Plan was to fish a bluefish Tourney out of Staten Island N.Y Fri 7pm to Sat 4PM. Captain's meeting was Friday 5-7pm then head out. I called the meeting headquarters at 11pm and they said tourneys a go. Scott G, Jersey Joe and Cashin prepped the Hallie Loren with Chum, Rigs, Tons of Peanut Bunker that Scott had netted and food along with the weber grill. Scott and I drove the truck over to the Captains meeting and they said cancelled due to wind.
Ouch..
We drove back to NJ to the marina for a team meeting. Over dinner at the local Blue Rock Cafe we decided to head out first light to a closer location "Mudhole" And see if any blues were around and then brush up on our shark fishing.
At the Location we set up on anchor and got the slick going. Soon after all the Mackerel you could want were around. We had a blast catching them and putting a bunch in the live well. A few shark rigs were set up along with Bluefish rigs. The household blender was put to good use chopping up the peanut bunker for the chum mixture and it worked great.
One shark line started peeling off fast and Cashin grabbed it and set the hook with 3 hard pulls in the strike position. We cleared all lines and got ready. Line still peeling out hard the fish pulled the hook. 30 seconds later a 5' Mako jumped out of the water 2' from the stern of the boat. Maybe 5 feet high and disappeared. That was exciting. Another 30 seconds pass and the balloon set at 75' was heading east very fast. Scott G gets the rod and when the time was right sets the drag to strike and sets the hook with 3 quick pulls of the Avet 30W. We all go into a well rehearsed motion of clearing lines, getting fighting belt on, prep flying gaff and tail rope. Ready the shotgun for action. The first jump showed us it was a small 5' thresher. Scott has it boat side very fast so we decided to release it and wait for a Mako. As we prepped to release the Thresher boat side it came loose. We were happy about this because the situation just got safer.
No more sharks came our way so we lit up Weber grill and had Kabobs, chicken on a stick and burgers along with nice cold refreshments.
All in all a fun day. The wind made it a bit sporty on the outside but the boat handled it well.
Good Luck,
Eddie
