Skipjack/VA
06-29-2009, 09:12 AM
Had a great crew consisting of my brother Brian, Glenn (Persistence), Keith (HereWeGo) and a offshore rookie John. This years first offshore trip on Frantic.
Launched Owls Creek -- Rudee inlet. Went smooth and fast considering the 50+ boats heading out.
Awesome ride out and arrive at the 320 line, 40 fathoms in 2 hours. Get lines out and conditions are looking great. Very SLOOWWW. Most boats just reporting singles.
Trolled all morning out deep, and up to 400 line and back down to 300 line zigging and zagging along the way. 69 degree water for most of the day. Lots of two tones spread everywhere.
Around 1000 in 60 fathoms 350 line, spread gets hammered with three tunas coming tight! Game on. Two fat angry yellowfin tunas hit the deck, while one of them ends up swimming away with bullet holes in it from gaff man. Hard to explain what happened there so we wont! :pp :D :confused: BUT - Rookie John got his first tuna!
Later, had a gaffer mahi playing with the short rigger. Glenn did a great job feeding this mahi, - and I really think that this fish will have grown two pounds by tomorrow after stealing his ballyhoo meal from Glenn. = No hookup.
Trolled for another hour and worked the two tones HARD. The two tones were moving north, south, east, and west. Finally I got the right angle on them and made my pass. 80 starts screaming, and I am hoping it is the bigeye that this rod is made for - but it is a fat 55lb yellowfin.
3 PM we start trolling towards home and in 40 fathoms, we got wacked with a single bite, another fat yellowfin tuna in the box. Half hour later in 30 fathoms we get a gaffer, and 20 minutes later another gaffer in the box. Rookie John gets his first mahi!
Pulled lines, ran into the NW winds, conditions not too bad, a few hard landings and back to the Inlet in reasonable time.
4 YFT
2 Mahi
It was great being out there. Thanks crew!
Hope everyone else had safe productive trips! :thumbup:
Chad
Launched Owls Creek -- Rudee inlet. Went smooth and fast considering the 50+ boats heading out.
Awesome ride out and arrive at the 320 line, 40 fathoms in 2 hours. Get lines out and conditions are looking great. Very SLOOWWW. Most boats just reporting singles.
Trolled all morning out deep, and up to 400 line and back down to 300 line zigging and zagging along the way. 69 degree water for most of the day. Lots of two tones spread everywhere.
Around 1000 in 60 fathoms 350 line, spread gets hammered with three tunas coming tight! Game on. Two fat angry yellowfin tunas hit the deck, while one of them ends up swimming away with bullet holes in it from gaff man. Hard to explain what happened there so we wont! :pp :D :confused: BUT - Rookie John got his first tuna!
Later, had a gaffer mahi playing with the short rigger. Glenn did a great job feeding this mahi, - and I really think that this fish will have grown two pounds by tomorrow after stealing his ballyhoo meal from Glenn. = No hookup.
Trolled for another hour and worked the two tones HARD. The two tones were moving north, south, east, and west. Finally I got the right angle on them and made my pass. 80 starts screaming, and I am hoping it is the bigeye that this rod is made for - but it is a fat 55lb yellowfin.
3 PM we start trolling towards home and in 40 fathoms, we got wacked with a single bite, another fat yellowfin tuna in the box. Half hour later in 30 fathoms we get a gaffer, and 20 minutes later another gaffer in the box. Rookie John gets his first mahi!
Pulled lines, ran into the NW winds, conditions not too bad, a few hard landings and back to the Inlet in reasonable time.
4 YFT
2 Mahi
It was great being out there. Thanks crew!
Hope everyone else had safe productive trips! :thumbup:
Chad