6/14/2008 Big Tuna are in and we got one of the first ones!!

We headed out for the first tuna trip of 2008. Lines were off at 4:45AM and my friend Alan and Mate Eric and I headed for the bank. We found whales, bait and birds and set the spread, fishing the heavy stuff knowing there were likely to be some good fish in this first push of tuna heading north.  We worked the area through bubble feeding whales and ton’s of bait but no real tuna marks. Up in the tower now, I worked east a bit and went towards an area that had a several acres of birds looking busy but no obvious signs of whales. Finally I scratch a real fish and then a few minutes later another. Alan thinks he saw a boil back in the spread. Shortly thereafter a small pod of SBFT pop up so we know there are fish here. I am getting that good feeling when you think you are in the zone and I look back at the spread and see a pretty good boil and the port long rigger goes off and a 130 is singing pretty good! I am down from the tower and the guys are clearing lines and now the real test, I push the drag up to strike (about 45lbs) and we are still dumping Dacron backing, now about 200 yards of it, game on! Eric get’s on the fish and it starts coming to the boat pretty good, we get the splice back on the reel and it is obvious this is no 50” fish (nor a real monster). The rods bent pretty good and it is a standoff, every now and then the fish runs of the line against the drag, the reel is in low gear now and after 15 minutes I am starting to think is a poon fish and we start to make ready for the end game. We get it up around 70 feet and it wants no part of the boat and it shows it’s not done yet with a good strong run. Another 5 minutes and we have color and while the fish is still pretty fresh, the 130 is too much for it, maybe a bad combination. The bar is breaking the water and the fish is swimming a good 8 ft below the surface and I am looking for good shot with the poon and quite honestly I did not take a good one. The fish surged forward and I grazed it in the belly and poon kept going and the butt cap was all I had left in my hands. The fish went back down thirty feet and I got two 6 foot gaffs ready. The fish came up and I reached deep with a gaff and it hit home mid fish and as I lift Alan reached down with the second gaff and got a good head shot. We held on and got a tail rope on it and tied it off to a cleat. Not real pretty but we got it done, now the question was how big? We pulled the fish through the door and got out the tape. It was close but in the end the official length was 74 inches. It was not quite 7AM, an hour and half into the new season and we had not just the first tuna of the year but a commercial fish. We bled and towed the fish a while and started cleaning up the cockpit and getting organized.  We pulled the fish back in the boat and I gutted it out through the gill and we stuffed it with ice. It was too long for the in deck boxes and the tuna bag so we set it on top of the bag and covered it wet towels and rain gear. We got the name of a buyer from a friend and called him and found out where to land the fish. It was time to go for two!

We got set back up and I made my way back to my perch in the tower. We scratched three nice fish but no love. 10-15 minutes passed and I here Eric yell fish as the starboard long lets go and another 130  is dumping line about half way to strike. Lines are getting cleared I pushed the drag up to strike and I crank the reel to keep us tight as the fish is swimming with us. Once everything is settled down Alan gets on the rod and I tell him to keep it bent, we almost are back to mono. Then I hear him say I think he’s gone, I yelled crank hard and I put the boat in gear and go ahead hard, he is still reeling like mad and Eric say’s dad I think he’s gone the bars coming up to the surface. NO, it’s the fish and the rod bends again as I get out head of him and he goes deep after charging towards us. Low gear and we start working him up to maybe 50 feet and he turns tail and runs out a very impressive 50 yards on 45lbs of drag and then arcs around and is running abeam of the boat and I surged ahead again to get him back  off the quarter.  Twenty minutes in and we are getting the upper hand. Now reality hits me, we have a good fish on and no poon. I rig the larger gaff which had a welded ring on it with the dart line and am hoping for the best. We see color and the fish looks to be the equal or better than the first. The bar breaks the surface and Eric is ready to try to leader the fish to get it high enough to gaff. I leave the helm and grab the gaff and Eric gets the main line on the bar and lifts and in an instant the 400lb line parts on the up end of the stinger. Gone! Best guess is the line made contact with the rudder as the fish surged against Eric’s pull.  It’s just after 8AM and we are pretty spent but the tide change is within the hour and we decide to set them back out.  It is getting warm and the sun is bright so we are getting concerned about the fish but on the other hand there are some pods of school fish coming up and staying up way longer than they usually do.  A bit later we get a knock down and the 80 is tight but not to a tuna. We winch in a 30lb bass and set it free. We agree it’s prudent to go land the fish and pack it in at 8:45AM. An hour later we are tying up at the Gloucester seafood auction docks.


