CaptDom

Been awhile since I gave a full, long winded report, so here goes:

Had a new Father son Duo today, big thanks to the G-men for getting my name out there as a kid friendly pelagic charter boat! They saw the report on the OB tourney, and decided to give 'ol Dom a try....HOME RUN BABY.

Left the dock at 4:445 sharp, with 10 year old John Luke, and his buddy Georgie, along with JL's dad John and his aunt Yollie. This group was amped, on their first Big Game fishing expedition. JL and his dad are avid and very accomplished hunters, JL has several trophy deer out of Texas, and is off to Colorado this year to bag his first elk, all at the ripe old age of 10!!

Hey Anthony, look out, you got some competition now.

Conditions lumpier than I thought, and wind out of the east, WTF, so a bumpy ride out, but no real bangers, just lumpy and confused. Oh to be a weatherman..

We blasted towards the general vicinity of the mudhole, but got some intel that they were further S/SE. I pulled up 1/4 mile before the Fairway Buoy, and dropped in. 4 Archer squid bars and two GM bird combos on the longs. Just as I put out the spread(I run with no mate, so it takes a few minutes, and requires some help at the helm, which of course JL was happy to do for me) and turned towards the helm, Yollie says, oh my, I think we got one! Understatement of the year. 3 minutes into fishing, and my day just got alot less stressful

A TLD 20 starts singing, and I murmur we may have a good one on...21 minutes later at 6:17am JL has his first ever tuna in the boat, and it tapes out at 46 inches, and drops the scale to 62.5 pounds, on 30 pound line!!! We stick the fish, and as I am bleeding it out, the finder lights up, and we drop jigs away....instant mauling on the PT. Jude po-jee 3 ounce tuna special on both spinners. The fish are HOT, and dig in and across each other, POP. I quickly tie on another, this time the PT. Jude butterfish tuna special, WHAM, only to pop this one off with no real fanfare.....line comes up and the shock leader is all curly Q-d.....I guess my adrenaline was probably in overdrive. By the time I strapped on an OTI big gowana surface cruiser on one spinner and a Pt. Jude PO-Jee on the other, the fish had moved on.

We resumed the troll, and I drove right over a school at 40 feet, which quickly covered us up. Now I have 5 lines doubled over, and a completely first time crew. These guys responded like champs, and we managed to go 3/5 on much smaller 32-34 inch fish, all in tight on the 4 bars baby wolf pack style and the right long gets hit as I pulled back (rather quickly)...

Next we get absolutely covered in tight by the peanut mushies, green bean city!!! We didnt even stop the boat, just kept pulling the small archer meatball bars to the transom and quickly letting our midget tunnoid friends go.

THe action was non stop, but once everyone had a turn on their first BFT, the boys thoughts quickly turned to "working for a livin....I'm talkin aboot shaaaaakin!" Left them biting, and headed off to find some toothy guys

Yollie was a bit "green" by this time as well, so I opted to fish just outside the mudhole with nice westerly drift, instead of heading east to a good cool patch east of Coxes.

It took no time at all for the "blue dog king" to work his magic, and the first critter snuk in around 25 minutes into the drift.....followed quickly by several of his friends. JL took the first smallish 150, and Yollie was next up. I had several fish swimming close, all nice 150-250 size, when the deep bait goes off. Yollie straps in, and the rod DOUBLES up....THe boat spins, and we start getting dragged back east.....NOw my hearts hammering, I'm thinking here we go, monster thresher, green crew, no way Im landing it, etc, etc.

The fish comes up very quickly, and I'm telling John to grab the kids, and watch the $%@! out...fire the engines and burn away on quarter, only to have a HUGE BLue shark erupt near the surface, rolling and thrashing

THis fish comes boat side all twisted up, I reach down to grab leader, and realize it is a bomber(Glenn, it was close...) of 11 plus feet, and FAT. Was over 9.6 to the fork, guessing low 400's and sporting a longline trailer attached to a cool looking circle hook lip ring. Needlesss to say the fishin chic Yollie was AMPED. NO tags unfortunately, but he swam away minus his mouth hardware to grow maybe even bigger and will be hooked again, as all good b-dogs do

Next Georgies fish gets completely hog tied , before I set the hook, and doesnt even pull a bit of line, leader at the tip, so no love for Georgie,(sorry) and quickly another 250-ish b-dog is on for JL. He whups on this brute, and has him to leader within 30 minutes, for his first BIG shaaak ever!!

