Father's Day gift of Bluefin Tuna!
Capt. Rich Antonino
August 23, 2009
Stellwagen Bank - Saltwater Fishing Report
Bang! Streak broken. Broken early and hard. A father's day trip...Father and son, son wanted Dad to hook into a tuna. We had 6 hours to play with....we really only needed one to find our fish. And another 70 minutes to get it to the harpoon.
We started out with only one pogy, a beat-up, used-for-three-hours-yesterday, red-faced, slob. Good winds made flying the kite easy and it wasn't long before things looked good. Not good for the pogy, it was croaking and then a seagull grabbed it, carrying it 30' up in the air!! Damn. It wiggled fast and fell. That's good. Tuna started breaking near us on the port side (the pogy was starboard...) A couple of quick casts into the wind and a few jig drops.... "Look at the pogy!!" It got sucked down by something big and bad. I popped the clip on the kite and set the hook. Fish on! Sean's Dad, Steve, was on for a battle.
Sean and I cleared the kite and deck for a good, long battle. The fish, against full drag on the Titus Gold (set to about 22 pounds), stripped me down to my backing pretty quickly. 700 yards total 80 pound test is usually plenty, so I wasn't worried, but I still like the "close game". We let the fish beat itself up and it beat us up too! Great battle.
After the fish went vertical, it was tough. Steve was sitting down by this point, but not going to give the rod up. I don't blame him. His fish, his fight! I was able to handline the fish through the circles under the boat, bringing the fish boatside pretty nicely. Sean, in his first primal harpooning job, nailed it, driving the poon right through the fish. Done! Fat, Fat fish and 65" long. And we got plenty of bass to keep things going.
Wiped out by the battle, the first thing he did was drop his jig to the bottom and continue fishing, "I hope I don't get another!" But he was still fishing, hoping to get one for his son. It didn't happen, but what a day between them. I loved watching it.
We'll be out there fishing hard until Thanksgiving, so give us a shout. Cod/haddock/pollack, sharks, tuna, and stripers/blues are the ticket now and for the rest of the year. See you out there, Capt. Rich Antonino, Black Rose Fishing Charters 508-269-1882
Target Species:
bluefin tuna
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