Harwich Headhunt - Cape Cod Fishing Tournament

Wish us luck. Weather permitting we’re headed out tonight for an overnight trip on the Jackal.  Plan is to hit the rips and pick up some bass, pre-fish for the tourney and get Sean his first bass of the season.  After that we may head north a bit to anchor up and maybe throw a few shark rigs over, and be ready for the tuna first light. 

Who knows what will happen, but the two new 50s came yesterday and are getting spooled at Goose Hummock as we speak, so pumped to test those babies out.  Our boy Ethan, captain of team Magalodon can’t make it, so we’ll pour a 40 out for him on the rips, and hopefully his knee heals enough for him to make it to the tourney next weekend.  Right now it looks like he has a dead mola mola where his knee cap should be.  Not pretty.  As a true champion though, he is lending us his boat grille, a 50 and his sweet new Fin-nor spinning set up.  Thanks again E-bomb. 

Our buddy Rob from Plymouth got his first tuna of the year, 250 lb 76’ last weekend on Stellwagen.  Word out our way is there are plenty of fish, but tough to get them to hit – Matt on Dennis the Menace (whose son dominated Allen Harbor tourney) has had some luck so hopefully we’ll get a shot tomorrow.  Keep hearing they’re hitting top water stuff, so we’ll be throwing everything we can at them. 

Other than that, may hit Hot Stove tomorrow night for a few, so if anyone is in the new hood and wants to grab a beer and talk some smack, let us know.  T-shirts should also be in, so we’ll bring them by if they’re finished.  This is all pending our safe return from our first overnighter, so if we don’t make it, please refer to Harry Corduroy for any/all tourney details and the cash prize.  Wish us luck

 

I can’t believe the tourney is less than two weeks away.  Time to start getting serious about strategies and game plans.  Team Jackal needs to win this – we started this freaking tournament and haven’t had a title yet.  Hoping that changes this year – and any/all sidebets are welcome (I’m talking to you team Powe, Magalodon, and Corduroy).  As in years past, we’ll be at the Hot Stove the night before for some last minute trash talking and to collect any last minute fees. 

Looks like we’re up to at least 21 boats so far, and hope to get a few more last minute entries to get us over the 25 boat number.  Based on the entries so far, we should have a good line up of boats, with a mix of tourney veterans, a few newbies, and a couple crews coming in from off cape to try their luck.  Reigning champ Team Powe is the boat to beat until dethroned, but 3 time champs Mike O’Brien and Gordie are looking to get their name back on the trophy, and a few more bayside boats may make some noise – especially given the recent reports out on the rips.  It’s anyone’s game

For prizes, we should have some good stuff again this year.  In addition to the cash (which should be good), we’ll have On the Water prize packages, some donated gear from Puma Ocean Racing (still not 100% what this means but we’ll see), some fish prints from our mom who paints some killer pics of tuna, bass, and a few other things.  Can’t say enough about how supportive On the Water has been from day one – quality operation they run with a bunch of quality people – unwavering support for this local tourney from day 1.  Sally boy Charlie Moore is a different story, but I’ll save that for another day.

We also will have some awesome free giveaways courtesy of Hammerhead Creatives – I’m pretty sure free cozies for everyone!  Lastly, the T-shirts should be ready any day and new design is legit.

On the fishing front, Team Jackal will be heading out this Friday on an overnighter, hoping to hit some bass and tuna (maybe sharks too) Friday into Saturday but we’ll see.  We are getting our new Shimano 50 setups in this week – got a hook up to get new ones sent from San Diego and hopefully will have our hands on them before we head out.  We have not been able to get out much yet this year so hopefully Friday we’ll have some luck.  Stay tuned.

 

 

It was good to hear from Mick again even though it is weird that he has moved off cape.  I think about moving off cape from time to time and time again but I just cannot find enough a reason to do so especially this time of year.  This time of year when the summer is just getting ready to begin. 

The tournament is coming fast this year. (less than two weeks away)

The T-shirts are on the way, the sponsorship is set, and the registrations are coming in but it is only two weeks away which is sweet and challenging at the same time. 

There are once again some solid boats in this year’s tournament and some new teams that are looking to really win this thing this year.  As you can tell from my earlier posts, I am far from having any sort of reports at this time but I am heading out this afternoon.

I will hopefully be able to give a report tomorrow and in the meantime if you are planning on doing the tournament could you get us your registration in as soon as possible!

It just helps us plan things and make sure we have everything all set for enough people on the 17th.

 

I finally had a chance to get out and catch some fish after a long spring.  Captain Seamus is back in town and asked me to help him out with a crew as he was fishing a bridge boat and could use the hand staying at the helm and on the fish at the same as easy as possible. 

I finished up the school year on Thursday and Seamus asked me to help out Friday which was a perfect fishing wake-up call for me. 

I will not give up too much info on the fishing other than it was very very good. 

I do not want Seamus to have to kill me for providing too many details.

Left at 10:00 am on a warm, bright, summer flat calm day.  Hit one spot without going far, dropped in the rigs, and caught lots of 12-25lb bass. 

