10-15 BFT spinning, RockDoc and myself. Cape Cod.

[joshmon71]

1977 seacraft 23, 250 now a 275 verado, Donnies old boat.

10-14 east of chatham, 8AM lines tight, celebratory beers lifted at 830Am ish ,back at dock 930AM, 90 feet of water, I'd say right between the new inlet and nauset inlet. Saw spouts and headed near them, were about ready to drop lines in the water and troll, Steve was getting one of his spinning reels ready, when at 3 o'clock saw a nice breaking school say 1/8 mile away, big sized school crashing the water. out came the spinning gear. ran over killed the boat in front of the moving school. School moved our way and surrounded the boat. Steve had a top water plug from ocean lures, 1 cast tight, I used a bill hurley tuna bomb sand eel prob 2-3 casts and tight. 2 for 2 on spinning gear after id say 20 minutes of mayhem and ballet. First keeper of the season at 54 inches, prior we have only C&R fish in the slot or too big for recs. Bottom lip gaff #2, then swam and released the #2. New usage for the armstrong bracket-makes great platform for a measurement. We keep forgetting the tag a tiny stuff(again). Just myself and Steve(rockdoc), bit of a tuna ballet around the boat, crossed up lines a couple times, over and under , my fish went under the boat a few times early in the fight, and even wrapped the line in the outboard once. Missed someone on the helm big time and as a leader/gaffer. Nothing like having Steve trim the engine one handed fightin a fish in the other. Watching Steve 1 hand the gaff and rod. Suprised we landed both actually, braid is amazing stuff. Needed another set of hands for sure. No action shots but more important with another person we could have gotten the fish secured much earlier in the fight.

Opted to head for the barn before winds picked up.

[DonV]

celebratory beers lifted at 830Am ish

As they say........."don't get no better than this"!!!!

[thehermit]

YUM! Way to go guys....that has been one fishy area this year!

[Dilligaf]

what kind of spinning reels and rods you use for the BF ?

[Capt Chuck]

Outstanding job guys! Gotta love a bloody deck on a SeaCraft

[thehermit]

Josh. pm sent. I just realized you are a fellow Rough Rider

[rockdoc]

what kind of spinning reels and rods you use for the BF ?

VS 275 (van staal)for me, doubles as my wetsuiting at Cuttyhunk and Montauk reel, Crowder rod, but I'm going to wrap up a calstar grafighter this winter. Josh has a Stella on a custom rod, a calstar I think. The toughest part of casting to these fish is the leader and the line-leader connection. I've gone to a wind-on made locally for these fish, Streamline brand. I'm tying a bimini with a short loop in my 80# Daiwa Boat Braid, and doing a loop to loop to the leader. Solid ring to a wolverine triple split ring at the end, split ring to the plug. Most bullet proof setup I've found so far, and it casts through the guides without a problem. What a blast casting to these amazing fish! I watched my fish hit a surface lure 20' from the boat. And the fight puts even the biggest striper in perspective. Hopefully the weather lets us get another shot at the tuna this fall.

Gotta love these 35 year old state of the art fishing boats!

Steve

[Old'sCool]

Awesome!!!

[gofastsandman]

Those are some awfully big smiles.

Yum,
GFS

[Wildman]

That has been a very productive spot this year from what I have been hearing!

Very cool!