What a season we had on the Black Rose! (for hundreds of photos of 2007, check out my website) I would like to thank everyone who made this year such a blast. I don't think that I have to tell you how much I love what I do. In addition to having a good contingent of repeat customers, we also met some great new friends this year who fished with us and really kept us on our toes. We laughed and the fun never stopped. Please keep in touch over the winter and keep checking out the website for updates, reports, and specials.
The season ended with a bang for us. The tuna fishing in September and October was truly amazing. Ok, not just "a bang", but lots of bangs. And a final, season-ending crunch as two of my disks became herniated this week, causing my season to end (though the season is pretty much over now regardless). When I say amazing tuna fishing, in our last 10 tuna trips of the year, we hooked almost 40 tuna!!! Most of these fish were hooked and landed on spinning gear!!! It was the biggest rush and it's a reason that I can't wait until next year. We'll start tuna fishing in mid-June next year!! Get ready for this. We'll be ready to troll for them as well as run-and-gun for them using spinning rods and high-speed jigging rods.
As exciting as running-and-gunning is, trolling for tuna is that relaxing. I love the peacefulness of it. This year we made our first trip to fish for tuna on June 30th and got three fish to 52". (we saw our first tuna on JUNE 7th!!!) We had some great days trolling this year and have made many adaptations to our spreads that will make next year even better. The trolling spread that we have put together on our boat is excellent and the boat trolls peacefully and VERY QUIETLY. Every customer comments on the quietness when we're trolling. I love it. It's a great way for the non-fisherman to enjoy fishing for tuna as well. It's a great way to spend time with your customers or employees! The boat does the work and you get to relax and enjoy each other's company. And then when something happens….it's mayhem and controlled chaos. I love it. There's also the great anticipation factor—you never know when something is going to happen! We saw whales on almost every one of our tuna trips this year and in many instances the whales came within yards of the boat!! It's very humbling.
April and May
Going back to the beginning of the season in this "season ending recap", we started on April 1 fishing for cod and haddock. In the spring, the cod and haddock move onto Stellwagen Bank to feed and man-o-man do they feed! It's amazing. It's probably the best action you'll have all year. I had one customer talk with me and fish with me all throughout the year, all the while muttering about how he must have caught 70-80 fish HIMSELF in shallow water with me on one trip early in the season. He was beside himself!! I'm not saying that all of those fish were keepers, but he did fantastic and it's great to be catching haddock in shallow water. I love it.
By shallow water, I mean we're catching cod and haddock in 80-120' of water. Because of the shallow water, I decided this past spring to bring along very light tackle with me in addition to my "normal" cod gear. By light tackle, we were using rods and reels that are normally associated with fluke, sea bass, or walleye!! Instead of using 16oz Norwegian jigs with big treble hooks, we were comfortably using 6 oz. Tormenter Jigsthat we rigged with single hooks.
We caught great cod AND haddock in this method and no one got tired of jigging because our gear was so light and the rods were so forgiving. I love fishing like this! In fact this is the best way to take kids on their first cod trip—it's much easier on them and they can handle the whole affair! You will never go back to "regular cod gear" again. We had people fish with us later in the summer in deep water, still asking to use the light tackle!! We even fished in 300' of water with that light gear!
I have spoken with the product people at Okuma Fishing Tackle about my thoughts for a reel and rod combo for this fishing and they have come up with their brand-new RED ISIS to which I'll use their lightest Cedros Speed Jigging Rod. For size comparison, the Penn 113 HLW that I typically use for codfishing weighs 32 ounces. The Red Isis weighs 13 ounces!!! That's an amazing difference. If I get my wishes, they'll make this reel without the levelwind option as well. Special thanks to Joel St. Germain, professional bass fisherman who has been a great customer, friend, and mentor to my business. It's fun watching a professional bass fisherman fish for cod!! What a hookset!
As usual, I'll be using braided line with this combo—30# or perhaps 40#. With the lighter braided line, we're able to hold bottom very well using light jigs. This makes it so much easier on your arms, back and spirit! Plus, it is so much fun to hook a nice fish on a light rig. The line of choice for us has always been PowerPro Line. I like the fact that they now have 4 different colors to choose from—I can fish different colored line on each rod. Spring cod—light tackle and kids…………………….but still the fish can be great!
