Crew: Greg, Chris and John
Water Temp: 64.5
Tide: Unkown
Wind: South West 5-10 knots
Conditions: Sunny and 2 - 3 foot seas
Caught: 214 Thresher, 10 Blue Sharks
When I go shark fishing I often tell the crew as we are heading out "Today could be a day you will never forget" , we had one of those today.
Met up with Greg, Chris and John a little after 4am and I was delighted to see the dock at my new marina was alive with activity.
The old marina we would of been mouse like quite loading the boat, this marina there was two dozen people up and walking around getting ready to go fishing!
My intention was to do some trolling for some bluefin and try to find a good spot for sharking – I knew were I wanted to go, just didn’t know if someone was going to beat me to it or if there would be any life in the area!
Headed out and it was a little bit choppy so I kept the speed down to a comfortable 25mph cruise, rounded Montauk and pointed the boat south and was able to increase to a normal cruise of 30 mph.
There was a layer of clouds so we didn’t catch that early morning sunrise, but the clouds quickly burned off.
Put the tuna spread in once we hit 64 degree water.
Got the lines all set up and then was treated to a pod of dolphins playing in front of the boat.
Trolled for about an hour making our way to the area I wanted to fish and was really happy to only barely be able to see one boat miles off to the west.
The water color had also improved quite a bit over the four mile trolling.
Not perfect water, but really good.
We set up four baits, one at the thermocline, one at 60 feet, one 30 feet and a pitch bait right under the boat.
I was anxious to try out my new Penn International 30’s that I had just bought from J&B a few days earlier.
A little over an hour into the drift the 30 foot rods goes off and we quickly bring in a small blueshark.
For the next four hours we have a steady time with blue sharks as we slide down from 200’ to 230’ of water, just the drift I wanted.
Sometime shortly after lunch the close international 30 starts to really scream.
Greg is already fighting a blueshark but this new fish is taking line fast.
The hook is set hard and the fish makes a run on the surface strait away from the boat.
“This is a nice fish” I hear someone say!
“Jump! JUMP! JUMP!” someone (maybe me) screams.
Greg has perfect timing, releasing his blueshark just as this mystery fish dives deep, really putting the 60 lb line to the test!
Chris is just doing a great job with the rod and the boat is already running as we work to keep the fish positioned in the back corner.
After half an hour of tug-a-war -
"We lost it” Chris says as the line goes slack –
“REEL REEL REEL” we all yell and he cranks fast – fish is still on but coming up fast….
The fish skirts across the top of water from starboard to port in a matter of seconds, tail slapping out of the water confirming what we all suspected, a thresher.
We are then treated to witness this majestic fish fly completely out of the water about 100 yards off the back of the boat!
We had discussed how we would handle a keeper shark early on and we all get into position.
John does a great job handling the boat, Chris is playing the rod man part perfectly, Greg grabs the leader and brings it to me like a pro, and I hit the fish with the fly gaff, the fish rolls, and the gaff pops out?????
Quickly reset and hit him again, again he rolls and it pops out??!??!?!?!?
“Don’t screw this up now” I am thinking to my self, one more time I quickly re-rig the fly gaff and hit him, he rolls, and buries the hook deep inside.
A quick tail rope and it is game over.
Drag the fish backwards for a while and then up and over the side!
Cheers from all of us! The fish measures out at 72” and we place our bets on the weight.
Flew in at 32 mph is some very nice rolling following seas!
A quick call to the new marina confirms that they have a scale that goes to 500lbs.
The fish weighted in at 214 lbs.
It was just a great day for all four of us! We gave steaks to the crew that helped us unload the fish and to HookemHemm who recommend the marina. I think it made a good day for them too!!!
This fish took a long skinny bluefish fillet set about 30 feet below the surface. We were about 5 miles west of the horns.
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