1 Attachment(s)
East of Chatham, Regal Sword 9.30.12
A few weeks back I posted in the "First World Problems" thread in the padded room that it looked like I may go the whole season without a tuna. I made a trip to to Hydrographer Canyon in Late June that produced a few mahi but no yellowfin. A few trips out to Stellwagon where we missed our shots, never came tight and made it home tail between our legs, sans bluefin. Life got in the way as the summer progressed, missed a few more canyon trips b/c of my wedding and honeymoon so it looked like a tuna free summer for me. First time in a long time...
Fast Forward to this past Thursday, got the call that the bite east of Chatham was going off. A buddy boat had 16 bites and got 14 to the boat. Fish were good sized, upper 40's to the mid 60's (inches, not pounds).
Our plan was set, we would leave the dock in Falmouth by 430, clear the harbor and push east the approx. 55 miles to the grounds east of Chatham. The fun part was that my buddy and I both had to keep our respective admirals happy Saturday night so we would be leaving from Boston, meaning the Alarm went off at 2:45.
The drive south was nice, the sky was bright and the air was still, looked like we might have a nice ride out to the grounds. Over the Sagamore and past the Cape Code Ballet the weather turned, wind picked up and slight drizzle started. Loaded the boat with 200lbs of ice, at least 12 rods, beers, junk food and additional junk you bring. Ride out sucked, the sound was mixed up chop, wind and rain. Shit happens.
Not too long after first light we were on the grounds and lines went in. Ran our standard 7 rod spread. Two flat lines in the wash, a spreader bar and skirted ballyhoo on each outrigger and another ballyhoo way back and center. 10 minutes or so into the troll the Port Side Rigger running the ballyhoo popped and we were on. My buddy stayed on the wheel, we strapped the third guy into the harness and I rigged the harpoon and got the gaffs ready after clearing the rest of the lines. Fish was strong, for the first 20 minutes or so I am pretty sure it didn't realize it was hooked as it swam towards the boat and didn't show much balls. Once it saw the boat it ran, then dove then showed the power a big ass tuna has. After that run we got it back to the boat and I was trying to figure out if I could get a clean poon shot. We were in a 31 Center Console so the pit was a bit cramped and I wasn't comfortable that I could get a clean shot so I decided to gaff it. Got it boatside my buddy had a wrap on the leader and I got a good look at the fish, fuck probably should have gone with the poon... Anyways I knew we had one shot to make this happen and I got a clear gaff shot right in the side of the head that stopped the beast dead in its tracks. Another gaff in the head and got it over the gunnel. Taped out to 70 inches tip of the nose to the fork of the tail. A quick bleed and gut and into the fishbox while we reset the spread.
Trolled around for another 4 hours and couldn't get a sniff. The few boats that had gotten a fish all got them on the morning slack so we decided to stick it out until the afternoon slack tide. Pounded away and eventually got another bite. I strapped in and we had the fish boatside pretty quickly. Took a quick measurement and got a tag in the fish and released her to swim another day. We decided to try to find the actual wreck of the Regal Sword that the area is known for and see if we could pull something off the structure.
http://www.wreckhunter.net/DataPages/regalsword-dat.htm
Found the wreck, trolled right over it and it had a few marks on it that looked promising, another line went off...
After a few minutes the fish came to the surface so we knew we likely had a shark since tuna usually go deep. Got a look a nice fin and we were thinking mako. Once we got it under the boat it was clear we had a blue shark, so we cut the leader and let her go.
All in all, a great day on the water some nice steaks for the grill and got the tuna monkey off my back for the year. Now its time to head upstate and get some steelhead.
Just for reference, I'm 6'1 and well over 200lbs..
