did anyone get out for sbft this weekend north of the cape ? i am going to head out on monday and try agian and i was just wondering if anyone had any luck .

we were out yesterday{sat} out of the merrimac. not one tuna from isle of shoals down to thatchers island seen for us.cold north wind has them down. mon should be 90* and west wind so they should show up again.
last weekend they were all arround 1/2way hump.

We hit and lost a good one today; the other boat hit and landed 2. Both were small (25-30lbs). All were caught on deep divers, absolutely nothing on top. All near Thatcher's.

NADA off Bahstan today, went almost to the NW corner and back searching everywhere, crap load of blues inside....

Sweet day on the ocean just the same.

thanks for the responses , going to give it a shot seas permiting , only running an18 ' and the last trip out i got a little beat up . the plan on paper is to hit the s/w corner , worth a shot most likley my last chance for the season .

Today isn't looking good weatherwise.
I saw :eyes: nothing yesterday out to BUZM3

I'm going out tomorrow, you can bet if they are around and I can actually catch one............ I'LL BE POSTING IT !!!!!!!!!!!

we got three 40 pounders in the boat today. off tillies bank.
lost more than i care to mention..



funny lookin tuna though.
they had whiskers .....

bumpy ride out today. west wind was howlin.
saw a bunch of schools of tuna come close, ,,,but nuthing worth leaving the slick to chase after.
got two blue sharks 80# and 250# and lost two more. strolled accross a school of whale cod. the only ones we could pry off the botom were the 35-40 pounders. lost many more larger fish on the way up. thats what i get for jiggin cod with my striper rod :gf:

we got three 40 pounders in the boat today. off tillies bank.
lost more than i care to mention..



funny lookin tuna though.
they had whiskers .....

bumpy ride out today. west wind was howlin.
saw a bunch of schools of tuna come close, ,,,but nuthing worth leaving the slick to chase after.
got two blue sharks 80# and 250# and lost two more. strolled accross a school of whale cod. the only ones we could pry off the botom were the 35-40 pounders. lost many more larger fish on the way up. thats what i get for jiggin cod with my striper rod :gf:

Nice job Mike!!!
:btu:

good eating there , i never made it out of the harbor , it was rolling white caps in quincy bay , i did not even try to go outside . i took my dad and we beat up the small blues with lite tackle / top water. not what i was hoping for but not a bad day with pops , tomorow i do the sunrise express for the striped ones :D

[QUOTE=blue oyster]good eating there , i never made it out of the harbor , it was rolling white caps in quincy bay , i did not even try to go outside . i took my dad and we beat up the small blues with lite tackle / top water. not what i was hoping for but not a bad day with pops , tomorow i do the sunrise express for the striped ones :D[/QUO


oops!!!

I ran 50 NM in a 32' Whaler with twin Verado's on Sundat AM (Sunrise). We went from Cohasset past the "H" off to Race Point and back to the "B" without seeing one fish jump. Nice 5-7 foot Swells....

A little birdie told me that they hooked up off of Fishing Ledge... on top...

Saw only a few SE of the BF today, not enough to get a good shot at them.

Insane action inside the harbor with bass and blues. buddy got a nice FAT 20 lber. We left this action in the morning and in the evening when we came back in it was still happening. Loads and loads of fish..... :jump:

Why did you leave it? :eek5:

Why did you leave it? :eek5:

For bigger and better things !!!!! :bounce: :eyes:

Guess who caught the big one !!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

I can guess who didn't! :rotf3:

I can guess who didn't! :rotf3:


That would be YOU Larry!!! :rotf3:

Ron where is yours? :eyes:

Ron where is yours? :eyes:


Last time I checked,
I'm in 2nd position in both bass & blue fish in the annual MABA derby,( boat division!)
By the way, hows that blue fish you weighed in holding up? :rotf3:

Ronnie your still holding 2nd in bass and blue (Boat) Larry's blue (caught on the KARAVI) dropped to third.

I got NUTIN !!!!!!!

