Team Jackal is getting ready. And I finally got the monkey off my back.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend, and got some good pre-fishing in. I was in Plymouth and was lucky to get out on Monday. What a day. 

Capt. Rob of Team Charlotte E. - 10 time Headhunt participants I think - took myself and fellow Team Jackal jackass Ethan out along with our other buddy Greg. We had to head out of Green Harbor given the debacle that is the Plymouth boat ramp, and took a shot for tuna heading straight to the SE corner. Saw a few fish busting, but no action, and we were literally the only boat fishing in the area. 

We quickly cashed it in and decided to head over to Peaked Hill to try for stripers. Smart move. There were boats everywhere and we ended up at the tail end of the fleet in deep water, but saw a few boats hooking up and saw a lot of blue on the finder. No bites for first few drifts using the live mackerel we had. Decided to throw some weights on (debatable who really made that call) and it lit up. Ethan started things off with a monster 36 incher right out of the gate, and then Greg followed with another around the same size. Ethan then hit another, even when he/I got tangled around the engine and I lost the one I had on. Panic started to creep in as I still didn't have a keeper this year. I was already starting to think about having to ask the guys if I could take pictures with their fish and lie to my children about it, but finally got a hit.

Got a beauty 38 incher and I was back. Rob gaffed it and Ethan and Greg started snapping pictures of him holding it until I had to butt my way in and finally feel some glory. Once we limited out - doubling up at times - we started throwing them back. We threw back a couple of 40 inch fish and never got one below 32 inches. There were big fish everywhere. 

We wrapped things up after a couple hours and started to head back in early to earn some points with the ladies since we had all skipped the Plymouth parade. At least I didn't have any kiddos marching in it like some other folks on the boat. Bam!

On the way in we saw literally acres of dolphin crashing bait. Pretty insane. Now with the pogies last week, the Orcas Capt Bruce Peters (when are you getting into the tourney!?) saw off of Chatham, and the early dolphin invasion - seems like things are shaping up for an interesting year. 

(Capt Rob's daughter and boat namesake here with a couple of beauties)

Let's hear some reports from other folks who took advantage of the good weather and three day weekend. 

I was luckily finally able to be the true hunter gatherer and provide for my family. Even cleaned the fish on the beach by my place and scared some kids with the murder scene I created in the sand. Then took the racks and jammed them into my two lobster pots and walked them waist deep out to the rocks at low tide. Circle of life.

Have had striper last two nights including new recipe tonight. Flipside crusted striper.  If you haven't had a Flipside - may be single greatest advancement in our society of last 20 years. Part pretzel, part cracker. Insanely addicting and worked out like a dream with the striper. May be first chapter of my new cookbook. 

We have a few more inquires on the tourney so looks like we should get some new boats this year. Shirts are in production - grey with fluorescent yellow logo. Should be sweet.

Spread the word on the tourney, and shoot me any reports on any recent success. Should be a fun year and Team Jackal is now on the board.

​Mmmmm . . .  flipsides.

Been slacking on the blog, but now that it's July it's time to get this baby cranking for tourney time. Was on the road this week, but also checked on Facebook and couldn't believe what I saw. Tourney veteran and champion trash talker Burnie won a fishing tournament. Yup, you read that right. He actually caught a fairly good sized fish and won a prize. What the hell is this world coming to?  

Sounds like there was a pretty cool tournament - for a great cause - last weekend - Rise to Fish Topwater Striper Tourney. Looks like the Burn brothers both fished and had some success. Jason won with this 36' beauty above and I think a little Burn won the jr category as well. Pretty impressive. Congrats fellas and good to see you get it out of your system before the 23rd.

Now we have this other hog above - Team Jackal member (and typical MVP even though the bar is low) nailed this beauty this morning down in Rhody. Still waiting on a few details, but good to see Tria getting back to his usual self after a somewhat slow start for him.

I'll be in Plymouth all weekend celebrating America, and hope to get out at some point. Reports have been stellar, even in close. Capt Marcus had some success this am out at Bug light where apparently it has been lights out (get it?). 

For anyone else, let us know how you do this glorious weekend and expect the blog action to heat up like the fishing. 

