Broke my own personal curse yesterday. Epic day out on the water, and
finally picked up a tuna. When I asked my wife the night before where I put my
fishing shorts, she just said “why do you call them that when you don’t catch
anything? they’re just shorts now”. Love the support from the family. In spite of my wife, we had a great day out yesterday, with 4 members of Team Jackal joined by our fellow Westford Academy Grey Ghost and current Pinehills golf pro Mike Rothera.
Met at the dock at 4 am, and cruised out and around the corner in flat calm seas. Headed up north and had lines in around 5:30. Within 15 min we had a knockdown, but didn’t hook up. Keep in mind, I’m about 0 for my last 25 trips so another knockdown with no hook up was some early excitement, but also an early kick in the sandbar. Action was slow for the next few hours and we moved in and around a growing fleet with a few hook-ups on the radio, and one boat cruised past us hanging a fish off the back. We gave them the thumbs up and they just said “Took us 5 days, but we’ll take it!”.
Around 9, we left the fleet and headed further south. We started to see crashing fish and at one point had them surface about 10 feet from our bow, and thought we were destined for a hook up. Nothing. After about an hour of crashing fish, things shut down and I started to dread the all too familiar drive back empty handed. Around 10:30, our port long rigger, on a black bar, went tight and we were on. After a good, and well orchestrated battle, we landed a 48 inch fish. Nothing crazy but definitely long overdue and capped off a good day. We fished for a few hours more, jigged a bit on the way in and only caught some monster bluefish, took a swim, and headed in. Flat calm perfect day, catching the fish a few miles away from the fleet, and carving out the still beating heart for everyone to take a bite of, was a pretty sweet day.
Crazy that we’ve now caught a tuna before my brother or I have caught a keeper bass this year, so now we need to get our heads in the game for tourney time. I love the trash talk on the board, and keep it coming. Corduroy and Team Dangler are coming out guns blazing but we’ll see if they can back it up. It does seem like rips have calmed down a bit so things will be interesting and with a non-charter champion now in the mix as well, this could be the year for Team Jackal. Even with all the trash talk, I think Sportbag sadly is kind of like Petey’s Jets, all talk but with no real chance to win it.
Lastly, we have another prize. Our mother, Jean Burke, is a local artist, and she agreed to paint a water color of the winning boat as part of the prize package. Probably an 11x14 picture, but framed, and she usually gets a few hundred bucks for these types of paintings so should be legit.
Get your registrations in the spread the word – we need some more boats to make this the biggest tourney yet, and hope everyone is planning on hitting the Hot Stove next Friday night for some pre-tourney drinks and trash talk. The new t-shirts will be there as well for folks who want to buy one. Keep sending in any pics and reports, and get your heads in the game for next week – it’s going to be epic.
finally picked up a tuna. When I asked my wife the night before where I put my
fishing shorts, she just said “why do you call them that when you don’t catch
anything? they’re just shorts now”. Love the support from the family. In spite of my wife, we had a great day out yesterday, with 4 members of Team Jackal joined by our fellow Westford Academy Grey Ghost and current Pinehills golf pro Mike Rothera.
Met at the dock at 4 am, and cruised out and around the corner in flat calm seas. Headed up north and had lines in around 5:30. Within 15 min we had a knockdown, but didn’t hook up. Keep in mind, I’m about 0 for my last 25 trips so another knockdown with no hook up was some early excitement, but also an early kick in the sandbar. Action was slow for the next few hours and we moved in and around a growing fleet with a few hook-ups on the radio, and one boat cruised past us hanging a fish off the back. We gave them the thumbs up and they just said “Took us 5 days, but we’ll take it!”.
Around 9, we left the fleet and headed further south. We started to see crashing fish and at one point had them surface about 10 feet from our bow, and thought we were destined for a hook up. Nothing. After about an hour of crashing fish, things shut down and I started to dread the all too familiar drive back empty handed. Around 10:30, our port long rigger, on a black bar, went tight and we were on. After a good, and well orchestrated battle, we landed a 48 inch fish. Nothing crazy but definitely long overdue and capped off a good day. We fished for a few hours more, jigged a bit on the way in and only caught some monster bluefish, took a swim, and headed in. Flat calm perfect day, catching the fish a few miles away from the fleet, and carving out the still beating heart for everyone to take a bite of, was a pretty sweet day.
Crazy that we’ve now caught a tuna before my brother or I have caught a keeper bass this year, so now we need to get our heads in the game for tourney time. I love the trash talk on the board, and keep it coming. Corduroy and Team Dangler are coming out guns blazing but we’ll see if they can back it up. It does seem like rips have calmed down a bit so things will be interesting and with a non-charter champion now in the mix as well, this could be the year for Team Jackal. Even with all the trash talk, I think Sportbag sadly is kind of like Petey’s Jets, all talk but with no real chance to win it.
Lastly, we have another prize. Our mother, Jean Burke, is a local artist, and she agreed to paint a water color of the winning boat as part of the prize package. Probably an 11x14 picture, but framed, and she usually gets a few hundred bucks for these types of paintings so should be legit.
Get your registrations in the spread the word – we need some more boats to make this the biggest tourney yet, and hope everyone is planning on hitting the Hot Stove next Friday night for some pre-tourney drinks and trash talk. The new t-shirts will be there as well for folks who want to buy one. Keep sending in any pics and reports, and get your heads in the game for next week – it’s going to be epic.