This year we didn't really do a lot of Buzzards Bay fishing, and this was a bummer. The fish were there; we got some great fish and the fishing there can be truly amazing---it's only 15-45 feet deep!! We landed some great sea bass, fluke, and scup. With the choice between shallow water action for cod/haddock or shallower water action for seabass, fluke, and scup, you can't go wrong. The fishing grounds in Buzzards Bay are only 10 minutes from the pier....
June
We had a very varied June—we fished shallow water for cod, deep water for cod, flats fishing for stripers, Race Point for stripers, Buzzards Bay for sea bass and fluke, Buzzards Bay for scup(porgy), Buzzards Bay for stripers and blues on light tackle, and Chatham for tuna. It was a month of transition for us and our customers. The good thing is that there are options in June.
It's a great thing. We found schools of scup (porgy) that covered the fishfinder and we aptly filled the boat. That's a lot of fun for the right customers. We also explored some early-season tuna waters off of Chatham that just screamed for more. Yes, we'll be back there in mid-June next year. The tuna were also in Mass Bay and Cape Cod Bay as well. On June 7 we saw a school of hundreds of giant tuna cruising inside of Mass Bay while we were returning from cod fishing. It was amazing! We'll be ready next year!
July
By July we had tuna-fever. It was excellent and we had some of the best blitzes we can remember. The fish cooperated, mostly, and so did the sharks. If, on July 1 cooperates means we caught 21 sharks, then, yes, they did cooperate!!! I love fishing for sharks!
We made our first shark trip on July 1 and landed a 7+ foot mako. Great fish to go along with 20 more blue sharks that day(several 200+ pounds)! We had three hours during the day in which we had a fish on the line the whole time. It can be that amazing. Going forward in July and August, striper fishing off of Race Point, though good, should be planned as a weekday event—on the weekends the great fishing there brings far too many boats in far too small of an area. It is too chaotic with that much traffic---plan your trips there for the weekdays and we'll have fun. What a day—ending with a 250# mako amongst friends!!!
August
August brought a lot of mixed charters---tuna in the morning and something else after that. Why not? The weather in August is the most amazing of the year and get your time in. We found the cod and haddock in amazing numbers once again and in predictable areas. The early morning bite for tuna was also very predictable—I love August—we can leave at 4:00 in the morning, fish for tuna, fish for cod, and get back in to port at a respectable time!! I love that.
Because of the number of tuna trips that I was running, I upgraded all of my tuna gear to have it all match. I purchased 5 matching Okuma Titus Gold TG 50 Two Speed reels with matching Okuma Catalina Tuna Rods. I have been very, very happy with the performance—we've tested them hard this summer with tons of use and loads of big fish. Our biggest fish this summer was a 400+ pound blue shark that was a beast. It is the largest blue shark that I have ever seen. I told my customers that it's a blue shark and we release them—that we wouldn't kill it just to get their name in a record book. Too bad it wasn't an edible shark!!!! It was enormous! I'll have the video on the website this winter. The rod and reel performed better than expected! That fish took some of the best runs I've ever imagined. The sharks started moving in nicely this year with more makos in the area than in years past.
September
With the sharks moving in and right up my alley (yes, I LOVE FISHING FOR SHARKS), we did some great cod/shark trips this year east of Stellwagen. But the real news in September was TUNA FISHING!!!
We landed another nice 300 pound mako east of Stellwagen this September and it was just amazing to see that fish jump. It took 6' of air within 20 feet of the boat!! The Mass. record porbeagle shark of 455 pounds was caught in the same area where I do my cod fishing (and shark fishing). You never know what you'll catch out there! Another fisherman that I know landed a mako of almost 600 pounds out there and another fish on a separate day spooled him completely! Yes, this is where I fish and where we can fish for both cod and sharks at the same time. Talk about double dipping!! There was a time frame of a couple of weeks where I would have almost guaranteed a shark—while cod fishing! It was that good out there. One day while shark fishing, we saw no fewer than 8 sharks circling the boat at one time!!! Great shark fishing and slamming cod and haddock fishing. I love haddock. They're back in great numbers once again.