Should be a great weekend and hope everyone gets out on the water! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

​

Burkes brothers went family style today, making the maiden Monomoy voyage on the Jackal this season out to the rips. We had five kiddos, our mom, and Sean's wife on board - only one missing was my wife - the K from Jackal. Side story - named the boat for all the women in the family Jean (mom) Callee (daughter) Lisa and Kate (wives) - JCKL - Jackal. I came up with that beauty proving once again who the best Burke brother is (ask Ethan about the Family Jems - the name of his boat).

Anyway, the real story of the day was the pogies. Holy hell. The harbor was thick with them, everywhere. Then out in the sound there were huge schools of them everywhere. Even when we got to the point, there were acres of them piled up on the rips. In 25 years out there I have never seen them this thick, this early, or this widespread. Hopefully all this bait means fishing will be epic this year. Or at least on July 23rd.

We took the girls and dropped them off on the beach, and then cruised to the point with the boys to try our luck. The point was quiet, and we shot over to Bearses. There were some boats there but fishing was spotty. Late am pockets of good size bass would explode right in front of the rips, chasing small squid all over the place. Kids got a kick out of the explosions on the surface and the clouds of ink shooting everywhere. We were in the mix with about 10 other boats chasing them, but didn't see anyone hook up - I'm sure some did. 

Sean got us one good fish on a popper, so we were able to pop the cherry for the season and at least get us some striper tacos for dinner.

Good start to the season, and we ended it with hitting bluefish for the kiddos right outside the harbor. 

More reports to come. We know one Headhunt Capt hit the SE corner of the bank today, saw some tuna, but no luck - but did get some keeper bass. Another Headhunter took part in a marine rescue of a porpoise today in some weird story I'm still not sure of. 

Bait is here in force, keeper bass are in the rips, and Jackal is off and running. Go time.

Did some fishing on Fathers Day yesterday. There are obviously differing philosophies on Mothers/Fathers Day, with some people saying you should spend time with your family, and others saying it's about the Mother/Father and they should have 'their day'. Or you do what I did, and do both. Cancelled mid afternoon golf and fished early, the hung with the family the rest of the day. 

I had dreams of coming home with a slob over my shoulder, making fresh striper tacos for the family as they all cheered and wrote songs about me. Instead, we limped out to Race Point at 5 am out of Green Harbor (don't ask about the Plymouth ramp situation if you haven't heard about that disaster) and had a fairly slow day. But it was a good day. My first trip out this year, good weather, a few fish, and the one big one above that Headhunt veteran Mike B. caught. A nice 38 inches. There was some controversy as he bought his 2016 license while on the boat minutes before the fish, so one could argue he should have surrendered the fish. To me.

I thought the day was going to be legendary - Headhunt tourney Capt Marcus and I were driving to the harbor and saw the biggest shooting star - or meteor/alien invasion - that we'd ever seen. Crazy all the way across the bright morning sky. I thought it was a sign. We then cruised out and hammered the macks right out of the gate. Had a few engine hiccups but made it to the Race and entered the fray of boats. Things looked good.

The fishing was spotty at best. Big moon may have shut things off a bit since Marcus was out two days before and crushed it. We saw a few boats picking off fish here and there but no consistent action. We did have a 13 yr old kiddo next to us on a commercial boat bring in a nice 40 inch fish while they had a diver under the boat - in the middle of all the traffic - who came up with two monster bags of lobster. Not bad. Still can't believe the guy was diving in the midst of all of the boats, while his crew hovered literally over him, and also fished. Impressive.

I had one decent fish, that was controversially measured quickly and thrown over. With the 1 fish limit we were quick on the trigger since it was the first fish, although in retrospect my desperate ass would have taken it if was a hair over 28. Sad, yet true.

Cruised back late and and spent the rest of the day with the animals on the beach (below), so all in all a good day. Still looking for my first keeper so hope to get out this weekend. Let me know if anyone has any reports. I hear the tuna are lighting up so shoot me over any reports (and/or exact numbers). 

Tourney is now almost 1 month away so get the registrations in. If you need any gear leading up to the big day - remember to hit Goose Hummock - best tackle shop on the Cape - with awesome url www.goose.com - and premiere sponsor of the Headhunt (another good url snag). They can hook you up with everything you need and Capt Austin Proudfoot (2nd place finisher last year) can help you find the fish.

Hope everyone had a great Father's Day.