The action was fierce and as the mate I only lost one smaller fish.  It was only the second fish of the day and losing that one made me feel like I was back on the Prowler working with Al Anderson.  Seamus shrugged it off as no big deal and we went on to catch a ton of fish without another miss.  Capt. Al would have crush me for that one miss to the point where it F’ed up the rest of the day for everyone including the anglers.

It has been a long time since I have been a mate and getting back into the groove of catching fish and being out on the water was sweet.

It is now time to get back out on the Jackal and get ready for this tournament!

 

Been awhile, but we’re back in action.  We’ve been busy getting some more of the groundwork laid, and should have the t-shirts ready to roll in a week.  Send us your sizes to headhunt@gmail.com if you want one.  Right now we have a couple different designs from our boy Nick at Designs by Disorder who is great.

Last weekend we took the Jackal out to Nantucket, brought the girls along and had a good time.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to fish much, but saw acres of bait off of the beach by Great Point where we cruised on a rented jeep.  Haven’t heard too much yet on the rips, but did see a guy coming into Saquatucket with a cooler full of bass (most looked 36’ range) that he said he got at the point so that is encouraging.

The day before we took out captain of Magalodon's sweet new rig out to Stellwagen for some tuna action.  We got out there early friday and trolled across literally acres of bass who were all over the surface and hit our squid bars and live mackerel.  No tuna, but on our way back in, literally 2 miles from the Gurnet outside Plymouth harbor we saw some action on the surface - got closer and saw some good 200 lb class tuna literally slow rolling over each other - very weird and they wouldn't take the various junk we threw at them.  Crazy how close they were and our buddy saw a stick boat in that area later in the day so maybe they had some better luck.

In other fishing news, our boy Benny on Team Magalodon was down in Texas this and caught the beauty you see above.  Intimidating stuff.  Also, our boy Tria on the legendary Team Jackal hit a fluke tourney last weekend in Rhody and picked up some nice fluke and a few good seabass.  And last night he hit his old grounds at the Charlestown breachway last night and picked up 8 keeper bass - 3 sellers. Take note Magalodon, that's how team Jackal does it.  Or at least one of us.

We have a few more boats in the mix, with a veteran team from Brewster signing up.  Good to have them back and hope we can get some more teams coming in soon – Harry Corduroy where are you?

Defending champ Seamus from Jailbreak Sportfishing is back up from the deep south where he was swordfishing for the winter.  Someone is going to figure out that chartering Seamus for a pre-fishing trip to the rips is the perfect way to get the inside track on where to go come tourney day – just don’t tell the angry Irishman you’re in the tourney.

We’ll try to update the blog more in the coming weeks, and hopefully now that my brother is out of school he can get another one of his rants cooking. 



 

 

Apparently the rookies weren't too pleased with my comments last night, but did the right thing and sent a response (with pic) - keep'em coming -

“BHS may be rookies to the tourney but how many stripers (or any other fish) have the Burke Brothers caught this year?   In order to catch fish you have to fish!   By looking at S. Burkes post he needs to get something; stripers or strippers before he loses it.  Or maybe he should take some fishing lessons from the women above---who has a great pair of……….bass!  This will be the first time fishing Monomoy for us, but look forward to the challenge and hope to boat some fish.  At least we will be doing it on our own and not shelling out a local charter fee to fill our fish boxes. 

Burkes good luck fishing this weekend hope you can catch something beside salt spray!  We look forward to participating in the tourney this year and the future, lest see what we can do.  At least we have learned how not to launch a boat now!”


Jeff, Team BHS

 

The tournament chatter is well under way, and planning is going full steam ahead.  We have a few initial designs for the t-shirts, have a number of sponsors lined up (thank you to Flipkey.com and Kusmin Family Builders as the most recent additions), and are in the process of getting some stickers and cozies lined up courtesy of Hammerhead Creatives. 

There are still sponsor spots available, only $100 gets you some kickass space on this site (for the 14 people who visit us a month), a few shout outs at the after party, but inclusion on the approximately 300 t-shirts that will be made for the tourney.  And a official sponsor edition of the tourney shirt.  T-shirts are well worth the price based on the amount you’ll see these shirts up and down the east coast.  Quick story, our buddy Abes has lived in the Dominican Republic for 3 years now, and at the end of every school year gives away some of his old stuff before he heads out.  For some reason, he gave away one of the earlier Headhunt shirts.  A year later, in the streets of the capital city, he saw a random Dominican guy wearing the Headhunt shirt.  He stopped him and asked where he got it and the guy ran - true story.  Local tourney.  Global exposure.

Anyway, sounds like we have a few new teams lined up, with a recent entry from some rookies out of Bourne/Falmouth submitting last week (an anonymous person emailed in the pic above of them pre-fishing Jenkins pond earlier this season).  This is a local, community driven tournament, so we appreciate the donation from this crew.  I hear they’ve been talking a little smack, which is great to see and exactly what we want to foster as part of this tourney, but I’m not sure they can handle the rips of Monomoy, or the pressure of this tournament.  They submitted their team name of BHS – which doing some research looks like it must be these guys – this should at least make for some good entertainment at the after party. 