Talkin' tuna Ron.....got any? :rollem:

Talkin' tuna Ron.....got any? :rollem:


Last time we went for them (2 weekends ago)
We got 4, (more like my boat got 4)
I reeled in 2
Mike reeled in 1
Ed reeled in 1
That answer your question buddy!!!
:think: :heybaby:

huge blitz tonight from deer island to long island.
tide pushed them to the backside of long island near the rock.
friggin stupid-crazy blitz! i tried calling you and van, fred said you guys were home doing the dishes. :rollem:

What...no pics? :eyes:

What...no pics? :eyes:


no time to take pics,
when the blitz goes down.
fish-on!

Bass and Blues,, Like what has been going on all week???

AND.......Who's Fred ????

Anywayz...Thanks, but I couldn't have got out, gotta do the house/kids thingy while wifes spends my money in ITALY !!!!!!! :crying: :crying:

Figures my last weekend of freedom and the weathers gonna SUK !!! :realmad: :realmad:

Bass and Blues,, Like what has been going on all week???

AND.......Who's Fred ????



yep bass and blues..

fred = sea monkey

Thats strange, as far as I can remember, Fred is afraid of the water even though he owns a boat. ;) ;) :fishslap:

Thats strange, as far as I can remember, Fred is afraid of the water even though he owns a boat. ;) ;) :fishslap:


Thats why we call him the "dock monkey"

ohh he wasn't out there.
he was sitting in the cave with the tv on. he just responded when he heard me callin you.
says to me,,, "your not actually out in this crap are you"

ohh he wasn't out there.
he was sitting in the cave with the tv on. he just responded when he heard me callin you.
says to me,,, "your not actually out in this crap are you"




Now, that makes sense..... :laugha:

out east ( way out east) Monday, 9/19/05. Desperate One and crew. "Captain" (?) Dave "Buzz Lightyear" LaPorte, Eric "Bewildered" Lafleur and me "Flaptail Bilgerat". 6 to 8's dodging a frieghter than a cruise ship coming north in the shipping lanes. Had six crash and miss in as many minutes and hung two later on. Seas died with the tide and went from tempest to flat as a pancake in a matter of hours. Caught some bass off of Chatham on the way in too. Bass were in the low teens to mid twenty pound and some bluefish as well. All colors of squids were looked at and the GM was king.

The little dot on the horizon behind Eric is a cruise ship.

nice pics!
we're comin your way this weekend with the trailer bote. we could pair up?


thats 80# mono to four foot bimini, the bimini is the first bump on the line about 2' down. and 15' of wire.
he's big!

40 minutes on him @25# drag.

Nice blue dog; definetly upper 2's low 3 range... they start gettin mean when the water drops in temp....

Was that the one I caught with ya or was that from monday?

thats the one from monday.didn't get any good pics of yours.

Fished CC Bay yesterday. Was oput of the canal before the sun even lightened the eastern sky and was on the spot with stars still visible to the west. Saw the space station zip by, that was cool. As the sun started to lighten the sky we set out the rigs and started to see SBFT'S popping all over the zone. Took out the trusty Loomis Spiining rod with 20lb fireline and whipped out a 2100 series creek chub popper on a bunch that was breakin' a hundred feet from the hull. Bam I am on. Fifteen minutes later the Gorram' fish finds a buoy and see ya later. Well ten minutes after that I spy another bunch and whip out the ol spinning rod again and second cast a fish in the 45 to 50 pound class engulfs my second Creek Chub ( the first still attached to a tuna's lips) Oh My Gawd!!!! Want to see line disappear from a reel? That's one way to see it go. We had lines out with rigs and the critter crossed the one deep rig we always run with a CD-18 Rapala on it and tied knots in the line around my Fireline. In the ensuing choas trying to get the cd-18 off of my line I lost tension and the barbless hook pulled. Oh well. I did get what I really wanted and that was to see a few of them attack my plug. Boy oh Boy was that the balls!!!!!! Weather we crappy as the southeast breeze came up and the fish got lockjaw. End of story. ( That is the second time this weekend that the wind killed a bite for me, I was on the beach somewhere on the lower Cape and had fish all over my Beachmaster Dannys. Several landed to 40 inches or so, not big but fun fish and poof the wind goes east hard and in an hour the mung is back in with weed and the fish are gone es't Vous!!!! It was pretty funny watching the other buggies go by while I would flip it into free spool and let the fish run until the trucks were way down and reel them in. I only saw one little bait fish pop out of the water as I was cruising the edge in my truck. Stopped and there was a herd there, unbelievable) :rotf3:

Good stuff Flap. Has your experience been that you must be there at first light to find them? Headed out of the Pamet this coming Sat, but it will be after a night on the beach so not sure we'll make first light....