​

Every year, as the fish are slowly migrating north for their spring arrival, my wife starts to migrate to our closets. I don't really understand the instinctual pull, but for some reason she goes through a marriage testing process of cleaning every room, and purging me and the boys of our clothes. I'm not sure I hate anything worse. Anyway, I fought off my closet long enough but was forced into the dungeon on a lovely Saturday night last night. My wife makes me take everything out, and then put stuff into piles, "trash", "donate" "put away for winter" and "keep". Then we battle.

Last night we almost divorced over the Headhunt.

The "trash" pile is always too light for her, and she argues that I don't need that many 'fishing shirts' and more should go in the trash. She also takes my stained shirts and takes them out of the 'donate' which I don't understand because don't people just need clothes?  Anyway, things typically are ok until we get to the Headhunt. 

As you know, this is the 13th year, so we have piled up a few years of shirts. We've had some misses in ordering early, had a few misses in style (my brothers famous last second decision to change the shirts to tan color), a few misspellings ("Shoot the thrill" anyone?) a few missed sponsors and a few disagreements that have resulted in 'special edition' shirts. Either way, I try to maintain at min a 50% of my wardrobe being Headhunt flavored. It may be the best thing about the tournament since we never win and typically brawl a few times. At least I get a few (or more) good shirts out of it.

So last night she decides we need to do a big Headhunt purge. I disagree. I argue that even some of the more 'game worn' ones should not be thrown out, but should be put in a box for free giveaway at the tourney. She argued that no one will want a 10 year old worn shirt. I disagree. They are great fishing shirts, collectors items, and chick slayers. 

We decided to start bringing shirts out from the closet, found a few random boxes hidden under the bed, the laundry, and other random places. There were a lot. So many that we got the kids involved to order them by year. By the end, we had found 74 Headhunt t-shirts in my possession (keep in mind we did this exercise last year).

I had every year except the 3rd Annual. Which is weird. I even found 4 of the original first year ones - can probably get enough on eBay for a new boat with those babies. Also had a few of the 'special edition' ones with the girl (see below) that was a controversial production.

Either way, we ended up putting a box of 50 shirts together. I refused to throw out any of them (and yes that means I'm keeping 24). I will be bringing the box to the tourney - and can bring Friday night to the Stove if anyone wants one. I know Team Jackal crew will be all over them. There are 50 shirts, a few 3XLs, a few stained ones, but probably 10-15 brand new never been worn ones. They will all be free. My wife is appalled, but I told her they would be wanted.

Send me something for this blog - picture, report, or just some content, and you will go to the top of the draft order. There are some beauties in there. May even throw in some of the test special edition shirts, one of the visors, or the 'RIP Headhunt' shirt I had made for Xmas the year (one of many) my family wanted to shut this baby down. Not happening. I need something to wear.

​(fishing report would typically be here if I caught anything)

I had my 20 year college reunion this weekend (Eagles on the warpath . . . ooh ahh!!) so no fishing for me. Some other Headhunters crushed it. 2 boats out of Plymouth hit Race Point hard, and dominated. Capt Rob and his crew mate Greg - Headhunt veterans, went out on Rob's boat the Charlotte E. with Capt Ethan of Team Jackal (fan favorites) also heading out on the Magalodon. Between the two boats I think they got over 20 keepers on live macks. Said it was pretty crowded out there but great start to the season.

Great to see, and also saw some photos today from Menace of Dennis who grabbed some nice bass on a tuna scouting mission. On top of that, saw Capt Austin Proudfoot - 2nd place in the Headhunt last year - get a nice tuna on his first trip east this year. Headhunters everywhere putting up numbers. Except really me, my brother, and other stalwart Ben.

The last member of Team Jackal always produces down in RI - and Tria didn't disappoint today with this nice slob below. 

Hopefully we can keep up the momentum and maybe one of the Burkes will get a keeper one of these days - doubtful - but you never know.

Keep the reports coming, and nice work this weekend. 

For those of us who live in the city - the fish are here in force. This may not have been the total domination that most people saw on the news last year - remember the magic here but it was still man vs. nature in the concrete jungle.

Fished for a few with the kiddos in the North End, while they screamed for daddy to play baseball with them, but we had business to take care of. Herring are still thick around the North End bridge - snagged a few on a Yo-Zuri minnow. Had a few keeper size bass following in all the way to the wall but couldn't get one to hit. Switched up a few times then put a popper on and hit this little fella right away. Good belly for a little guy, and was good to nab one in front of the 5 guys set up on the fenced off wooden pier who didn't get a thing.