What a way to start the tuna season! Book your trip now to get in on the action.

4/20/2008 Great Cod Fishing!

We opened the 2008 season yesterday with a fantanstic day of Cod fishing on Stellwagen bank. We experience an a strong bite and by 1:30 the crew had their Cod limit with many fish in the teens. Over 500 fish were caught as we had to wade through many shorts but the bite was none stop and everyone went home with sore arms and shoulders. Jigs were preffered over bait as the bank was loaded with sand eels. There were a lot of whales on the bank and this early showing of bait is a great indicator of things to come this year. This the kind of bait that will bring and keep tuna around our waters through the season. Now is the time to book both ground fish and tuna charters. There are still some open dates in May and June.

2007 Wrap Up

2007 showed improved fishing in many areas and a few disappointments. We splashed the SWEET DREAM III in late March and when the weather allowed in April and May we experienced improved Cod and Haddock fishing on Stellwagen Bank. For the first time in years numerous sand eels returned to the bank and with them came Cod and Haddock. Many more whales were on the bank with Humpbacks breaching and bubble feeding from the spring right through November when our season ended. Find the bait, find the fish, was the general rule for the season, ground fish, stripers and tuna all included. We found good numbers of market sized cod right on top of the bank in 95 feet of water many days. It’s great catching them up in the shallow shoal water. Haddock were found on the north and eastern edges in water from 170 to 240 feet and hit both jigs and clam baits through the spring. Mid May saw the arrival of the Striped bass, first down in Cape Cod bay and then by June up around Cape Ann. Stripers were abundant first in Cape Cod bay and then around Race Point where they stayed most of the summer in easy reach of the first REEL SWEET, now being replaced by the new Jones Brothers 20 Cape Fisherman. Memorial Day weekend had great weather and saw Striped Bass catches of 30-40 fish per trip from 18” to 40”. Mackerel seemed to be few and far between in 2007 or maybe we just missed them while chasing Cod and Bass when they came through. We had hoped to catch them in numbers to put away for baits later in the year but it was not to be. June turned out to be an awesome month! Cod and Haddock were still around; the bass were in with some monster fish invading Stellwagen Bank chasing the sand eels. These larger fish were also found down and around race point and the back side of the cape.

The most pleasant surprise was in the second week of June when we saw the early arrival of Bluefin tuna. This was a result of the mild winter we had and the water temps in the mid 50’s; being warmer than usual. Our first trip for tuna was June 14^th and we ran down to the southwest corner of the bank and were rewarded with two tuna taken on the troll including a nice 64” fish. For the balance of June and into July we caught school Bluefin tuna averaging 48” from the back side of the cape up on to Jeffries ledge. There are always a few giants in this first push of fish heading north so wededicated a couple of the trips up north on Jeffries trolling with the 130’s and targeting giants. We were successful in putting the boat on fish and raised a few big ones but could not get the hook up. Once again the big fish did not stay around in any numbers and headed for Nova Scotia. We are hopeful that the new herring plans that shut down the pair trawlers that have decimated the large schools of herring in the gulf of Maine will have some positive effect soon. Without the large biomass of bait the large fish just will not stay. The 100lb fish are happy to eat sand eels but they will not sustain the Giants. Earlier I mentioned the return of large numbers of sand eels to Stellwagen Bank and their return made fishing for school tuna very productive from June to November in 2007.

July and August were all about tuna with most trips seeing at least 2-4 bites. We did an occasional bass and bluefish trip for the near shore crowd. The big highlight of August was fishing in the Big Game Battle out of Nantucket. The SWEET DREAM III placed 3^rd in this tournament, read all about it below.

Bluefish were everywhere from July to September. These fish were great on light tackle all around Cape Cod bay and Race Point. We see our share up north off halibut point in July and especially in September there were bruisers in Ipswich bay. A number of times we targeted bluefish to use as live baits for Giant Tuna and sharks.

