SATURDAY JUNE 17

[Fishpoop]

Good luck John may you catch one as large as jaws, but not have the experience that they went through to blow him up.

[Skipper the cigar aFISHinodo]

Thanks all...

 

I have butterflies in my stomach already... and I'll bet someone has a smilie for that too!

[Parkster]

 

Dont go relaxing too much out there John. Come back safe.

[Nightshade]

Oh that pic is enough to make a person not want to go boating on the ocean hock:

[Skipper the cigar aFISHinodo]

I just got back from the captains meeting... off to bed now... getting up in 3 hours... See ya!

[Skipper the cigar aFISHinodo]

what a rotten day for sharking!
The water all over the ocean was cold. Around 58-60 degrees. The only "Mako" water was over 110 miles out (and at 20 knots in a tournament then ends promptly at 6pm, that kind of trip would leave little more than 3 hours for actual fishing). So we picked the best spot we could and got immediately inundated with dog fish (a small kind of shark weighing around 12 pounds used by Arther Treachers for their fish and chips). They are a complete nuisance tearing apart all our expensive baits and not letting us keep a bait in the water. And... setting a bait for sharking takes a lot of work, there was no rest.
So I rigged a smaller rod with bait and set out to catch a few of these pests... I got one and cut its tail off and set it back out. As it tried to swim without it's "motor" it bled profusely. Moments later the dog fish were gone... Then 2 of my crew yelled "SHARK!" The blood did it's job. I only saw some water disturbance caused by it's huge head pushing the water. Then a rod went off... As we prepared to set the hook the line went slack. We waited 3-4 minutes then reeled it in. As we marvelled at how this fish ate a HUGE piece of bait without touching the hook another rod went off. Then slack again... We reeled this one in and it looked the same, bite marks up to but just shy of the hook. We rerigged one of the rods with a smaller bait and 2 hooks and as we set it out our third and final rod from the first set went off. This one had am enormous 10 pound bluefish fillet on the hook and it came back with a bite missing that was from half the fishes mouth. The size of the bite was frightening... About the size of a monitor screen and as I said, it was half its mouth. From about the middle all the way to the left. As I examined the bite I began to think we had a great white in our slick. Our newly rigged rod was deployed and almost immediately it too suffered the same fate... a few tugs, then a quick run and slack. with 2 hooks in a small bait it nibbles between the hooks and left us with 2 tiny pieces of the fish left. And that was that.
Later on a small mako of about 90 pounds swam by then bluefish came to join the party. We fished till 3pm and headed back in. We were washing the boat around 7pm, by 8 I was showering and passed out by 9.

There were 3 shaks caught out of 260 boats. (that number should have been over 800 sharks caught... most released). The winning fish weighed 358 bounds. A thresher shark. The boat won $105,000

I smoked my celebration cigar on the way back anyway. A licitania that lasted the entire 50+ mile trip (about 3 hours)

[Parkster]

Sorry to hear things did not work out as planned John, but on the plus side, you have one hell of a "The one that got away" story to tell there.

Maybe its just as well that you did not get the chance to reel this monster in, it sounds like a very big, VERY smart fish.

 

[MikeD]

Sorry to hear you didn't catch any sharks as planned, but remember... a bad day fishing is better than a good day working

[VEGASVIXEN06]

ditto to MikeD's sentiment, sorry you missed the fish and the prize!!

[Fishpoop]

Sorry to hear that john, but I did love reading how your day went. A lot of passion for what you do, and I could only be half as lucky as you to be out there like that. I am glad you had a good celebratory cigar, and sounds like you were still with a great bunch go guys. Welcome back home safe and sound.