Lots of big tuna today!
Capt. Rich Antonino
November 9, 2009
Stellwagen Bank - Saltwater Fishing Report
What can I say about today? With the crew from Okuma coming out to fish on the Black Rose Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and with bad weather rolling in and out....It was forecast to be really bad on Wednesday, so the writer and cameraman from The Fisherman held off until Thursday... We spent the morning at my house assembling rods and new reels, getting all of the gear set up for our trips, whatever we could get in.
By 10:30, we were at the dock ready to give it a shot. It was still blowing decent from the NW, but the winds were dying down. I figured that we'd take our time getting out there and that we'd have a good ride back. Little did I know was that we'd get ourselves in the middle of a tuna bite that we'll never forget. (and that the ride out would smooth out nicely). We made it out at 24 mph comfortably. Upon reaching the grounds, we were all alone. No one else out there (one other boat got out there later, Brew-T-Ass, and helped us out big time with some supplies. Thanks!) Solo out there, having a blast. We hit the same areas as yesterday, finding whales and similar baits... The first hookup was me, on the Cedros Jigging Spinning Jigging rod and Salina 80. I nailed the fish on a Stingo-fish jig (gold) and I was in for a battle. I kept trying to pass the rod off to everyone, but they just laughed at me. My own just dessert. I know I've beaten up some customers on fish this year, and I was no different. A little more than 30 minutes and we had a really fat 65" fish on the deck. I had tried in Florida to break this rod while fighting a fish and I just can't do it. It's a fiberglass blank and I gave it everything I had. Very cool battle.
Mike Batta, the regional sales rep for New England Okuma Sales, was next. And next. That's the funny thing. Two fish hooked and landed back-to-back...pretty much consecutive drops! That's 40-50 minutes of total battle time without a break. All in mocassins! His feet took a beating on those battles... These two battles show us the advantage of the conventional tackle to spinning tackle in this fishery....He had line capacity...Lots of it. With the brand-new Cedros Jigging reel (15), and matching Cedros jigging rod XH, he had an aluminum gimble...Mike's a big guy. He let that fish take a 250 yard run, then it was reel/tug/reel/tug...land the fish. With a single-hook on the jig, I was able to leader the 65+ inch fish alongside the boat while Joel St. Germain popped the boat in gear. I swam the fish next to us for a few minutes until she was kicking, then I popped out the hook and it swam away nicely. We made our way back to the beginning of the drift and BANG! Mike Batta was on again. Carbon copy of the last battle. We hooked up within a minute of dropping. Awesome battle, great release. Sweat.
John Bretza was next to hook up. I'm glad he did....He had a Cedros 10 high speed jigging reel with a fast retreive ratio. Same rod. Man, what a battle. I'll have the video up soon. He beat this fish up. These Cedros rods....they retail for about $100-$110. Can you believe it? I really can't. More than ample for these fish....all nearly 200 pounds of them. The Cedros reels are going to make a big splash in 2010 as we use them for cod, stripers, and tuna. They are that versatile.
Joel St. Germain really didn't want to be left out. He was casting most of the day, but it became evident that the fish wanted jigs....He dropped as I said "look at the sonar!!!" It was loaded with tuna. As he had his reel in free-spool, a tuna hit it and brought the line down at 100mph. When he popped it up to strike, the shock was too much and the hook pulled free. Bummer. Our only lost fish of the day.
We came home and found whales and breaking tuna everywhere. Flat calm seas. We didn't leave Stellwagen until the sun had set, but what a day! One of the best fishing days of all time. Thanks once again to the Okuma guys for coming out and sharing some incredible new tackle with us today. Capt. Rich Antonino, 508-269-1882 508-269-1882
Target Species:
bluefin tuna
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