The last couple of years have seen the advent of kite fishing for Giant Bluefin tuna with live bluefish as bait. This has come about for a couple of reasons. First it works and creates the most incredible surface strikes. Secondly, the number of dogfish in our waters has made the traditional method of chunking with herring and whiting nearly impossible. Fishing with live bluefish keeps the dogfish at bay and gives you a real shot at a fish of a lifetime. Large bluesharks and other pelagic sharks are also caught while fishing live bluefish.

October was a mix of tuna and a return to groundfishing. I like to fish Tillies Bank in the fall and this year was no exception. Twenty mile runs due east were rewarded with very good Haddock bites and with a good mix of Cod and Cusk and occasional Pollock. There were many cod in the 22” to 23 3/4” range which bodes well for more legal sized cod in 2008. The fall runs allow you to fill your freezer with great eating fillets for the winter.

Our last trip of the year was a frosty morning on November 11^th. We headed to the northwest corner of Stellwagen Bank for first light. We were greeted by dispersed groups of terns and sheerwaters and a few whales popping up here and there. The birds were not intense but you could tell they were hovering over fish and working between small groups of tuna. The late fall fish do not feed on the squid bars and plastics the way the early season fish do. For some reason they prefer real meat. On this trip we were armed with some real squid I had rigged to troll. We ran the squid on the long outriggers and trolled bars off the corners and short riggers. We started to see tuna porpoise randomly chasing bait. The key would be intersecting the rapidly moving fish at the right time. It took a couple of hours but the one of the long riggers pop as a tuna hit the squid bait and twenty minutes later a nice 52” fish was on the deck. The rigs went back in and about 20 minutes later a fish clobbered the black bar in corner about 40ft off the transom. It was a twin to the other fish and released. It was to be the last fish of the season as the weather got colder and windy and we smartly winterized the boat just before Thanksgiving.

2008 Outlook

I am optimistic for 2008. I think 2008 will see the best ground fishing we have had in a number of years. The 24” limit on Cod has had a few years to work and we caught a lot of just short fish in 2007. Many of those fish are of spawning size now, so we hope the stocks will start to recover and there will be more legal fish to keep. The haddock should continue to be strong. I expect the sand eels will return to Stellwagen Bank and with them the cod, haddock and tuna. The school tuna should be back with last year’s fish class now running 55-60” and well over 100lbs, that will some fun! The question is will we see a new younger class of fish along with them and as for the giants we will have to wait and see and hope. In the early push of fish in 2007 there were a good number of fish caught just below the 73” inch limit, those that return will be small giants in 2008. I expect to see more large striped bass in 2008. In mid January a 73lb Striper was taken in Virginia! Our largest in 2007 was 46lbs (which we released) with many fish in the 30’s. Again the return of ample bait is key to these fish getting larger and of course us doing our part by releasing the larger females to continue to spawn. I expect the Bluefish to be in great abundance in 2008 as in 2007 and these will delight top water light tackle anglers as well as supply us with needed baits in pursuit of Giants and pelagic sharks.

New for 2008, will be our brand new 20’ Jones Brothers Cape Fisherman. This is an awesome boat capable of fishing the flats and coastal waters. She will be armed for everything from light tackle spinning and jigging to tuna trolling. There is nothing like catching large fish from a small boat.

We are taking bookings for both boats and you don’t want to miss out on the best dates and tides for your preferred style of fishing. Drop us a line and reserve now. Check back for fish reports starting in April.

BIG GAME BATTLE 2007
The SWEET DREAM III competed in the 2007 Big Game Battle Tournement, the story is below. It's a bit long but a good read. Enjoy! If you would like to charter the SWEET DREAM III for this or any other tournement give us a call.

Here is the report from the Big Game Battle fished out of Nantucket Aug 17th and 18th. BGB is a point based tournament that assigns points to all pelagic species found in our canyons including BFT, YFT, billfish, wahoo, dolphin....The boats that win usually catch a number of each in multiple species.  We were 5th of 24 boats in 2006.

