ruge13
08-21-2006, 12:46 PM
Short version - a few 50 lbers running SW down current just after Slack High on a deep Repala Mag30 diver and a cedar plug chain behind a bird. Black and Rainbow Bars were ignored as was Ye old Green Machine behind bird and squid chain behind flock of birds. One early morning surface feed and one broken off fly rod fish.
Long version - In the water around 4:30ish…out past monomoy around 5:30 ish. Just caught the tail end of false dawn. Talked about whether we wanted to go lines in at a 63 to 68 temp break maybe 5 miles from Monomoy or to look around a bit. We decided to follow the gut feeling and look around for life and leave the break given good FAC conditions. Also in spite of knowing it was slack and a first light bite….which we had.
After about 2 minutes of running my blind eyes saw nothing, eagle eyes Riley spotted some birds. By “some” I mean a rather large flock visible to people standing on Nauset beach but not from me ½ mile away. We headed at them with one other boat, idled up into the birds and Sam Spots fish on top. We get close to that “school” only to realize when we cut the engines to ready the spread we were surrounded by feeding tuna in the 50lb range. Nothing legal but would be fun to catch. Sam worked to set the spread, I should have helped but got greedy and grabbed the 18wt. First rushed cast and I just missed Sams head, flubbed cast (first time trying to heave that heavy rod). Second cast and I got a solid hookset…..on the rod Sam was trying to rig up with a bar off the stern. Third cast was decent, by decent I mean rushed out in front of the boat with no regard to direction of fish but at least dumped 3/4 of the fly line out. The rod needs a lot of 500gr Leviathan out to load. I was looking behind me at Sam rigging bars and fish off in the distance when the line was ripped out of my hands. Cleared the line on the deck and the reel starts screaming. Reel keeps screaming…..past 150yds of Powerpro into the HI vis spectra backing. At this point I start getting a little nervous…cranked the drag down…Reel is heating up and still burning off line. I start palming. Slowed the fish, changed direction and gained some line. Got back on the Power pro after about 20 seconds. Sam clears the rigged rod and again the fish takes off….straight down. Dumps the PP again and into the Hi Vis I have about 150 yds PP and about 250 yds or so Hi Vis.) The Reddington AL12 drag SUCKS (knew that ahead of time but haven’t had the budget yet to swap out to a larger reel)!! I had about 10 lbs of pressure, if that. Anyway, palm the spool again to slow the fish, stops. I can feel tail beats in the rod down deep so I start working him up. The rod barely flexes at the tip, a lot of backbone on a small fish around 40-50 lbs. Fish takes off again, I take a gimbal shot to the peaches and pop……slack line. Fish broke 50 lb flouro leader half way down the leader. The break had a curl in the line but it was half way down so I think I had a wind knot from 2 pathetic casts and that caused a weakness in the line. After about 10 minutes of reeling back all the line I lost I sulked for a while and then we went lines in. Blue/Green over pearl Mushy on a 5/0 Aki, 4-5" long.
It was as if someone hit a light switch….no birds, no fish, nothing. All life disappeared. We trolled for a while, then decided to move a bit after 3 hours or so. 9AM we pull up to the second spot about 10 miles from the first after not seeing any life along the way. Just bored of running we decided what the hell, lets go lines in and play with some different spreads. Out goes the spread, water to ourselves with no other boats nearby. Headed S/SW down current at about 3.1mph water speed, 5.8 GPS speed. Literally 50 yds, not 5 minutes later and the Cedar plug chain behind the Out Rover bird goes off on Penn 9500. We let it go a second or two hoping for a double. Nothing hits so we slow the engines to idle speed and I start trying to slow the fish. Drag cranked down and my hand on the now hot spool and I can see parts of the PP I haven’t seen since I put an additional 300yd top shot on there last year. I get nervous, so Sam clears the spread and we turn to chase. Fish slows and is beat. Sam wires and tails. 50lber in the boat. Taped out at 41. Skunk is off, and….is the largest Tuna trolled to date. For a 50lber this thing screamed off a ton of line at about 15-20lbs of drag pressure. We were both surprised. Puked up a 15" squid just before coming to the boat.
