dave-j
Well-known member
A bunch of buddiesw and I always take the week off before Labor Day to devote a bunch of time to fishing with families. the striper and blues have been going crazy off Misery Island every afternoon and we are slamming them.
However, yesterday planned to go off to Stelwagen to chase tuna around. The reports were that pogies were essential and maybe mackeral. We were shut out getting live bait but went out anyway. Got to the nose of the NW corner at sunup and started setting a troll using sluggos. We had two rods in and still setting up the other two when one of the rods goes off. Fish on! In reaching for it I push the drag lever up accidentally to "stop a train" level and the fish snaps right off. Darn!
Then we start seeing splashes and tuna jumping everywhere around us. Sizes from 120 to 200 pound plus flying through the air. One almost hit the boat! Tried casting to them, but they were up and down too fast for run and gun tactics.
Okay, deep breaths. Set up a troll and wait for them to come to us. Within another ten minutes the second rod goes off. Big fish. Twenty minutes later he is by the boat. We are putting a tail rope on him when he gives a head shake and snaps the leader. Gone again! We were using 80 pound leader. Clearly time to upgrade to 130 pound.
Re-rig and set up again. twenty minutes later the rod is singing again! this time a smaller fish with 130 leader. Again on a sluggo. Landed and put on ice for the table!
What is hard to convay is the amount of activity we saw. Fish were flying everywhere!!! This was just north of the bank itself. when we looked at our "trail" on the GPS, we had not gone more than a mile from our first fish all day. Very economical trip!
Picture is the fish we kept and my 10year old who did the lion's share of landing it. He had to pass the rod off after the fish took a third run!
Dave
However, yesterday planned to go off to Stelwagen to chase tuna around. The reports were that pogies were essential and maybe mackeral. We were shut out getting live bait but went out anyway. Got to the nose of the NW corner at sunup and started setting a troll using sluggos. We had two rods in and still setting up the other two when one of the rods goes off. Fish on! In reaching for it I push the drag lever up accidentally to "stop a train" level and the fish snaps right off. Darn!
Then we start seeing splashes and tuna jumping everywhere around us. Sizes from 120 to 200 pound plus flying through the air. One almost hit the boat! Tried casting to them, but they were up and down too fast for run and gun tactics.
Okay, deep breaths. Set up a troll and wait for them to come to us. Within another ten minutes the second rod goes off. Big fish. Twenty minutes later he is by the boat. We are putting a tail rope on him when he gives a head shake and snaps the leader. Gone again! We were using 80 pound leader. Clearly time to upgrade to 130 pound.
Re-rig and set up again. twenty minutes later the rod is singing again! this time a smaller fish with 130 leader. Again on a sluggo. Landed and put on ice for the table!
What is hard to convay is the amount of activity we saw. Fish were flying everywhere!!! This was just north of the bank itself. when we looked at our "trail" on the GPS, we had not gone more than a mile from our first fish all day. Very economical trip!
Picture is the fish we kept and my 10year old who did the lion's share of landing it. He had to pass the rod off after the fish took a third run!
Dave