Lastly, here’s to hoping that long time tourney veteran Bennie Allen can make it this year.  He realized his wife’s birthday is the same day, so it is going to take some serious angling to make it happen – let us know what we can do to help make the case, otherwise team Magalodon may be in some trouble.  Or in more trouble than they already were.

Let us know if you have any questions and look forward to stirring the pot more in the coming weeks.  Good chance the Burke bros. are at the Hot Stove in Harwich this Friday night if anyone is up for some pre-tourney trash talk over a couple beers.  We’re also headed to Nantucket for the weekend and looking to fish around the island a bit on Saturday if anyone is in the area. 

We heard some folks had trouble posting comments on the site.  Looking into it, but you can always email headhunt@gmail.com and we’ll put it up right away – and we’re looking for guest bloggers so fire away.

As always, feedback is welcome, and look forward to getting this baby going.

 

I do not know about anyone else, but my pole is being tried right now.  It is being tried because it is not getting out enough or even at all at this point.  The kids, the yard, the boat prep, the blah blah has me getting prepared to fish but in the meantime I am not fishing.  I have a sweet boat, a great location, great fishing grounds and ……………!@#$%^&*

Every year I come back to this tourney and wonder why I/we do it again?  A lot of work for????

It is not a money making endeavor which is something I could use right now, getting out and about to promote the event is not my thing as people who know me understand very well, working with my bro and pops is not always easy,  and social events in general are often not my gig.

Sitting here right now trying to figure out what to type helps me realize why I/we do this tourney even though it can sometimes suck setting it up.  I do the headhunt mainly because it helps make me fish and think about fishing and talk about fishing and think about getting out on our boat and fishing which is something that I love.  Fishing is something that I love but it is also something that I could too easily lose in my quest to take care of so much other stuff that we all know, but often forget, will never be fully conquered or go away.

IN OTHER WORD!!!@#$%  I need to get out fishing and thinking about this dam tourney is helping me get back to doing my best to get out.  It is now June and I have yet to catch a striper but there would be no way for me to catch one as I have yet to really go fishing for them other than a few random casts at random times from the most ridiculous spots at the worst times.

To sum my rant up – IT IS HEADHUNT TIME – Headhunt time for at least means it is striper fishing time out here in Harwich and on the Cape in general and the purpose and competition of the tourney gets me going with some important fishing priorities. 

I need to pre-fish, prep, and….. …  

I need to stop and just fish and have fun which is what I/we just want this tourney to be for us and others and I personally just want others to get into the “fun” but “no joke” competition of it all like I do.

I am wrapped up again this weekend but will get out on the water with a purpose asap and I will do so for the HeadHUNT if nothing else. 

And I know that the headhunt keeps me from losing my focus on what I like to do and being able to fish for competition makes it all seem worthwhile kind of like it is a job even if it is only for one day.  Our job is to try and win this thing and we are on the 7th year and we have never been able to win our own tourney even after coming so close numerous years. 

I love that I am beginning to hate other local teams and starting to think about seeing what other teams may step up.  The bay boats are still allowed, the charter boats are still allowed, and we are still keeping things open until keeping the game and the opp to win this thing wide open becomes a big problem. 

It is starting to become go time for me at least and hopefully a few of you other Cape Cod fishermen out there. 

Yours truly,

The dalai lamda lamda lamda

 

It is officially June, and time to kick the Headhunt preparations into high gear.  We have Jake Rooney’s locked down again as tourney after party host, and are already getting inquiries about registration.  Feel free to submit your registration online, or email us at headhunt@gmail.com.  We are also looking for anyone interested in a sponsorship, which will include sponsorship on this site, signs, and on the t-shirts. 

If anyone has been out and had any early luck, let us know and we’ll post reports on the site.  I’ve only been out for bass once, having some luck w/ tourney veteran Ethan Kusmin on his new rig – a 24 ft Grady White that ran like a dream.  We hit Plymouth harbor and got a few keepers a couple weeks back, and made some sweet fish tacos.  We’ll be looking to get out more in the next weeks as we hear the bass are starting to show in bigger numbers down the Cape.  I don’t think the tourney stomping grounds out at Monomoy have lit up yet, but should be fairly soon.


The trash talking has begun already as well, with defending champs Team Powe finally getting their trophy.  The first version did not have one members name on it, but the list of names came from another member so you can figure out pretty quickly the chemistry on that team – 6 teammates, 6 cabs home.  We are also looking to have a couple crews who missed out last year for various reasons but were in earlier tournaments, so will be good to have them back. On the flip side, tourney stalwart, and past champion, Mick Carrier has moved from the Cape so we will miss him dearly this year – and will pour a 40 into the rips for him in his honor.  As always, Mike O’Brien, Gordie, Charlotte and the gang hope to make another run at the title (as 3 time champs). 

We will have the t-shirts ready to roll soon, and have a new designer helping us out so hope to have some kick-ass shirts this year.  Let us know if you have any questions. 

It’s go time.