Fish will only be here for a few more weeks, but I have the spot if anyone wants my numbers, or needs a local walking charter for a slice of bacon ranchero Ernesto's only a couple blocks away.

I should also be heading out with neighbor soon - he just signed up for Freedom Boat Club. Honestly seems like a no brainer. He was going to buy a boat and keep it in Charlestown. Looked into a slip and that alone was $4500/yr. Instead paid $4k and has access to a small fleet of new boats to take out whenever, no cleaning, no maintenance, and access to the other 10 places in MA (including 4 on the Cape) and other 100+ in the US (50 in FL alone). Not bad at all.

Sent out an email earlier this week with the registration - already have some good new teams emailing in. Fellow BC and Charlestowner is hooking up with local Harwich friend who could be a contender out of nowhere. Also had a crew of NJ college buddies now in the mix, and another boat out of Bass River, so competition could be as good as ever. Which makes our chances of winning our first ever tourney even tougher. But will be all the sweeter when it happens.

Keep the reports coming in, I should be hitting North End again this week. Was in Charlestown at kiddo baseball practice on the water and saw a couple big fish chasing herring in shallow water. 

To follow-up on last note, heard from Burnie on his Memorial Day fishing exploits. As expected, he came up empty handed. Way to go.

More to come including introducing some new sponsors this year. 

​Stay gold.

Burke clan just got back from a week in South Carolina, dominating the southern waters in preparation for the striper assault to take place on July 23rd. The domination included 3 six inch pin fish, 1 decent flounder, 1 spade fish (I think), a 4 inch black sea bass, a blue crab, plastic bag, a roll of tape, and about 76 oyster shells. If you're counting species, it was an epic haul. 

Fished off of Pawleys Island - which is a sweet spot and if anyone has any interest in a cool, laid back South Carolina town, let me know. The majority of the fishing down there is in the creek behind the island - a fast moving tidal creek. It's definitely a little weird, everyone in their aluminum jon boats slow trolling mud minnows they bounce off the bottom on flounder rigs. It's almost like Race Point, with boats just trolling in aisles back and forth. I rented a jon boat and had zero luck, even with the trusty crew above (who lasted about 30 min before I had to drop them off). I trolled forever, anchored at an inlet, and had nothing. Still good times. Then I hit the pier pretty hard, had sharks break me off about 10 times, but managed a keeper flounder (note the grip on the fish, and the cool ranch below) and a spade fish which at least made my family be slightly less disappointed in me. 

The 13th Annual Harwich Headhunt is happening. No one is really sure why, or how, but it's definitely on. July 23, 2016 - same time, place, and probably the same rules. We have had a few complaints about people fishing beyond Monomoy waters, especially when the fishing was tough like last year but all signs point to us keeping things the same - and simple.

More details to come, but wanted to get this up on the blog to get the word out. If anyone has any other ideas on how to improve, or volunteer to help, just shoot an email to [email protected]. As always we will be looking for sponsors and donations for prizes, and also ideas on charities/causes for a small donation.

At the end of the day, this tournament will continue to be a low key, community driven tourney focused on trash talking and just having a good time. We try not to take any of this too serious, and hope others don't as well. It's not about the money, it's about the day on the water, the after party, and the glory of being a champion angler - something the Burke family has yet to experience. This just might be the year.

We welcome kids, charters, and all newcomers. The tourney is only $200 a boat, which includes t-shirts, and we will be sure to a have a killer lineup of prizes to go along with the trophy and cash. 

We will be updating this blog regularly moving forward, and any/all fishing reports are always welcome here. Personally, I took first few casts with my new reel last night in Charlestown in the city, still a little early but good to get the rust off. Bait was definitely around, so hopefully I can repeat my performance in the North End last year (see blog from last year below).  We have heard reports of schoolies already in the mix down south, including the beauty above (and PETA worthy pic) from 13 year tourney veteran Ben who had some luck earlier this week in Westport so we know the big ones are almost here.

More to come, but save the date and spread the word. 

