Posted on August 31st, 2010 by captain
Thursay – Saturday Report
This week’s Noreaster was a bit of a pain in that we had to cancel/reschedule a bunch of trips, but there were some good parts about it as well. One – we needed a break, and as much as you don’t want to cancel any trips during the busy season, sometimes you just need sleep. Second, a good noreaster can hit the “reset” button on the ocean by turning the water over, and getting the fish back on the feed.
The combination of the full moon and the Noreaster did just that as things picking back up and the Fall fishing conditions are just starting .
Thursday – we ran a 1/2 day Striper trip with a fun group from California that are spending the week on vacation in Orleans. The week of North wind pushed a ton of bait onto the beach between Sandwich and Barnstable so it was nice to have good fishing with a very short run. We ended up fishing the outer Channel at Barnstable, and there were big schools of Bass stacked up on the edges. They were tight to the bottom, so we had to jig – but it was well worth it. Customers got their limit and we released a bunch as well – overall a really fun afternoon.
Friday – We headed offshore with a 1/2 Tuna 1/2 Bass trip. Commercial Striper season is over, so our bait guy is back in business. It was nice to come down and have a keeper trap filled with live Pogies. Got set-up on the Bank in an area with alot of bait and big marks on the machine – this was the best the Bank has looked in about a month. On our second drift, we had a minke whale swim right through our balloons. In the middle of telling the customers that’s a good thing, the tuna hang with the whales, the long balloon went off. Long story short, the Fish was a freight train, and dumped 2/3 of an 80 Wide with 40lbs of drag on the first run while we were backing down at about 6 knots. Unfortunately, the fish chafed off on the leader. Live by the light leaders – die by the light leaders – it was a heck of a ride while it lasted, good to have a real Giant on for a bit.
That was our only tuna for the day – they guys really just wanted to bend some rods, so we headed in to the shoals to Bass fish. We jigged up a few keepers, shorts, and big blues – overall not great fishing, but we made a day of it.
Sunday – Great trip with one of our favorite customers. The Ruch family came back again this year on their annual trip from Buffalo, and we had a great day. Last report I mentioned things lining up for the big bass run close to home, and they definately have. We fished tight to the beach at Sandwich, in less than 20′ of water, and despite the crowd of knuckleheads, we had a great day. 10 good fish, and 4 were between 25 and 30 lbs (on a real scale – all the guestimates at the dock were alot more). We also broke off 2 will keep me up at night for quite a while. Overall the bite was slower than we expected, and alot of boats went home skunked. But given the number of fish on the screen when they turn on for real, it will be insane.
Tags: bluefin tuna fishing, cape cod bay fishing, cape cod fishing, cape cod fishing charters, cape cod fishing report, cape cod striper charter, cape cod striper fishing, Cape Cod Tuna Charter, cape cod tuna fishing, laura jay charters, rigging for bluefin tuna, sandwich fishing, sandwich fishing charter, striper fishing, tube and worm, tuna fishing
Posted in Reports | Comments Off on Laura-Jay Striper and Tuna Report
Posted on May 20th, 2010 by captain
I spent some time on the linewinder at the shop the other day getting ready for tuna season, so I thought I would share how I spooled up.
My caveat as always with these things – this is how I do it, there are lots of right ways, this is just what I’ve found to work well on the Laura-Jay.
First I spooled 2 Fin-Nor Santiago 50’s – these are the 50 standards, not the wides. Each reel took 450 yards of 130lb Jerry Brown Hollow core, this is connected via 7ft of chinese finger cuff spice to 100 yard top shots of Momoi Daimond 80lb line (Brillinat Blue). 130 JB is cheaper and easier to spice than the 80 and capacity isn’t an issue.
Next I spooled 2 Fin-Nor 50 Wides – I also spooled each of these with 450 yards of JB 130, but I put a significantly longer top-shot (approx 300 yds) of the 80 lb Diamond (Daimond significantly overtests, so I think of this as essentially 100lb mono). With the extra capacity, these are generally my long rigger rods – the standards have Plenty of capacity, but I like to put each rod in the same position in the spread each day.
Finally, I rigged my Kite Rod – this isn’t this line that controls the kite, rather a separate 50W combo used just for fishing the live bait. Braid flies much easier than mono (less wind resistance) – so I set up 1 50 Wide just for this.
I backed the reel with approx 400 yds of 80 lb Cortland Dacron, and then top-shoted the reel with 300 yards of JB 130lb braid (connected via loop to loop – with slices on each end). The terminal end of the line has a spliced loop where I can change short wind on leaders (30′) and then crimp on my hook for the bait.
I’ve got a couple more to do, but that was enough for 1 day.
Finally the picture is what I call the O Sh*t mark – I constantly hear stories of people “getting spooled” – but in reality it just doesn’t happen very often. Many anglers, (myself included) start getting nervous when they see the spool getting thin with a hot fish running off – but we normally have a heck of alot more capacity than we think.
So the Oh- Sh*t mark is simply a 6 foot section on line colored in with black sharpie – marked off 100 yards from the end of the spool. If you see this, time for some evasive maneuvers – but you still have room to save the day.
Hope that helped somebody getting ready for the season.
-Jay
Tags: 50w for bluefin, Cape Cod Tuna Charter, cape cod tuna fishing, Fin-nor, Fin-nor Santiago, rigging for bluefin tuna, spooling braid for tuna, tuna fishing
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