Good stuff Flap. Has your experience been that you must be there at first light to find them? Headed out of the Pamet this coming Sat, but it will be after a night on the beach so not sure we'll make first light....
Absolutely. The fish in the bay are "retarded" as my good friend Dave LaPorte would say. We can't get them to hit anything that we troll out east of Chatham. The Chatham fish will devour a Daisy chain of squid, a spreader bar or GM with birds out front if they are in the area. But these CCB fish, and there are a lot of them, will hit a popper at first light then get lock jaw. We have trolled all day there and only once we got crashed and that was by a giant who thankfully did not get the hook stuck on a 30lb class outfit. Looked like someone dropped a kingsize bed on the rig when he hit. I rather would fish East of Chatham. We were out there last week east of the shipping lanes and got crashed six times in as many minutes. Got to go southeast of there now but pick your day and you can lnad ten or more. CC Bay is my home waters but the runand gun gets old fast and I was lucky yesterday to have even hooked up. It is exciting I will give you that but give me the fish east of Chatham anyday.

:lasso: 3 for three today on the PEGASUS in cc bay

two on black bars.
and one on a sm. bird-gm. combination.




thats what 2,500 horsepower on a 58' ocean does to 4-6 footers :liquify:

Thats some serious wake there :kewl:

So let me ask for a little advice for my weekend trip. I have a single 30lb spinning setup with 30lb power pro. Also, some trolling setups in the 30lb class. I have 2 friends with me, newbies to stripers/tuna, and we have allocated Saturday to the tuna hunt as Friday and Sat nights will be eels on the backbeach. I have a permit but have never seen nor caught a SBFT.

If we're out of the Pamet by 5:00 am (18' Grady CC), would you recommend heading towards the SW corner and working to the H? Or would you shoot for the fishing ledge? Once there, do you guys troll while looking for the schools or cruise around? Do you look for bait on the finder? Any tips are appreciated. Last time at the ledge it was nothing but dogs finning everywhere...

I'm a considerate captain that is not going to crash anyones action, just looking to maximize the chance that we get a cast or two. Unfortunately the waters east of Chatham are not an option.

can't help you with location but trolling seems to be the way to go.
troll whear you think they are, or look for the birds. five or six white turns offshore is a good indication of tuna under them. if there's shearwaters there too? even better. cast at them if you can, but don't run too close to them, they spook very easy. troll arround the school and cast in the middle with small stuff. but if you overrun them don't blast up another 100' just mosey over there if you keep the same rpm's they will stay up.the ones we saw yesterday under the birds were 20#, so super-light approach would be the way to go.
for trolling i would put your two 30# outfits with green machines back about 40 feet and put your spinning rod and a small jet head about eight feet behind the boat rubber banded to a cleat so it's in the wash.

i'd save a few of those eels to toss into the blitz too :devil2:

CapeCodder, trolling is not the way to go in CC Bay unless your targeting giants. Catching two after trolling all day with rigs is not very productive in my book especially from a fifty footer trolling God knows how many rigs. Might as well watch paint dry. If you want to troll them with a higher degree of success then go east of Chatham but your boat is a wee bit too small for that water. That being said if you want to catch fish in CC Bay get a chart and find Fishing Ledge. That's all you need to know. Get there right at or better yet just before sunrise. You will see them believe me. Cruise up on a pod and let go with any popping plug you have. Cut face traditional styles work better than pencils. Chrome with green, chartreuse or Mackerel patterns are best. If the popper floats even better. A three foot 30 pound Flouro leader to a good ball bearing swivel to the braid and a Breakaway 80lb speed clip completes the rig. Forget blind casting you need to put the plug right into the middle of the breaking fish and pop it good but not real fast. Nice and steady. You will know when you hook up and hold on. Watch for the lobster pot buoys and try to keep the fish away from them, which ain't easy. If you can't be there at dawn try ther evening. It doesn't mean they will not break in between those periods but it does seriously increase your chances of hooking up. The rest is up to you.

