Whoa! Holy moly. What a day of tuna fishing. I still can't believe that we have such a fishery 15 miles off of our coast in Green Harbor. I'm sooooo glad I have a cabin! We scraped the ice off of the deck chair and gunnels this morning, but the promise of tuna breaking had us not caring. Still, two of my 4 customers sat in the lee of my cabin for the ride out. Of course they were dressed for the arctic and were comfortable, but inside the cabin it was great. With me and two other 200 pounders in there, with the door shut, we steamed up the windows. Not Brokeback Mountain steamy, but damn comfortable steamy.
The weather man was wrong; my 8:00 I was nervous about the weather--the wind was cranking from the SW and we were in 4-5 foot seas. But the blitz that was going on was amazing!!! I mean, tuna busting everywhere. And they were willing. First fish....about 40 minute battle in which all four guys partook in the battle. 59" of tuna later, packed completely in ice, we're happy. I don't think it too 10 minutes for us to hook our next fish. Within 5 minutes, the fish was boatside, but it spit the hook before we could net it. No problem. The bite kind of died down, but we still had hope for the next few hours. Lots of birds and tons of draggers working the area very hard. In the early afternoon, the fish started feeding again. Insane. We were by ourselves, not another boat around us. I got my friend on the radio "go two miles to your east". When he said 'I just put out some live baits, maybe in 5 minutes", I retorted "pull your lines in right now and motor as hard as you can due east". He got the point and was there very, very quickly. We were already tight with a big fish and the tuna were exploding all around us. It was a melee. I don't know how we didn't get multiple hookups, though it was good we didn't. 62" tuna later, it was awesome! Nice release. My friend hooked up within 30 seconds of pulling up to the school. Great feeling.
Lots more casts for the rest of the day didn't produce anything but misses, but it was fine. It was an amazing day out there. Yes, my homemade lures produced great. 12" rubber lures (10 for $30 or 25 for $60 if you're interested...)
I'll be out there fishing through Thanksgiving; don't put your rod away yet and don't forget the boots and warm layers. Capt. Rich Antonino, Black Rose Fishing Charters, 508-269-1882