2012 MSSA Tuna-Ment Recap

[Bend-Lure]

We had a great time fishing out of Chincoteague for the 2012 MSSA Tuna-Ment. The captains meeting Thursday night at Capt Steves was a lot of fun. We layed Friday and fished Saturday and Sunday.

We started the day Saturday by leaving the inlet at 4:30am in the dark. It was a little rough, but we were ok. Lost my brand new bent but planer rod on the way out though. Lesson learned - always tie the bent butt rod down. I hadn't even used the rod once, and now it lies somewhere between Chinco and the Washington in about 30 fathoms.

We worked the washington and picked up a 10# mahi. Moved inside to the 40 line in the afternoon and picked up one more mahi. That was it. Seas laid down and we ran in at 30 knots.

Got past Curtiss Merrit and was flagged down by a pair of old dudes in an old rowboat with small outboard. The were dead in the water so we towed them back to Capt Bob's Marina.

Our contribution to neptune and the good Karma from offering a tow paid off on Sunday. We left again at 4:30am to find dead flat seas. We ran to a spot south west of the washington and had our spread in the water exactly at 6:30. Picked up 2 skippies quick, then four yellowfin over the next 4 hours. All singles. Two on B/W spreaderbars, one on an ilander/bally on the LR, and one on a GM daisy behind a bird WB.

Had a little lull in the action but continued to work the bait balls. Two big mahi crash the spread. One breaks off a B/W spreader bar immediately. The other takes a B/W bar and proceeds to cartwheel across the entire spread fouling most of the lines. He then spit the hook.

We recovered from that and re-configured the spread since we were down a spreader bar. A few minutes later - Big pull, again on a B/W spreaderbar. This time its a white marlin. He takes line then jumps across the WB bird line, and breaks the bird line. We land the white and the bird is tangles with the bar, so we recovered everything. Beautiful fish, probably 50#. Released.

I took a half hour nap.

Woke up and we started bringing in the lines. Bird/GM goes off with our fifth YFT to close out the day.

Seas were glass all day so we ran in at 32 knots most of the way.

Ended up with three mahi, five yellowfin totalling about 180#, two skippies and a white marlin release for the weekend. Great time, Great Crew, plenty of fish, adn the boat ran great. Cant wait to fish the Tuna-ment again next year. Congrats to Crabby and the other winners.

-Jeremy