Lines go back in on the same course. Not 5 minutes later the Repala Mag 30 goes off on a Penn 5500. Knowing we would have to chase (small reel for this) I cleared the spread immediately no trying for a double. Boat is turned, Sam slows the fish after more than half the spool is gone. Gains some line and the fish goes deep. We think this is a bigger fish because it takes some time to pull off the bottom. Sam gets the fish up after 10 minutes or so, foul hooked. Looked like the fish was hooked, pulled the hook, then caught in its side because the mouth, gills, and sides were all raked up. Shame to have to put that one back because it was basically dead anyway. Bleeding like a stuck pig and sank like a rock.
Lines in and again same down current course and the cedars went off, still only got about 200 -300 yds form the start point. Same size fish. Nothing for about ½ hour or more, turned around to go back to the start. Nothing up current, all strikes were down current. Did the same line s/sw from the start point. Again after about 15 minutes the Mag 30 went off. Got on the rod and after about 3 or 4 minutes fish slowed and pulled the hook.
Nothing the rest of the line, got to the end of that same route and Sam decided to change directions, head E/NE (I think) for about ½ hour and another rod goes off…Another fish in the boat, same 41” size range.
After that nothing for 2-3 hours. Ran back in to the first area we found fish on top. Found a pod of dolphins and about 10 boats trolling around it, through it, to it, in every direction. We settle in and after about 5 passes finally get a bump on the Mag 30 down deep. Fish pulls the hook before we even get on the rod. That was it for the day.
For what its worth…we ran a big black bar with 13” squids and 18” stinger and a rainbow bar out, a bird green machine way back, cedar chain behind the out rover bird, and a Mag30 down deep. Thanks a Ton for letting us borrow those bars, you know who you are:-% !!! Also had a home rigged white Bumper in the prop wash as a teaser that looked ugly and borderline embarrassing but ran beautifully, swimming motion in and out of the wash down 3-5ft!! Bars were ignored but, when the teaser was in and both bars we caught fish. Went down to one bar for another cedar chain or forgot to put the teaser out and we got nothing even in the same area, same speed, and same direction as previous fish. I honestly think they made a difference raising fish. Finally tally was 3 for 5 on the troll, a pulled flyrod fish and no Boofish which was nice.
Event of the day was on the run home at full speed a fin surfaced about 10 yards from the bow:eek: . By the time I yelled we had already hit it full speed. Big tail goes up and splashes down behind the boat. Relatively small basking shark just under the surface, not at the surface thank god, and no damage to the engine or prop. Got lucky.
Long version - In the water around 4:30ish…out past monomoy around 5:30 ish. Just caught the tail end of false dawn. Talked about whether we wanted to go lines in at a 63 to 68 temp break maybe 5 miles from Monomoy or to look around a bit. We decided to follow the gut feeling and look around for life and leave the break given good FAC conditions. Also in spite of knowing it was slack and a first light bite….which we had.
After about 2 minutes of running my blind eyes saw nothing, eagle eyes Riley spotted some birds. By “some” I mean a rather large flock visible to people standing on Nauset beach but not from me ½ mile away. We headed at them with one other boat, idled up into the birds and Sam Spots fish on top. We get close to that “school” only to realize when we cut the engines to ready the spread we were surrounded by feeding tuna in the 50lb range. Nothing legal but would be fun to catch. Sam worked to set the spread, I should have helped but got greedy and grabbed the 18wt. First rushed cast and I just missed Sams head, flubbed cast (first time trying to heave that heavy rod). Second cast and I got a solid hookset…..on the rod Sam was trying to rig up with a bar off the stern. Third cast was decent, by decent I mean rushed out in front of the boat with no regard to direction of fish but at least dumped 3/4 of the fly line out. The rod needs a lot of 500gr Leviathan out to load. I was looking behind me at Sam rigging bars and fish off in the distance when the line was ripped out of my hands. Cleared the line on the deck and the reel starts screaming. Reel keeps screaming…..past 150yds of Powerpro into the HI vis spectra backing. At this point I start getting a little nervous…cranked the drag down…Reel is heating up and still burning off line. I start palming. Slowed the fish, changed direction and gained some line. Got back on the Power pro after about 20 seconds. Sam clears the rigged rod and again the fish takes off….straight down. Dumps the PP again and into the Hi Vis I have about 150 yds PP and about 250 yds or so Hi Vis.) The Reddington AL12 drag SUCKS (knew that ahead of time but haven’t had the budget yet to swap out to a larger reel)!! I had about 10 lbs of pressure, if that. Anyway, palm the spool again to slow the fish, stops. I can feel tail beats in the rod down deep so I start working him up. The rod barely flexes at the tip, a lot of backbone on a small fish around 40-50 lbs. Fish takes off again, I take a gimbal shot to the peaches and pop……slack line. Fish broke 50 lb flouro leader half way down the leader. The break had a curl in the line but it was half way down so I think I had a wind knot from 2 pathetic casts and that caused a weakness in the line. After about 10 minutes of reeling back all the line I lost I sulked for a while and then we went lines in. Blue/Green over pearl Mushy on a 5/0 Aki, 4-5" long.
