july 14th-16th 2022

Offshore July 14th-16th

Thursday July 14th,

Once again I found myself aboard The Three Privateers. It was a tough day. I felt that we should have caught more fish. We were once again snake bitten by flat slicked out seas. Not the best trolling conditions. Ed's buddy Timmy had a nice YFT. We also added an under BFT to the fish box. We released another rat yellow, a bluefish and called it a day. Whether I catch fish or not I always enjoy fishing on the Three Privateers.

July 15th and 16th

My buddy Bobby invited me out on his brother-in-law's beautiful Viking (Osprey) to do an overnighter on the mid-shore grounds. Before the sun went down we had two YFT in the box. We didn't run into any feeds. Several times it looked like it was going to break wide open but it didn't happen. We were on the troll by 4:15 the next day. It didn't take long. I happened to be the first on on the rod. It felt like a good fish. After 20 minutes we get our first look at what I thought was going to be big yellow. With the use of a hand held spotlight we got our first glimpse. Damn it! It was a mako (150lb-200lb). The mako broke the line at the boat and we quickly started to put lines back out. It's prime time, morning's first glow. Before all the lines are out we are tight again. The reel is getting smoked. In fact Tim who was up on the rod commented that the reel was hot to the touch. We cleared all the lines and Pete started to back down. I felt bad for Tim, he was on the rod for 45 minutes. We figured it was another shark or a giant BFT. Both had to be released. Boy were we surprised when we realized it was a porpoise. Thankfully it wasn't hooked. The wide-tracker was wrapped around its tail. We were able to untangle it. It swam away unharmed. Crazy way to start the morning. The mako and the porpoise cost us valuable trolling time. Once we got back on the troll we were able to find a couple of NAT GEO type feeds. We were back at the dock at noon with a total of 5 yellowfins in the box. Thank you to Bobby and Pete for the generous trip. What an incredible boat!