We took two trips since my last report.

There was an epic tuna bite going on at the hot dog during the week July 9,  but we could not go out that weekend because the boat was hauled out to install our new sonar transducers for our fancy new fish finder. Unfortunately then a 20-30Kt blow started that went on for 5 days straight.  We could not get out for the double overnighter as we planned.  We waited till the wind died down to 15KT and headed out on Sunday morning for an abbreviated one day trip. Unfortunately so did every other boat on the east coast and all went to the same place……the hot dog.

We chunked 10 flats of bait and caught nothing but a 7ft Tiger shark that was released.  That was a really expensive boat ride for nothing.  We learned the next day that the fish had moved 3 miles north away from the fleet to a place called the notch, but the guys that found them did not report it because they knew the whole fleet would move in and drive the fish away.

The second trip was this weekend (July 27-29).  The girls all went with for our annual couples weekend where the girls bring in all the fish. Knowing that the fish were at the notch last weekend, we went there. Unfortunately so did the same fleet that was there last weekend and the fish moved away and were not found.

There was some major excitement when a 34 ft Luhrs Charter boat out of Indian river Delaware began taking on water for an unknown reason. They could not keep up with all bilge pumps running and manually bailing and the boat sank within a half an hour. The coast guard was already nearby with a 47ft cutter and an airplane assisting another vessel with dead batteries but did not get there in time. All nine people onboard were picked from the water safely by nearby boats in the fleet. The weather forecast called for light winds and 2-3 ft seas. The coast guard reported sea conditions at the time of sinking as 3-5ft with winds at 20Kts.

Needless to say we got our butts kicked for 24 hours straight. After the excitement was over, we headed out to the Baltimore canyon to overnight and fish for dolphin and swordfish. While trolling the long line pots looking for dolphin we lucked out and hooked into something pretty big. The girls fought it for about 15 minutes and it was still taking out drag fast. That was the end of the girls being allowed to bring in the fish. The guys took over and in an hour and a half more, we had a 185# Big Eye tuna on the deck. It is the first one we have ever caught in 40 years of fishing and the crews adrenaline stoke meters were pegged. That night the wind finally died down after we got hit by a thunderstorm with 30kt+/- winds. We didn’t get any swordfish, but we caught a 2 Makos a Hammerhead, and a Dusky shark. All were released.

The next morning we tried for yellowfin tuna still at the Baltimore and caught a Blue Marlin and a Dolphin instead. All around we didn’t catch what we were targeting but we did get quite a variety.

Oh yeah, I forgot, we also got another Mako on the troll Saturday. This is the second one this year on the troll.

Check out the video below of the Big Eye Tuna fight.