Stew

Sunday’s trip was a cancellation from last weekend’s big blow that I ended up moving again from Saturday to Sunday because of the wind. We left Chatham at 0430 hours and headed out east. Flat calm and light winds. I stopped on the numbers from the other day, SW of the BC, and we started to mark a lot of bait and some fish. Once the daylight came the fish went away and the boats moved in. I fished until 0820 and didn’t see a fish get caught. I was not marking any fish, lots of bait but no tuna. Rule “Number One”… “fish were the fish are”. I got a call from another boat that was seeing and marking fish but he couldn’t get a bite. I counted 50 boats and I reeled in the lines and head SE. I pulled in a couple miles short of my buddy and started to see whales and fish up on the surface. I spent the next 2 hours going round and round and baiting them every which way. I had the rigs and Bally hoo on their noses but no love. Not even a bite. A friend of mine had caught a nice fish yesterday on a Braid Marauder so I even had one of those out. My crew had asked ahead of time if they could bring their casting gear and told them no that I “Only” troll. So you can only imagine the grief, friendly or not, that I was taking from my crew. The only saving grace was another boat had been casting on them and he couldn’t get a bite either. The old “is it better to see fish and not get the bites or not see fish and not get the bites” started to be discussed in the cockpit. My view always goes back to Rule “Number One” and if you can keep working the area and have the time you can get a bite.
I was working these fish for hours and I was way off by myself when a boat that was steaming SE saw me and the fish and he altered his course and steamed in on the birds. This boat was not a charter boat or interested in school size tuna. He steamed right up on top of the fish and then turned and steamed away putting the whole school down. It was obvious to me what he was trying to do and he succeeded in his efforts. I know the boat and the owner so what goes around comes around. At least I now know where I stand with these guys. Pretty bad situation. My charter can tell you their unbiased view of the incident and they were shocked.
I continued to fish and we had found that the weeds were getting on the long riggers pretty bad so we had to do a lot of checking and clearing. With 7 rods and with way, way, way back riggers it takes time. The fish began to pop up again and there were 5 of us working an area. A couple of boats hooked up and I was really wondering what it was going to take. We stayed focused and at 1215hrs it happened. The long left rigger rainbow squid bar exploded. Most of us saw the fish come right out of the water as it crashed the rig. It was an awesome bite! The fight was on and we got him to the boat with a father and son tag team effort. Nice fish at the 58inch mark. The day was saved and the crew was happy. Over 6 1\2 hours of trolling and we got our first bite. Wow. I told the guys we had another 30 mins of fishing time because we were over 30 miles out from Monomoy. We set the spread back out and my mate Ben started to bleed the fish. I was on the radio when I heard Ben yell. I turned to see the center rod, with the Braid Marauder bend over and start to dump line. Then the right short black squid rig went off followed by the left long rainbow squid rig. Tripled Up!!! Holy s%$t!! Sheer chaos in the cockpit. We pulled the hook on the Marauder but had the other two tight. We had to do a lot of uncrossing but we got both fish released at the boat. Both fish were around the 58 inch mark. Now that is the way to end the day. We got cleaned up and pulled the first fish on the deck and we headed back towards Chatham. It’s never over till over. Not one bite on the Hoos. Go figure. Ther are a few giants being caught so if you are looking for a shot at a fish of a lifetime please give us a call. The school tuna are here in big numbers and we will be running charters until Oct. 20th. I have openings this weekend. Capt. Eric

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