August 29th 2022
Congrats to Matthew for taking down a new boat record. It was a full boat with Matt, JP, Tony, Gina and me. We pushed off at 3:30 grabbed some bait and hit Moriches Inlet around 4:45. The ride out was miserable! I mean miserable! We were heading SE and the waves were coming from the SE. They weren't big, they were just too close. I lost my autopilot the other day so it made the trip out that much more miserable. About 30 miles out we run into a pod of dolphin. We land some good casts and sure enough we are rewarded with a nice 50lb YFT to start our day. We tried to stay with the dolphin however they were moving too fast. So, we continued our trek SE where we found some hi-flyers. Our bait never stood a chance . The ride out was worse on them than us. We managed a few mahi but nothing to write home about.
Of course the wind drops out and the ocean slicks out. Terrible trolling conditions. Up on the troll we found plenty of bait balls but no life. Around 1pm the wind started to blow. We were close to picking up and running else where when we spotted a surface explosion. As we got closer we could see tuna feeding on the surface. Here we go! Nope. We trolled right by them and couldn't hook up. I swung the boat around and headed back to the spot. Nothing, until I spotted more surface activity a few hundred yards away. Play the video below and you will see what we were now looking at. We trolled right by them . No hook ups. However right before I'm about to double back we get bit. Three on at once quickly became just one. These were angry fish. It took a while to get the fish in the boat but we did. The bite was on. Before we pulled the plug we boated 2 more fish. Including Gina landed her biggest tuna to date at 66lbs. Once again JP worked his butt off. The kid is a beast!
I posted a strange photo of the crew trying to help Tony on with a belt. I just thought it was funny. It shows you how much bigger Tony is than the rest of us. Tony is the person responsible for my offshore addiction. Forever grateful.
I don't even have my outriggers on my boat. Just about everything I run is Sterling. I use Sterling because it catches fish.