Had a decent mako burn under the boat headed the wrong way from the opposite side of the slick and never look back around 11:30. LOTS of life around, 3 different kinds of whales, dolphin, mahi, some barred jacks under a patch of weed, turtles, 2 other boats encountered white marlin(no hookups that I know of though), and PLENTY of bait. Tuna had a stomach loaded with very tiny squid and loads of sandeels. Water temps ranged from 69 early am to 72.8 at noon, crystal clear green/blue water.

Gerogie comes up sick next around 12:30, so quittin time and head to the barn. Spin starboard hub 5 minutes in, fun little 16 knot labor on one engine home, as there was no way I was changing props with a sick kid and rolly seas.

Fun day to say the least, pics to follow shortly once I get em.

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CAPT. DOM PETRARCA
COASTAL CHARTERS SPORTFISHING
NEWPORT, RI (401)-862-0358
www.coastalcharterssportfishing.com

AlloyToy

Awesome Dom!!! WTG Were ther draggers in the area? I think it will be a great year at the mud hole!!

Thx for the report

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"First The Bite Then The Fight"

Albatross

You're the man Dom!

jahootie

wish every trip was that good, great report



JA-HOOTIE

striper1

Sounds like the best sick day the kid will ever have. Nice to hear the young uns had that kind of experience there will be few if any days to compare.

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Feed'em Steel!
26' Striper Alaskan

Possum

Way to go Dom, great report, and a hell of day fishing. Great reading!!

Making me look forward to this coming Saturday, when I am heading out for my virgin sharkin' trip aboard REBOOT (with my brother and another friend).

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CaptDom

Brian,

We dodged a bullet in OB with that Hub...imagine trying to change that in the conditions we were in on Sat.???

There was one dragger working the eastern edge of Mudhole, and two out in the distance towrds the SE/E from FW buoy.

The fish were easy to spot, several large pods pushing water in big circles, tons of mushies in the 1 -2 pound range porpoising, frenzies, whales, tons of birds...the tuna chicks were good finders today, whenever there was a heavy concentration of chickies all excited, there were bft under them. Forgot to mention the alligator blues that are out there as well....

Were I to be fishing tommorrow, I would head to 1/2 mile north of FW buoy, and work SE past the buoy and cricle out to the east, the direction all the life seemed to be heading.

The spotter plane passed overhead several times throughout the day, so I would guess there would be some HUGE fish around, its about that time. My guess is these 600-1100+ pounders used to be the footballs we catch there these days, probably on their traditional migration as they have for the past 12 or so plus years? What makes some of these Atlantic Giants stay south, while others head waaaay north??? Fascinating creatures, for sure. Like a BIG, oversized pogie. They school up and push water just like those menhaden, ever notice that?

__________________
CAPT. DOM PETRARCA
COASTAL CHARTERS SPORTFISHING
NEWPORT, RI (401)-862-0358
www.coastalcharterssportfishing.com

Animal

Thanks for a great report,Dom.Hopefully,we'll seeya out there soon.

Animal

Hey Dom,did you see giants pushing water,or just assume it because of the plane?Thanks,Bobby.

CaptDom

I did not see any giants pushing water where I was only schoolies, but the plane made several low circles in a few close spots to my 20, and right after it left around 11 am, a well known hi liner moved right to the spot the plane was on 15 minutes prior to him arriving on scene. I would bet the ranch that a few fish have quietly been landed already, with more to come very, very soon....Swore I marked 2 or 3 down on the bottom at one point, but not 100%

Go get em Bobby.

I did see lots of giants pushing water up in CC Bay the last week, the rod reel bite should start to improve dramatically any day now up there.

__________________
CAPT. DOM PETRARCA
COASTAL CHARTERS SPORTFISHING
NEWPORT, RI (401)-862-0358
www.coastalcharterssportfishing.com