Leading up to the tournament man and Mother Nature threw us a curve ball. A week before departure the sea wall supporting the bridge house for the draw bridge on the Blyman Canal failed and Mass Highway declared the bridge would stay in the down position for about 6 weeks while they made repairs. This would mean we would have to go up the Annisquam River and around Cape Ann to go south and even to get fuel in Gloucester Harbor, 12 miles around Cape Ann plus the ride up the river. This would cost us 1.5 hours in running time plus wasted fuel. I made a contingency plan getting a transient slip at Browns inside Gloucester Harbor with the idea that we would run the boat around Wed afternoon and then be able to leave for points south pre-dawn on Thurs. On Tuesday I spent the day checking and topping fluids and changing filters making the boat ready for 4 days of serious offshore running and fishing. I also had a black bar rerigged and picked up a more tackle items at Fisherman’s Outfitter. Rumor on the dock was that bridge repairs were way ahead of schedule and it might be operational on Wed. Wed morning came and I called the bridge house and they said they would open at 3PM!! Noon came and I headed up to the boat to finish provisioning and get fuel and either run the boat around Cape Ann or go under the bridge. I hailed the bridge at 2:45 and he assured me he would be opening and so we fired her up and headed out the marina and down the canal. Sure enough at 3PM sharp he raised the bridge and we caught our first brake of the trip, you never fully appreciate something until they get taken away. So we fueled up at Roses where diesel was only $2.40/gallon and were back under the bridge and tied up in less than an hour. I hailed Browns and cancelled the slip.

Fast forward to 5AM Thursday morning and my son Eric, Pete Missick and Bob Mazzola departed Cape Ann Marina and pointed the bow south east, next stop the tuna grounds south of the BC buoy. We enjoyed calm seas and a beautiful sun rise over the NW corner of Stellwagen and cruised at an easy 26 knots. 75 NM later around 8:20 we stopped on some numbers supplied by Matt Zajac and drop the riggers and set the spread. The area is quiet and devoid of life save a few humpbacks cruising lazily. I hailed the Tammy Rose and Eric confirmed his general location and I make a move further south. A few boats show on the radar and we head into the direction of a small fleet and I recognize the silhouette of our sister ship and we set the spread. A few minutes pass and we have a fish in the rigs but no hook up. This situation repeats itself and then we have a knock down and fish on the afore mentioned re-rigged black bar and we are tight on the 50VSW. A short battle and we slide a 47" BFT through the door and then release it. We work east a bit into some feeding whales and we are tight on the 70 with Tony the Tiger. We release the fish and then the fog closes in and we are fishing blind but we work the area. We a have a fish in the rigs, a swing and a miss and then he comes back and piles on the black bar again. A bit nicer fish approaching 50" and to keep Peter happy knowing he will have sushi we sink the gaff in this one and set up to bleed out on the tail rope and get set up again. I save away a couple of way points on the Northstar and we fish a bit more and are tight again on the black bar but this time the drag is set too loose on the reel and the line is peeling out and not releasing out of the rigger clip. We are down on the spectra backing and Pete pushes the drag up and starts to lower the halyard and then it happens. The spectra line pops out of the clip and on the drop back must wrapped the rod tip because the next sound was a sickening snap with the 150lbs spectra parting, loosing fish, rig and mono header. Not the ending we were looking for heading into the tournament, losing a hot rig and putting a top rod out of commission. I decide we should pack it in make the run for Nantucket to see what repairs we can make and knowing the ride will be a bit slow in the fog. We are making about 18 knots for the first 10 miles and then the fog opens up as we approach Pollock rip channel and we can kick it up to 26 knots and head for Nantucket sound. The sound is a mess, 3-4 close chop out of the SW so we are beating right into it for the 15 miles across the sound. Just off the island there are serious 12M sail boat races going on and we pick our way through then and fall into line behind a ferry in the channel. I give a Ken Catch a call to find out where to try to grab some tackle to replace what we lost and the report is not good. First order is to fuel up, so we head to fuel dock and wait our turn behind the Dauntless at 72' sport fisherman also entered in the BGB. We take on 140 gallons at $4.40 a gallon, how can that be legal????????? We grab 40 pounds of cubes and a couple of blocks to replace what we used on the fish in the box. We check in and head to our slip and are tied up by 4PM. The guys start cleaning the boat and I head to Barry Thurstons and find the best I can do to replace the lost header is 1/4lb spool of 100lb pink ande, hardly the same as the 130lb Moimoi Diamond it is replacing and forget finding shell squid on the island, especially 13" black, it’s a good thing we have a second black bar.

