Hi Joel,
It finally happened! What I'd been waiting for all season. The TUNA finally arrived! Friday afternoon I headed out for a short after work trip with Steve Rahmey. Arriving at the BA buoy we immediately spotted a school of tuna porpoising from the water. A quick cast in their direction only resulted in a hookup with a bluefish. After that it was bluefish pandemonium for an hour and a half, all of them from 6 to 10 pounds! Abie Mizrahi took his first ever fish on a crease fly, an 8 pound blue, having never cast a fly rod before! But we did not spot the tuna again. Later that day I received word that Capt Chris Hessert had been in the same area earlier that day and had also seen the tuna, skipjack, several times but failed to hook up. Monday was impossible to get off shore so with Dr. Ralph Mosseri on board we managed to find very cooperative cocktail blues on the inside of Jamaica Bay near Manhattan Beach and caught 'em up on light spinning and fly for 3 solid hours. We waited for the wind to abate so we could go offshore, but in never did! The forecast for Tuesday was blissful so I played hooky. And boy am I glad I did! Not 5 miles from the inlet I spotted the first one of many large schools of frenzied skipjack that I chased for the next 4 hours. I hooked up on my 3rd shot, by leaving my cone-head sand eel fly to dead drift in the middle of a breaking pod. After several more shots without a take I went down to a 10 pound tippet and an "albie whore" fly for instant success. I hooked 4 more skippies in short order...breaking off all but one...the price for going so light, but like the man said: "better to have fought and lost than never to have fought at all."
Once the sun came out the fish got skittish and broke up into smaller groups. On Richard Reagan's advice (who was out with Capt Hessert & John McMurray) I tried a sinking line and was rewarded with another hook up. It was even possible to spot the fish by the huge V-shaped wake the shcool made as traveled under the surface...it looked just like a tarpon push! On the way in I got 2 more shots and ended up with a monster 12# blue under the skipjack. The water was a very clear navy blue and I spotted squadrons of cow-nosed rays and one oceanic sunfish lolling in the sun. Oh, if it could only be like this every day!
Tight lines,
Capt Dave Azar
captdaveazar@aol.com
