HIT N RUN
02-13-2011, 08:49 AM
Crew: Tony,Tommy,Bill,Bert,Johnny,Brian & I.
First trip offshore in the new boat.:high5:
Well the weather man said the wind would be bucking the tide in the warm water but we were set to go so go we went. Got a late start cause we had to rig the riggers & load the boat in the early am. Ran down the beach with seas behind us & not bad at all till we got outside of the Diamond Shoals tower where the warmer water had them stacked up in a typical winter time confused mess. We must have had the golden horse shoe today cause as soon as we set out on the 262 in about 70-80 fathoms the Yellowfin found us. This was at around 10:00AM, (thats how late we were running):eek2:. We had said on the way down we need to land right on them or were bound to tank considering our crazy late start. Well we managed a triple of nice mediums in the box. What a great surprise for this time of the year!!!! Not your usual BLT - winter pup size. Great sign for sure. We then Circled Back:wink44: & got another single. The water temp was around 67.6 & was a nice clear blend. We then spent about the next hour wheeling around the area with no more bites or marks till we reached the 273 where we found a single place of the large marks. Now keep in mind that the electronics on the new boat are completely different so right now I'm pretty much free-flapping till I get them figured out. Well we placed a (mark) on the fish mark to circle & after the third pass the big boys finally got pissed off enough to clobber us with 4 coming down. One broke off due to a mistake clearing lines from our yellowfin spread with 3 staying tight. When the smoke cleared we had released 1 under at about 125lbs & the other 2 were overs but only one made it to the boat as Bills fish decided to make one last scream which with full drag, it popped the leader which had already been stressed previously & really was not meant for Bluefin. (Red Squid Chain) for those who fish with me know:wink44:. That thing always goes out on my left short & gets regularly pounded but hardly ever gets re-rigged cause its a PITA.:help: So that was our day. We let the Hatteras boats know where we were & then left early as the seas were really building in the early afternoon & even though we all wanted to send down a jig it just didn't seem to make sense considering the season is just beginning & there will be plenty of nicer weather days ahead for jigging. BTW this is now the snd time I have drug Ballyhoo around out there this winter & except that one smaller Bluefin, the rest have all been pigs between 74-80" so I'm just saying, this year you better get you stuff right or there is gonna be an awful lot of lost tackle & disappointed anglers. These bigger fish are nothing like the 67-69" fish that were about perfect for the smaller jigging gear. On the way back up the beach we looked for Striper. The area just north of Avon has a ton of Whales feeding on Bunker. The birds were there & all was perfect but after spending about a hour & a half with out a single Striper mark in all that bait we bagged it. This looks to be the same pod of life we were pounding them in a few weeks ago. Maybe they have moved on leaving all that bait & life behind or maybe we just suck. On the way in the inlet I saw a ton of boats straight out from there but they looked about 4-5 miles off the beach to me so we just went on in. Catch & release Stripers wasn't gonna do it for us today in the heels of those pig Bluefin in those bumpy seas.
So how was the new boat???? Beside myself AWESOME!!!! It uses more fuel for sure (which is the trade off) but it raises fish & is comfortable, safe & dry. Now I just got to start working on getting dialed in to the new electronics. That will for sure TAKE TIME.
First trip offshore in the new boat.:high5:
Well the weather man said the wind would be bucking the tide in the warm water but we were set to go so go we went. Got a late start cause we had to rig the riggers & load the boat in the early am. Ran down the beach with seas behind us & not bad at all till we got outside of the Diamond Shoals tower where the warmer water had them stacked up in a typical winter time confused mess. We must have had the golden horse shoe today cause as soon as we set out on the 262 in about 70-80 fathoms the Yellowfin found us. This was at around 10:00AM, (thats how late we were running):eek2:. We had said on the way down we need to land right on them or were bound to tank considering our crazy late start. Well we managed a triple of nice mediums in the box. What a great surprise for this time of the year!!!! Not your usual BLT - winter pup size. Great sign for sure. We then Circled Back:wink44: & got another single. The water temp was around 67.6 & was a nice clear blend. We then spent about the next hour wheeling around the area with no more bites or marks till we reached the 273 where we found a single place of the large marks. Now keep in mind that the electronics on the new boat are completely different so right now I'm pretty much free-flapping till I get them figured out. Well we placed a (mark) on the fish mark to circle & after the third pass the big boys finally got pissed off enough to clobber us with 4 coming down. One broke off due to a mistake clearing lines from our yellowfin spread with 3 staying tight. When the smoke cleared we had released 1 under at about 125lbs & the other 2 were overs but only one made it to the boat as Bills fish decided to make one last scream which with full drag, it popped the leader which had already been stressed previously & really was not meant for Bluefin. (Red Squid Chain) for those who fish with me know:wink44:. That thing always goes out on my left short & gets regularly pounded but hardly ever gets re-rigged cause its a PITA.:help: So that was our day. We let the Hatteras boats know where we were & then left early as the seas were really building in the early afternoon & even though we all wanted to send down a jig it just didn't seem to make sense considering the season is just beginning & there will be plenty of nicer weather days ahead for jigging. BTW this is now the snd time I have drug Ballyhoo around out there this winter & except that one smaller Bluefin, the rest have all been pigs between 74-80" so I'm just saying, this year you better get you stuff right or there is gonna be an awful lot of lost tackle & disappointed anglers. These bigger fish are nothing like the 67-69" fish that were about perfect for the smaller jigging gear. On the way back up the beach we looked for Striper. The area just north of Avon has a ton of Whales feeding on Bunker. The birds were there & all was perfect but after spending about a hour & a half with out a single Striper mark in all that bait we bagged it. This looks to be the same pod of life we were pounding them in a few weeks ago. Maybe they have moved on leaving all that bait & life behind or maybe we just suck. On the way in the inlet I saw a ton of boats straight out from there but they looked about 4-5 miles off the beach to me so we just went on in. Catch & release Stripers wasn't gonna do it for us today in the heels of those pig Bluefin in those bumpy seas.
So how was the new boat???? Beside myself AWESOME!!!! It uses more fuel for sure (which is the trade off) but it raises fish & is comfortable, safe & dry. Now I just got to start working on getting dialed in to the new electronics. That will for sure TAKE TIME.