Me and my crew of friends Adam and Jeff and my brother-in-law Ralph fished the Warriors for Warriors shark tournament on 6/13 from Manasquan Inlet. This was two 'firsts' for me; (1) first offshore trip with the Kristy Marie and (2) first shark tournament entry.
We left the dock at 01:00 and headed to the inlet. Knowing that the forecast was for sporty conditions the plan was to make a quick run to the Monster's Ledge, fish overnight there and move south with false light. We started our run to the east and it was an unbearable. 4' - 5' at about 5 seconds from the S/SW made the ride horrible. Polling the crew we decided to just suck it up and take the beating on the chin and nosed her south for the 50+ mile run. It was a long, wet, rough ride. We hit the area at about 04:00 and it was lines in.
First fish comes tight at about 07:00. Adam lands a feisty 60" mako. I am sure it would've tasted good but, tournament rules was 66"/150# minimum so, we released it. It was still early and the conditions were improving as forecasted so, we thought we could at least get one more to either weigh or eat. That didn't happen. It was the only mako for the day. We did do battle with 3 or more blue sharks, one being pretty large. We had a mako pup take up a lot of our time by fraying a few lines. We were happy to see that thing leave, that's for sure!
We did have a weak mystery bite. Pulled the bait and found two, distinct triangle bites about 1" wide. We then saw a LARGE shadow slowly swim around for a few seconds. It looked like a swimming refrigerator. I read a report from a guy fishing the same are that he had seen a great white at about 0300. That was cool.
Overall the trip was a success. Unfortunately Jeff was sick for almost the entire trip, but we did coax him to get on the stick once (that was more than enough for him). The Kristy Marie handled well and had no problems other than a few more loose/missing screws/bolts from the beating we took getting out. Nothing that can't be fixed!
We are ready for our next trip!
If anyone didn't know, the Warriors for Warriors tournament raises money for the treatment and prevention of PTSD of our veterans. A sad statistic that I learned at the captains meeting was that on average 23 veterans commit suicide each day. SAD! It felt good to be able to do our small part to help.
