North Shore Anglers Club

Huntington, NY

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  -Washington Irving

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Thank you to everyone who contributed to the 2009 Tournament For the Troops!

To view photos from the event please click here:

Montauk TFTT 2009

 

 

 

 

Tuna Fishing - Chatham, MA - August 7, 2007

 

Back to home

    Orleans, MA - 4:15 a.m.  We were supposed to be down at the dock by 4:45am, this proved to be no small task.  Working on three hours sleep, we wolfed down some Jimmy Dean's egg sandwiches, packed up the cars, and hit the road.  Arriving down at the Chatham fish pier about a half an hour late, we loaded onto the boats.  We arranged two charter boats for 10 hours of bluefin tuna fishing.  I hopped onto the first boat, the Marilyn S, ran by Captain Bruce (www.sportfishingcapecod.com).  Fishing with me were MH, RB, JG, and SD.   The other boat, Magic Charters, ran by Captain Mike (www.capecodstriperfishing.com), was manned by WG, SB, MV, and CG.  We left the dock around 5:15am to the sound of Captain Bruce cursing about our tardiness.   

     Captain Bruce headed towards an area where he had recent success.   The weather was warm, extremely humid, and foggy.  The fog was so thick,  we could barely see 20 yards in front of us.  It was an eerie experience, as we could not see much but we could hear the whales and other sea life making plenty of noise.  As we went along the different animals who were making all of these noises started to appear.  We ran into humpback whales, porpoises, huge schools of sand eels, birds, and hundreds of sand sharks just swimming around on the surface.  It was amazing! 

Humpback Whale

 

    If there was this much sea life there had to be tuna in the area.  We put out five squid rig bars and began to tow them around.  Around 8:00am one of the Shimano 50's started screaming and the line started peeling off.  It was a tuna, and it was a huge one!  MH put on the belt and grabbed the rod.  Seeing how much line the fish had taken out and how hard it was fighting Captain Bruce estimated the fish to be about 60 inches and around 100-125lbs.  MH fought the fish for about 10 minutes and as it neared the boat we were all excited to finally get a glimpse of it.  Unfortunately we weren't so lucky....  the tuna continued fighting and eventually popped off the hook.  We were all pretty disappointed that it got away but at least we knew there were fish out there.  We put the rigs back out and started trolling again.  

JH and MH looking for tuna. 

MH fighting 100lb tuna.

 We trolled around the same area for another few hours but could not get any more fish to bite.  Captain Bruce decided to make a run south to an area called the "Regal Sword".  As soon as we got there and reset the gear the fish finder started beeping constantly marking bait and fish.  We were completely surrounded by the sounds of birds and whales splashing about, the tuna had to be there.  After a half hour of trolling we heard the sound we were all hoping to hear, the shimano 50 was screaming again!  This time JG was up to bat.  Having just recovered from gout, JG had not been feeling well all morning but was up for the challenge.  

JG before picking up the rod.

JG fighting tuna.

JG took the rod and began reeling.  He gained a lot of ground on the fish but after about ten minutes he was spent.  I grabbed the extra belt and jumped in.  The fish began peeling out line again as I tried my best to keep the line coming in.  As I fought the tuna,  a humpback whale  swam right over my line.  I've never seen anything like it.  After another five or ten minutes we had the fish within sight.  My arms were burning but I did not want to let this fish go, so we dropped the gear on the shimano and I started reeling as hard as I could.  Once the fish was in range RB and Captain Bruce let the gaffs fly and pulled the fish on deck.  Success!  We had a fish on the boat and it was huge!  It was 46 & 1/2 inches long and weighed about 45lbs.  It would be a NSAC record for about 1 hour.

JG after getting sick over side.  He battled tuna and gout and beat them both.

JH fights tuna.

1 in the box!

1st tuna landed.

JH fights tuna. (Nice shirt)

JH and JG with tuna.

MH and JH with tuna.

RB and JH with tuna.

After catching the first fish we were pumped.  We set out the gear again and waited for the next bite.  We didn't have to wait long.  About an hour later we got another bite and the same reel started screaming again.  All three fish bit on the same rod and same black squid bar.  In about two minutes all of the other rods were reeled in, the deck was clean, and SD had the rod in his belt with the fish  on its way in.  As he was reeling, another humpback whale swam over the line... it was incredible.  We thought he was going to reel the fish all the way to the boat but these fish are tough and it eventually wore him out.  SM finally tagged out and RB grabbed the rod.  RB fought the fish the rest of the way and MH and Captain Bruce professionally gaffed the fish and pulled him on board.  This tuna was even bigger than the first!  At 48 inches and about 50lbs it was a new NSAC record.  

SD before picking up the rod.

SD mid-fight - "Cut me!"

RB fights tuna.  

RB/SD's tuna.

RB with tuna.  

SD with tuna. 

After the second fish we continued trolling for another hour or so but didn't have any more action.  That was fine with us because we had each fought a tuna and had plenty of tuna in the ice box to cook up for dinner.  

Other crew on the way in. (SB, WG, CG, MV) 

MH, JG, JH, and Capt Bruce on way in. 

We got back to the Chatham Fish Pier and met back up with the second charter.  They had gotten about five bites on their rigs and caught one fish.  MV was the lucky angler who caught a nice 40 inch fish that weighed about 35-40 lbs.  

The captains cut our fish up into quarters and we went back to the house to cook them up.  We cooked up some teriyaki style on the bbq and ate some sushi style.  It was some of the best fish I have ever eaten. After filling up on tuna we cut the rest up into steaks and threw them in the freezer.  

What a day... can't wait for next year.

-JH

Freezer full of tuna. 

 

 

Captain Bruce paying homage to the Tuna by eating its heart.  

To visit Captain Bruce's website click on the link below:

www.sportfishingcapecod.com

 

 

 
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Last updated: November 02, 2009.