Flap and Freak,
Thanks to both of you. I think Flaps method will be the way to go for me. May hit the SW corner as well. Then Ptown for bass afterwards.

I'll report back Monday...

Now that I have my intinerary down, how does one properly bleed and clean a bluefin? Got to be prepared... From what part does the best sashimi come?

trolling is not the way to go in CC Bay unless your targeting giants. Catching two after trolling all day with rigs is not very productive in my book especially from a fifty footer trolling God knows how many rigs. Might as well watch paint dry.

hmmm,
in my book, trolling up three tuna on a 58 footer in 4-6 footers, with a 6hr charter, is very productive....
especially when the rest of the fleet is home... and there's no fish showing on the surface.

hmmm,
in my book, trolling up three tuna on a 58 footer in 4-6 footers, with a 6hr charter, is very productive....
especially when the rest of the fleet is home... and there's no fish showing on the surface.


Mike,
I need a ride on that boat!!!

Mike,
I need a ride on that boat!!!


you busy this weekend? :hihi:

you busy this weekend? :hihi:


Where we going? :jester:

Where we going? :jester:
not far..... 10 miles from graves..in the bay

hmmm,
in my book, trolling up three tuna on a 58 footer in 4-6 footers, with a 6hr charter, is very productive....
especially when the rest of the fleet is home... and there's no fish showing on the surface.

Mike, you know I luv ya but you gotta go east. A bad day is ten fish. ;)

Now that I have my intinerary down, how does one properly bleed and clean a bluefin? Got to be prepared... From what part does the best sashimi come?

First off, the tuna regs change October 1st. one fish between 47 and 73 inches I beleive, one per boat. I do not have the bulletin in front of me. That's a substantially larger fish. They are out there but the smaller ones outnumber them by a long shot. A tuna found to be legal should be chin gaffed. Gaffing in the belly or across the back ruins good tuna flesh. Use two in the chin or cheek if needed for weight. Just where the gills meet the lower part of the throat mkae a slice and free the gill where they attach at the bottom. Tie a tail rope and hang the fish over the side unless you like blood on everything. Give him five to ten minutes and bring him back aboard and finish the gutting process then pack him on ice even the belly cavity. Tunas don't "fillet" like normal fish. Two from the shoulders back to the tail and two from the cheeks and belly back. You will find an area around the latereal line that is dark red and full of minute veins and hundreds of small white threadlike nerve endings. Cut that off. It's tuff and it just sucks anyway. Skin and cut the piece into medallions 3/4 of an inch thick. I don't do shashimi. I rub with a mix 1/2 cajun spince and 1/2 brown sugar both sides and each side three minutes on the grill. Yummy.

Thanks Flap, got to be prepared and optimistic!

I caught my first sbft last Friday on a popper. Now I have tuna fever. Bleed out the fish by making two vertical slices just behind the pectoral fins. The slices do not have to be deep. You should also plunge a knife through the soft part of its head into its brain to kill it immediately. These fish will continue to produce lactic acid which degrades the flesh if they are not killed immediately. It needs to be gutted immediately and have its cavity packed with ice especially if you are going to eat the tuna as sashimi.

thats 2,500 horsepower on a 58' ocean

And you can almost see the gas guage moving!!!!

I caught my first sbft last Friday on a popper. Now I have tuna fever. Bleed out the fish by making two vertical slices just behind the pectoral fins. The slices do not have to be deep. You should also plunge a knife through the soft part of its head into its brain to kill it immediately. These fish will continue to produce lactic acid which degrades the flesh if they are not killed immediately. It needs to be gutted immediately and have its cavity packed with ice especially if you are going to eat the tuna as sashimi.



dont plunge a knife anywhere. especially in the good head meat.

do like flap said and cut there throat while the hearts still pumpin' and hang them bye the tails to bleed.

don't kill them right away. bleed them out til the heart stops beating.
then gut them, remove head/gills/guts. then ice them down good.