And, in recapping this September, we had a crew of people from Angler's ProShop in Brooklyn or their fishing forum Spinning-for-HUGE-FISH FORUM (click on East Coast Forum) start fishing with me from September on into October. I can't say enough about their fishing style—they fished for tuna using spinning gear and swimbaits, mostly. It's specialized fishing and specialized gear. Seeing a tuna strike a popper, however, within 10' of the boat is a strike you'll never forget! Randy and Sami own the shop there and have an online store and are very helpful. Many of the tuna they caught (and they caught a pile of them) were landed within 5 minutes! I love the method, I love the excitement of chasing down a school of breaking fish and making that perfect cast to fish that you see breaking, but…but I can't think of a good enough "but" to mention negatively. I can't wait until next year to do it again. It's not peaceful fishing. It's tough work for everyone on the boat, from me to my mate to everyone fishing. But it's successful and it gives purpose to the day more than any other type of fishing. Recalling the schools of tuna that I saw blitzing from June on, I can't imagine what it would have been like if we had a casting crew on board for some of those blitzes. That thought will help me get through my winter.
October
I didn't even mention cod/haddock in October—it's still excellent and the fish are typically the largest of the year with some great pollack starting to move in. Our biggest cod of the year came in this year at 60 inches long and bottomed out my 50# scale!! And we caught it on a shrimp!!!!
We didn't do much fishing for cod nad haddock this October, not because they weren't there, but rather because we chose to fish for the tuna instead! It was an incredible fall. The options were endless. Reports from Buzzards Bay this fall were amazing--tons of stripers, big blues, and loads of false albacore and bonito.
On the blues and stripers front, I heard on the radio this summer (Greg Sears on Fortuna) say something funny...once you get the tuna bug, blues and stripers are just bait!!! It's prophetic. We'll be using blues next year as bait for giant tuna!!! I can't wait. I'm rigged and ready to go.
I hope you enjoyed my rambling…I could go on for days with the memories I burned in my brain this year. It was THAT good. I'll be putting a lot more on my website very soon. We'll see what the neuro-surgeon says about my back and what I have to do next. Regardless, I'll have plenty of time to give you all plenty of reading and daydreaming for the winter! I'm looking forward to being Mr. Mom for the next few months. I can't thank you all enough for making this a great year. Thank you my customers and to the people who just read my site. Hearing you tell me at the boat ramp that you read my site to see "where,how, what, and why" is a great feeling. I hope to see all of my customers again next year in good health and spirits and wish you all a great winter. Please drop me a line from time to time to check in.
In addition to my customers, I would like thank all of the
SPONSORS OF THE BLACK ROSE
Okuma Fishing Tackle They are redefining themselves with new lines of top quality gear. I've done very well with it this year and look forward to next year's models.
Tormenter Tackle Their butterfly jigs amounted for a ton, literally, of cod and haddock this year. I use their tuna squids and I think they're amazing.
PowerPro Line What can I say about braids nowadays? They call them superbraids for a reason.
Angler's Pro Shop Yes, I'm a believer in their fishing techniques and tackle. Check out their specialty online store for yourselves.
The Huntin' Lodge This is an online resource that will be growing by huge leaps very soon. Check them out for membership discounts!
For those of you who have fished with me, you know Matt. I can't say enough about Captain Matt Merrick who has mated or captained almost every one of the trips on the Black Rose since its inception three years ago. He'll be a tough person to replace when the time comes for him to "get a real job and career". He'll do great at whatever he chooses. I hope that another year on the Black Rose is in his cards for next year. Matt with Buzzards Bay and Pocasset in the background. Lastly, but not leastly, is a great thank you to my wife, Stacey, and our kids Alexandra and Richie. They're been great and very supportive with my efforts here. If you know me, you know how I feel about this—I'm a lucky man. Have a fun, safe, healthy winter and please keep in touch.
Sincerely, Capt. Rich Antonino
captain@blackrosefishing.com
508-269-1882
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