It was as if someone hit a light switch….no birds, no fish, nothing. All life disappeared. We trolled for a while, then decided to move a bit after 3 hours or so. 9AM we pull up to the second spot about 10 miles from the first after not seeing any life along the way. Just bored of running we decided what the hell, lets go lines in and play with some different spreads. Out goes the spread, water to ourselves with no other boats nearby. Headed S/SW down current at about 3.1mph water speed, 5.8 GPS speed. Literally 50 yds, not 5 minutes later and the Cedar plug chain behind the Out Rover bird goes off on Penn 9500. We let it go a second or two hoping for a double. Nothing hits so we slow the engines to idle speed and I start trying to slow the fish. Drag cranked down and my hand on the now hot spool and I can see parts of the PP I haven’t seen since I put an additional 300yd top shot on there last year. I get nervous, so Sam clears the spread and we turn to chase. Fish slows and is beat. Sam wires and tails. 50lber in the boat. Taped out at 41. Skunk is off, and….is the largest Tuna trolled to date. For a 50lber this thing screamed off a ton of line at about 15-20lbs of drag pressure. We were both surprised. Puked up a 15" squid just before coming to the boat.
Lines go back in on the same course. Not 5 minutes later the Repala Mag 30 goes off on a Penn 5500. Knowing we would have to chase (small reel for this) I cleared the spread immediately no trying for a double. Boat is turned, Sam slows the fish after more than half the spool is gone. Gains some line and the fish goes deep. We think this is a bigger fish because it takes some time to pull off the bottom. Sam gets the fish up after 10 minutes or so, foul hooked. Looked like the fish was hooked, pulled the hook, then caught in its side because the mouth, gills, and sides were all raked up. Shame to have to put that one back because it was basically dead anyway. Bleeding like a stuck pig and sank like a rock.
Lines in and again same down current course and the cedars went off, still only got about 200 -300 yds form the start point. Same size fish. Nothing for about ½ hour or more, turned around to go back to the start. Nothing up current, all strikes were down current. Did the same line s/sw from the start point. Again after about 15 minutes the Mag 30 went off. Got on the rod and after about 3 or 4 minutes fish slowed and pulled the hook.
Nothing the rest of the line, got to the end of that same route and Sam decided to change directions, head E/NE (I think) for about ½ hour and another rod goes off…Another fish in the boat, same 41” size range.
After that nothing for 2-3 hours. Ran back in to the first area we found fish on top. Found a pod of dolphins and about 10 boats trolling around it, through it, to it, in every direction. We settle in and after about 5 passes finally get a bump on the Mag 30 down deep. Fish pulls the hook before we even get on the rod. That was it for the day.
For what its worth…we ran a big black bar with 13” squids and 18” stinger and a rainbow bar out, a bird green machine way back, cedar chain behind the out rover bird, and a Mag30 down deep. Thanks a Ton for letting us borrow those bars, you know who you are:-% !!! Also had a home rigged white Bumper in the prop wash as a teaser that looked ugly and borderline embarrassing but ran beautifully, swimming motion in and out of the wash down 3-5ft!! Bars were ignored but, when the teaser was in and both bars we caught fish. Went down to one bar for another cedar chain or forgot to put the teaser out and we got nothing even in the same area, same speed, and same direction as previous fish. I honestly think they made a difference raising fish. Finally tally was 3 for 5 on the troll, a pulled flyrod fish and no Boofish which was nice.
Event of the day was on the run home at full speed a fin surfaced about 10 yards from the bow:eek: . By the time I yelled we had already hit it full speed. Big tail goes up and splashes down behind the boat. Relatively small basking shark just under the surface, not at the surface thank god, and no damage to the engine or prop. Got lucky.