If one does not have shaved ice is regular ice ok? Will it bruise or ruin the meat? Do you mix with some salt water?

dont plunge a knife anywhere. especially in the good head meat.

do like flap said and cut there throat while the hearts still pumpin' and hang them bye the tails to bleed.

don't kill them right away. bleed them out til the heart stops beating.
then gut them, remove head/gills/guts. then ice them down good.


I have to disagree with the above. Here is a link to proper tuna handling.

http://www.fishep.com/fep/documents/Sashimi.pdf

If one does not have shaved ice is regular ice ok? Will it bruise or ruin the meat? Do you mix with some salt water?

Got Ice Rink?

I have to disagree with the above. Here is a link to proper tuna handling.

http://www.fishep.com/fep/documents/Sashimi.pdf

Interesting and thanks for posting, everyone should read the description there are some really detailed diagrams, but since I am not fishing for commercial sale to the Japanese Sashimi market and since I have had no problems with the way I have been doing it I will stick to the methods I use. The cut I make does not sever the heart but the ateries seperating the gills for the heart and it pumps until the fish dies from loss of blood. Then we bring back aboard and remove all the entrails, scrub and pack on ice. One thing i always marvel at when doing this is that the fishes body cavity temperature is noticeably warmer than the the water. I guess they do indeed develop body heat. Thanks again for posting. It ain't over by a long shot so go get 'em while you can it's a long winter.

It ain't over by a long shot so go get 'em while you can it's a long winter.


thanks flappytail!!!! :lm: you rock!! thanks again for the hospitality
boated 3 for 5 today with about three more knockdowns.

Your killin me!!! :drool: :drool: :bc:

Guys,
FWIW, in doing my reports yesterday I hear that the tuna are back in the Mud Hole and there was a hot tuna bite 7 miles south of Block Island. Supposedly keep sized BFT were tough to come by in the Mud Hole, but common south of Block.

thanks flappytail!!!! :lm: you rock!! thanks again for the hospitality
boated 3 for 5 today with about three more knockdowns.

Mike, we all had a good time in our boat teaming up with you and John on yours. It shure is nice knowing that far offshore that a helping hand is near and for finding fish, well, it just works so much better! Although slow, the fishing was fun, the last fish we landed after coming back to meet up with you guys was our biggest to date. A shade over sixty pounds. Seems pink was the color of the day on our end and that black/Rainbow combo you guys had working, that combo in Blurple with a pink/purple stinger has been good to us. Hope you guys can make it down to join us again one more time before it's over. They get a little bigger come fall even though there might not be that many. My digital camera had something happen to it and I cannot get the pics I took out. Had some nice ones of you guys trolling among all the whales. Dammit, technology sometimes sucks! Anyway look forward to the next time, Flap. :kewl:

yes indeedie!!
we'll be down the next open weather window!
and thanks for the escort out the river. or we'd still be stuck in the sand waitin' for the tide to come up.
could not belive all the seals down there. now i know what all the complainin' is about.

nice to get the call from friends 10-15 miles away on a hot bite, and have that long run pay off huh?
glad you got that big one. thats what we were hoping for all day.
sorry about your antenna but chit happens right. :fishslap:

I thought I'd report back after my first tuna trip saturday. Left the Pamet and arrived at the Fishing Ledge just before sunup. No birds or signs of activity along the way or on the ledge. Trolled a squid chain and diving rapala for about 45 minutes without any sign of life.

Just as we were getting ready to head off, 2 small footballs surfaced next to the boat and disappeared, not to be seen again.

On the way to Stellwagen, came across a huge pod of porpoises that was pretty cool. No signs of any tuna, no birds, nothing, so hit the waters of PTown for bass.

Nice take of bass in the 36-38" range on jigs and live eels.

Saturday night hit the back beaches of Truro with eels both live and rigged, dannies, needles, and more. Not even a bump.... Beautiful night but no fish.

Overall a great trip as I put 2 good friends on to fish.

Maybe next year for tuna....

The tuna are moving. The truro area outside has some and the giants were active off of the Duxbury/Plymouth area. We had to go way east and south Sunday.