The weather for the next two days is looking bad for Fri and Ugly for Sat. It's clear we will not be going to canyons and we will be lucky to fish east. Friday is calling for fog and SW 15-20 with 3-5's out east. We head to the captains meeting and renew some old friendships and get the general impression that of the 25 boats entered only the 72' Dauntless will make a run for the Canyons, everyone else will go east, including 2 45' Cabo's (one the Kerrinelli) , a couple of 50'+ Vikings, a 55' Buddy Davis and and 60' Hatteras (the Jessie). We choose not to enter the under forty foot calcutta given the poor weather forecast.

We re-rig the 50VSW with the Ande tying a couple of Biminis twists and using a quadruple loop to loop knot to joint in the new header and hit the sack with the plan to make the run east with some day light leaving the dock at 5:30. Dawn comes with the predicted fog and a SW breeze. We pick our way out of the harbor and get a pleasant surprise, the fog opens up to a 1/2 mile in the sound we can run at 26 knots but as we approach Monomoy that changes in a big way. Another larger boat has been running about 1 mile ahead of us on the radar. The fog closes in and I can't see the water in front of the bow rail, we have zero visibility. What's worse is the boat in front has slowed down in a big way and the gap is closing fast, so I back it down to headway speed to keep from climbing in his cockpit and to help distinguish him from the buoys. As we pick our way through Pollock rip and get it back up to 16kts as we could now see about 100 to 200 feet, maybe enough to swerve around a high flyer. I punch in the way point from yesterday with the knowledge there will be fish in the area but we will be fishing blind so we could be a half mile off the life and not even know it. I am about 1 mile short of my mark and I start having shearwaters flying with the boat. There are a lot of them and I know that is good. With the late start and slow run we pull back the throttles and it is about 8:15. As we come to rest and Eric is up in the tower setting out the riggers 3 humpback surface 20ft from the boat, that's got to be good! The fish finder is showing bait and some nice red marks!! The radar is almost clear, maybe 2 boats within 2 miles; we are alone and well hidden. We set the spread and 15 minutes pass with nothing, then a boil on the long black bar but no joy. A minute passes and another fish, same thing, he swings and missed, but he's back again and misses again, a fourth time up and I see the line come tight and snap, fish on! Clear the other lines and Pete i s on the first fish and we execute well and we are on the board with 100pts. We reset the spread and I hop up in the tower. From the tower I cannot see the long rigger baits that fog is so thick. We mark fish, I call it out, the long black pops again. I tell the guys to leave the rigs and for a minute and then the short rigger on the opposite side snaps and we are doubled and the second fish is a hot one. The guys are clearing and I climb down, Bob gets a belt and gets on fish one, I get the other belt and I get the hot one. Eric's got the controls and Pete has the pit. I let my fish stay away from the boat and Bob works his in. 15 minutes later Bob's is slide through the door and then released. I go to work on mine and it is kicking my ass. I go to low gear on the 50SW and at 22lbs of drag I am feeling it more than the fish. Another 15 minutes and finally color. I give the order to get the gaff and take the fish thinking it's got to be 60"s. Bob's leaders and Pete sinks the gaff and a 49" fish comes through the door. You've got to be kidding me! That fish was the fish from hell but it will make great sushi. I call in the double and we see the Jesse alongside working a fish. We set up again and go down to fishing just fishing 6 bars and are pretty much raising and hooking up every 10 minutes. We have one hook up and are clearing the spread and have a bar hanging from the rigger 10ft from the boat and a tuna comes up and tries to crush it, I am almost glad he did not get the hook but it was something to see! We call in fishes 4, 5 and 6 and we have our BFT limit of 6 for 600pts for the day. The Jesse is catching well and gets six also and heads in. The Kerrinelli is on seen and catching and other boats are arriving to try to get in on the hot bite. We fish for a while longer and boat 3 more for a total of 9 and have counted at least 15 bites and boils and it's only just after noon. Not bad for less than 4 hours of lines in the water! The seas are now 5-7 footers and it is getting a bit sporty to say the least. I call it a day and we pick our way through the fog at 16 knots and it finally opens up about 5 miles east on Monomoy. The sound sucks as usual but we have sun and make our way back to Nantucket and fuel up. We are the first on the scoreboard with 600pts. We clean up, have a beer and wait for the others. Jesse is back and on the board with 600 also. We clean our fish and Ken Catch stops by for a beer. Most boats are back and the buzz is that the Dauntless got a Blue Marlin at Veatch Canyon and a yellow and a couple of albies and some mahi and is leading day one with 880pts, we are tied with the Jesse for second and the Kerrinelli has 400 in third.