Another Headhunt is officially in the books. Somehow we've made it to 12 years. The fishing was the toughest it's ever been. We only had 7 fish weighed in, and maybe close to 7 caught in the entire tournament. Last year we had 3 fish over 40 lbs, and every single boat caught multiple bass. Either way, I hope everyone had a great time. Even though Team Jackal fished for two days straight with no bass, ate weird convenience store bought Chorizo rolls for two days straight, and burned about $300 worth of fuel, we still had a blast. If nothing else, we really appreciate everyone who fishes this tournament. We know there are a lot of local boats, charters, and people from Boston (and Buffalo this year) who make this an annual event - and thank you. And thank you to the Land Ho for another awesome after party - food was great.

Now to the tourney - the one in which we didn't weigh a fish. Chatter on the radio all day was light. We heard of a few boats going north, a couple going south, and a few going way south. All around the fishing was slow. We had two fish weighed in early that we thought would take the top spots. Team Powe came in first with a 20.8 lber that Team MVP Petey caught. Def a solid fish this year. Word is they lost two other good fish, but at least they got a money fish on the board. This crew of city slickers were on Ocean Effects charters, with awesome captains Jeff and Ernie - who helped Team Powe catch a 40 lber last year within an hour of tourney start time. Not bad. 

We also had last years champ Whiskey Tango and newcomers Slainte on the board for top non-charter category. And tourney veterans and favorites Navigator and Captain Jack at least putting fish on the board. Captain Jack fought hard to win the lowest fish weighed in - maybe in tourney history - which is sadly, still better than what we weighed in. They are tourney mainstays at this point, so great to see them make it happen - especially at the infamous yellow buoy where we were. The only piece of info all week was some yellow buoy, which we found, and where we dominated the dogfish but at least got to spend some quality time with the Burnies who were there as well. 

Then came Team Reelaxin. Local crew out of Harwich (love that some Harwichers won the Headhunt) made the strategic decision to trailer to a spot around the Elizabeth Islands. The team was a family team of Sundquists and I'm not sure who made that call, but they just might be the new head of the family - and big shout out to the young lady of the family who apparently is a fan (and one of the 7 visitors) of this blog! They came in and put an end to everything with a 33.2 lber. Great fish. Great team and hope they enjoyed the sweet reels donated by Goose Hummock that sat on my parents table for three days while I stared longingly at what I knew would not be mine. Those reels were legit.

So it ended with Team Reelaxin (non-charter) taking the prize, and Team Buffalo/Gracie J taking second and past champions Team Powe on Ocean Effects Charter taking 3rd. 

Even with the slow fishing, it was a great weekend and huge thanks to all our sponsors, Cape Cod Five, On the Water, The Hot Stove, and everyone else who helped out including Sunrise Bait & Tackle, Hakafish, Yeti Coolers and Sportfishing Magazine. Also a big shout out to ESP Tees who made the t-shirts again this year, Jean Burke and Karen from ESP designed what I think are the best shirts yet. 

We also had first time sponsor - Fishinghire.com - an awesome new site for fishing charters and information. They knew the way to the Headhunters hearts with free t-shirts and coozies and excited to watch this baby grow - definitely check them out. 

For Team Jackal, we had a rough start with our captain chumming the water early after a late night at the Hot Stove, and we had a few good high seas battles with the Burnie brothers - including Ben casting a lead jig from about 200 yards within about a foot of their boat - which would have ended things badly for Ben. Love the Burnies though - tourney wouldn't be the same without those meatsticks. The only other highlight of the tourney for Team Jackal was Ben eating - and chewing - two sand eels from our bait bag. No bet and really no reason. But it's all we had. Laughs. Memories. Sadness. Despair. 

But a huge thanks goes to Billy and Jean Burke for helping make this happen. It can be a pain to deal with, but we love being able to support the community and keep this a low key fun tournament. It's not about the prizes, but just about the bragging rights, trash talking, and good time we all have. One of these years we will win it and hit me up if anyone needs another t-shirt - we have plenty. Last thing is we have a few extra bucks this year and will be donating this to a local cause. We don't make any money off this - and never have - so we will be donating to a local charity. 

Thanks again to everyone. Now it's tuna time.
-- 

Save the comments - I know I didn't catch that.

Last years champ - Team Whiskey Tango

2nd place finishers Team Buffalo with Captain John.

Three goofballs who love their Headhunt shirts more than anything. Except maybe Chewbacca. Or ice cream. Or ninja turtles. 

Team Jackal all-stars Ben and Ethan (one of the few shots of him not sitting on a bucket) with tourney vets Team Charlotte E. in the foreground.