East of Chatham, Regal Sword 9.30.12

[Sagamoron]

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..

[mushmouth]

CONGRATS! and nice read too, thanks for putting it together.

There's got to be a pose with a nice size tuna like that to make it look more badass. Maybe not the rifle pose everyone with an albie crouches into, but maybe with it cut open you could wear it like a hat. Next time...

[schwerty]

Good read! Damn that thing looks tasty. Some day I'm gonna get out there and give it a shot.

[Sagamoron]

CONGRATS! and nice read too, thanks for putting it together.

There's got to be a pose with a nice size tuna like that to make it look more badass. Maybe not the rifle pose everyone with an albie crouches into, but maybe with it cut open you could wear it like a hat. Next time...

Hard to get a Hero Shot, fish was well over 200lbs...I've got some cool pics of 50lbers but this one was a bit more cumbersome.
I like the hat theme.

Hoping to get into the albies this weekend. are you fishing RI this weekend?

[mushmouth]

Will be off Montauk tomorrow, far west/south mass shore friday night/saturday, then i don't know where for sunday into monday. it's my first multi-day excursion in years and i can't wait...

[DeathVan]

One armed curling a monster by the tail = Badass in my book

-looks like you could put Luke Skywalker in that Tauntaun



*please edit for actual pic, not thumbnail. too pretty to be so tiny

[warthog]

Come on people- stop marking that little check mark that makes it retrieve remotely, and it will download full sized.

[lionelhutz]

Now I'm hungry. Stunning fish.
(Tell me you kept and ate the collar)

[Sagamoron]

Now I'm hungry. Stunning fish.
(Tell me you kept and ate the collar)

You know, its funny. I'm not a huge fan of fish, but I do like trying to roll our own sushi.

I took a bunch of Toro, and a bunch of nice sized steaks for Mrs Sagamoron and her mom who was visiting. Its funny how I can leave and fish for 18 hours and not catch any shit as long as the cooler is full when I return... must be their Swedish blood. She even said she would take any unused mackeral from the livewell....filthy

That being said, I'll take yellowfin over bluefin any day.

[VTeton]

With the new boat and what may be an awesome summer to fish thanks to Covid, I'm thinking of rigging the boat for Chatham and south of the vineyard. Hopefully I'll be into these guys in a few weeks.

[Core Shot]

Weird bump.

Every time I see huge tuna, I wonder how long it takes to grow that large, and Ask are there many left in the modern age of gps and sonar and social media.

[VTeton]

Here Fishy!

[VTeton]

Regal Sword at it again!

[happytimefunbox]

FKNA those are beauts clark!

[VTeton]

Still Yummy!!

[VTeton]

Bunch of Schoolies, kept one, sent the rest packing.

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[VTeton]

BBQ TUNA cheeks and some seared steaks.

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[The Suit]

Bunch of Schoolies, kept one, sent the rest packing.

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What's the consensus spread these days out in the shipping lanes? I haven't fished there since the late '90s when we pulled three huge spreader bars that were such a pain in the ass.

[VTeton]

What's the consensus spread these days out in the shipping lanes? I haven't fished there since the late '90s when we pulled three huge spreader bars that were such a pain in the ass.

We were South of the Vineyard and ran a 7 rod spread with two small bars, two skirted ballyhoo, deep diver and 2 small daisy chains.

Chatham uses a lot of live bait for giants and still the bars for medium fish.

I had never run 7 rods at a time before on my boat. No tangles either.

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[The Suit]

Chatham uses a lot of live bait for giants

Do they chum for them when they live bait? I remember the giants moving around so fast there was no way you'd be able to get a live bait in front of them.

Dealing with a big spread gets easier with practice. I mostly fish for billfish in the Pacific nowadays. Our typical sailfish spread is three teasers and four hooked baits. If we think there's a blue marlin around we'll switch one of the flatline hooked baits out for a big teaser.

If we find a big piece of floating junk with dorado and/or bonito around it we'll catch a couple bonito and live bait with them. It's pretty rare, but when we find that there's a pretty good chance we'll get a shot at a blue marlin.

[VTeton]

I have chummed in Nova Scotia but not in Chatham yet. I'm sure some do.

We caught a black Marlin on a 24ft boat using one penn 130 and a single hook. Funny to go fishing like that vs back in the states with a huge spread.



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[VTeton]

Back at it!! 80lb White Marlin and some Mahi for dinner.

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[The Suit]

Back at it!! 80lb White Marlin...

You can't trust whitey.

Where'd you go? A canyon south of the islands I assume?

[Core Shot]

Back at it!! 80lb White Marlin and some Mahi for dinner. [

Well, there’s your wife’s tits. Now you don’t have to gtfo!

Nice fish

[VTeton]

Not all the way to the Canyons, maybe 20 miles north of Veatch. Baby steps on the boat, may run to Canyons next trip.

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