The forecast for Sat has gone to hell, a strong cold front approaching with thunderstorms and wind from the northwest at 20-30 with higher gusts, 4-6's out east and you don't want to even hear the canyon forecast.

'Day 3, Second day of BGB.

The forecast weather for Sat was bad as we prepared to get some sleep. A last check of the weather radar showed the cold front and associated thunderstorms crossing long island heading our way. Winds were forecast to be 15-20NW increasing to 20-30. My hope was maybe the wind would not come that quick and we could get out ahead of it and catch a few fish quick and muscle our way back. I set the alarm for 4:30 with a plan for lines off by 5AM. Around 1AM I was woken by thunder and flashes of lighting as the front passed through. Around 3 I heard water lapping against the hull and the felt boat ping ponging on the spring lines not a good sign. I only dozed a bit after that and was out surveying the docks at 4:30. Way to quiet, most boats still in their slips and not any one stirring but we made ready to give it a shot. I called the Tammy Rose on the radio and he was heading across the sound near Monomoy and there was not much wind (why were the flags starched out here?) Eric gave me the pep talk, "your in a tournament you have to fish!". We made the ready for a rough ride and stowed and lashed things down and we were lines off as false dawn gave us a little light. As we cleared the docks, Hookem Danno a 48' Ocean pulled out in front of us. I called him the radio and he shared he had gotten the skunk in day one and I told him I had a good idea where the fish were if you could get there. We agreed I would run out in front of him once we cleared the inlet on our way to Pollock rip channel. We turned the corner at Brant Point and 20 knots of NW hit us right in the face. The channel was frothing with 3-4' coming straight in. Hookem Danno cleared the no wake zone and throttled up and all you saw was white water coming over his top sides.

In a minute or so I pushed up the throttles getting up to about 20-21 knots taking enough spray into the windshield to make it hard to see with the wipers running. At the end of the breakwater we experienced some 6-8' standing waves as we punched through and I was thinking what it would be like 6 hours from now when the wind really picked up with 20 miles of fetch. We pressed on about another mile clearing the entrance buoy and them some each wave about 3 seconds apart bringing another shower of raw water on to boat. I started do calculations as to how it would take at this rate to get were we needed to go, and thought about taking it on the beam as we ran east clear of any land for 20 miles and lastly having to send someone into the tower to set out the and retrieve the riggers and I eased back on the throttles and started a 180 degree turn and looked at the guys as said it wasn't going to happen for us today. I saw general relief in each of their faces and got acknowledgement that the right decision had been made. I called Hookem Danno and wished him well. We slogged our way back through the entrance and channel and back into the dock area. I told the guys we would fish on our way home to take some of the sting out of not fishing today. As we returned, Snow Bear (a 29' CC w/ twin 250's) turned the corner and I waved them down and told them about the conditions but they needed to see it for themselves and off they went. We made our way back to slip and tied up. I went for a walk on the docks, more life around and few more boats made ready to give it a go. At that point Snow Bear pulled into their slip covered with spray, they had aborted as soon as they turned the corner at Brant Point put still took a drenching. I learned the Kerrinelli had left around 3:30 AM and beat the weather out and I new Capt JC would be on the fish as the day before. There was life on the Jessie and they said they were going to give it a shot and off they went. We learned that t he Dauntless had left at 2:30 for the canyons, with all due respect to a magnificent boat with 2 seasoned Captains I questioned their judgment to head into what would be a gale out that way. So we went out for breakfast and settled into a cleaning, shopping and waiting game to see what would happen. Our best estimate was that 6 boats were actually out trying to fish, the majority never left the dock. Around 10AM the Jesse returned to the dock, they had made it to Monomoy and then turned back, with that result a no worse than a top 5 finish was pretty much assured for us. About 1:30 the Kerrinelli returned. They had lines in at 5:30 and got 5 fish pretty quick and then had to work for the 6th but got it around 10:15 and then headed in. It took them around 3 hours to get back in a 45' Cabo and Capt. JC lamented it was a bone crushing ride home and near impossible fishing conditions once the sun came up. They had a total of 1000 pts and it was now a question of what would the Dauntless do? They pulled into the dock around 3PM. They had gone to Hydro, experienced 10ft seas, over a 6 hour ride home. The results, 2 mahi to the boat (10 pts each) and a short encounter with a possible blue marlin, their total 900 points. The Mad Max pulled in, a 55' Buddy Davis, 2 BFT plus 2 from the day before. Hookem Danno returned with 1 fish and that was about it. We enjoyed a few beers, fresh sushi, Cajun grilled tuna and good company on the docks as the wind abated late in the afternoon. Had the front come 12 hours earlier or later day 2 could have been fished.

