the same. The license is coming so arguing whether or not we should even have one is a lost cause. For the record the speaker was NOT happy it was coming (what was his name?? - the Director of Marine Fisheries for State of Mass).

He also confirmed what I have long asserted. Increasing the size limit on some species actually contributes to the pressure on some fisheries (especially groundfish) as fish that were previously keepers are now shorts and will have a very high mortality rate. Instead of taking 10 22" fish out of say 15 fish, with 5 being sent back and likely dying (coming up from 200-300 feet), we now bring up 20, 30 or more 22-24" fish to get a handful of keepers, many of which will die. Terrible management approach and he agreed. Not sure what we could do about it.

M

Riptide Charters · 02-01-2008, 02:04 PM

Mcleaves,

Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed the seminars. That was a new one I've been working on. I was a little nervous how it would go over. Glad you liked it.

mcleaves · 02-01-2008, 02:17 PM

It really was excellent Terry. You covered a lot of ground with pertinent info.

I was pretty interested in your "poor mans" tuna setup. I took some notes on the outfit but I was a bit confused on the reel you recommended. The model I wrote down looks like it's a spinning reel (I don't have my notes in front of me at the moment).

Would you mind elaborating on the setup you were recommending?

PM me if you prefer.

Thanks.
Mike

Riptide Charters · 02-01-2008, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcleaves

It really was excellent Terry. You covered a lot of ground with pertinent info.

I was pretty interested in your "poor mans" tuna setup. I took some notes on the outfit but I was a bit confused on the reel you recommended. The model I wrote down looks like it's a spinning reel (I don't have my notes in front of me at the moment).

Would you mind elaborating on the setup you were recommending?

PM me if you prefer.

Thanks.
Mike

For a spinning setup,
I use a Penn 950ssm w/ a St Croix 7' Saltwater Premier 20-40#. (I'm on St Croix's pro staff) The combo works fantastic and is under $300. If you want to save a few bucks the Ugly Stick Tiger 7' rod 20-50# is a $50-60 rod that will work as well. It's not quite the St Croix, but it's allot cheaper and it's not a bad starter rod for someone just getting into SBFT. There are other good rods and many guys use the Shimano Thunus with good luck. But I have no experience with the other combos, so I only recomend what I know.

For trolling;
A Penn GLD or Shimano TLD in the 25-30 series in single speed is the way to go. These reels are under $200 and while they don't have the "bling" factor of the gold reels, they work very well. 2-speed is nice, but it's going to add at least $100 per reel. If your sarting out and need a few reels that adds up fast and honestly most fish under #200 don't need a 2 speed reel. Rods are easy. Any decent 5'6"-6' tuna stick in the $100-200 range will do. I like all rollers, but again that adds $$$. Turbo guides, or roller top and bottom guides will do the job. Try to get a faster action rod for the tuna as opposed to a slower "cod" action rod.

I hope this helps. I just wrote an in depth article on this very subject "Getting started tuna fishing on a budget". I'm hoping to get it in print in the near future.

fightingcouch · 02-01-2008, 07:19 PM

wish i made it to the seminar. Mass. Maritime is on the top of my list to apply to for college.

Blake Conlin
tightlinzzzzzz

mcleaves · 02-02-2008, 02:16 PM

That helps a lot Terry. Thanks. As a complete newbie to tuna fishing, should I start with a trolling or spinning setup? I sense trolling is the simplest. I'm a bottom dunker almost exclusively for the past 10 years, but this season I want to branch out into stripers/blues and tuna.

Given that info which way would you suggest? I have a number of decent spinning reels I used to striper fishing from the surf before I moved into a boat and took off for groundfish a decade ago. These reels will do just fine I think for stripers and blues, but they will not hold up for tuna. So I am inclined to get the trolling reel for tuna and move my surf reels over to 7 ft uglies for stripers.

I am making sense and does that sounds like a reasonable economical way to get started?

M

Riptide Charters · 02-02-2008, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcleaves

That helps a lot Terry. Thanks. As a complete newbie to tuna fishing, should I start with a trolling or spinning setup? I sense trolling is the simplest. I'm a bottom dunker almost exclusively for the past 10 years, but this season I want to branch out into stripers/blues and tuna.

Given that info which way would you suggest? I have a number of decent spinning reels I used to striper fishing from the surf before I moved into a boat and took off for groundfish a decade ago. These reels will do just fine I think for stripers and blues, but they will not hold up for tuna. So I am inclined to get the trolling reel for tuna and move my surf reels over to 7 ft uglies for stripers.

I am making sense and does that sounds like a reasonable economical way to get started?

M

It all depends on preference. I prefer to cast to the tuna, but I do troll as well. Depending on where you live will make a difference too. If your near Chatham, I'd go the trolling route, near CC Bay I'd lean towarsds casting. There is no real right or wrong here, just personal preference.

Shoot me an email riptide@riptidecharters.com and we can swap phone numbers, I can give you more info over the phone in allot less time than it will take me to type it.

Relentless · 02-03-2008, 07:09 AM

Tom,

Like I said, you will like this board, it is a great group of guys with strong local knowledge willing to share some information. Keep in touch and we will be fishing in about 50 days or so for cod and haddock with the shake down trip aboard RELENTLESS. Those tuna will be here also so, time to stock up on a few pieces of gear.

Dave

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