The awards banquet started at 7PM at Capt Tobbies. The trophies and give aways were lined up and a nice slide show from last year played on a the rear wall. A nice buffet was set up with kabobs of steak tips and shrimp and other assorted good food. Don O'Neil was the MC and we all lamented the lost day of fishing but all were in good spirits as the spirits flowed. Each boat received a nice accolade and gift (handheld VHF, Survival Suit, Lures etc) and this led up to the top 3.

In third place there was a tie, Sweet Dream III and Jessie each with 600 pts. In second Dauntless with 900 pts and Kerrinelli winning first with 1000 pts based on their early morning run east ahead of the worst of the weather. And the Calcutta’s....Kerrinelli won the over 40' pot and had I participated we would have nailed the under 40'...another lesson learned.

Day 4 - Back to Gloucester

We awoke to a clear day with light wind and were lines off at 5AM. The plan to make up a bit for the lost day and fish out east on the ride home. The ride was easy and uneventful; we had plenty of company coming by Monomy, many boats making up for the last couple of days of poor weather. We headed back towards our numbers and about 4 miles off the radar was showing 25-30 targets right on our 12:00. I really don't like to fleet fish and I know that many boats will put the fish down so I started looking for an alternative. About 1.5 miles short of the fleet I saw a few whales and about 15 busy shearwaters, looking good to me I throttled back and the guys went to work setting the spread. We had the two long riggers out and I climbed into the tower and lined up on the birds about 1/4 mile away. The guys got a short rigger in the water and Eric had the other in his hand and I called out solid red marks on the fishfinder in the tower. Moments later the port long rigger popped and the 50VSW was signing our song. Pete fought the fish to boat and it was a bit smaller (42") and we released it. We reset the spread and I went up in the tower and went looking for my feathered friends. I saw them about 1/2 mile away and worked in their direction, I started marking bait and an occasional fish, I looked back to see a nice boil in the spread but no knock down, a minute or so later another fish in spread and this one did not miss. Bob was on the rod and we wanted one more fish for steaks. We did the dance and Eric planted the kill shot and pulled a 49" fish through the door. We cleaned up and went back at it. The birds had dispersed and but I decided to work back along our track line, about1/2 hour passed and I started to see some life and soon turned it into a another fish on Tony the Tiger. I was on the rod, and after ten minutes we released what would be the last fish of the trip. We worked the area for a while but it was clear the bite was off now and I was ready to he ad north. I said my good by's to other friendly boats in the area and headed north. It was still a bit lumpy heading into the remnants of the northerly blow and we launched the boat of few times (thank goodness for rev limiters) but we were in good spirits and had some fun with it. A few miles north of the BC we can into some whales and bait and gave it look for a short while but there weren't any tuna with them (then). We then ran up the back side, checked out the fleet Peaked Hill Bar, it was pretty quiet, not enough wind to fly a kite at that point. We hit eastern point around 3:00 and I idled through the harbor while Peter quartered the fish. A half hour later we were under the bridge and short thereafter tied up and doing the final wash down and unloading.

The trip was a lot of fun even with the poor weather, we made new friends, learned new things and had the best tuna bite I ever had and it came at the right time. Time to start preparing for next year and still looking for that Giant to top off what has been a productive year so far.

It seems trivial but fish where the fish are and it's all about the bait, and lastly don't ever run by working shearwaters!! Tight lines and fair winds to all!

Capt Bruce