North Carolina 7/24/2010

Headed out 65 miles offshore with Captain Mike of Live Line charters on Saturday 7/24/2010.

Onboard were 5 blokes from the big apple Benson, Sherman, George, Raymond and myself, most of them are new to this game and had no clue what they will be expecting.
Weatherman was calling 15 to 20 knots with gust up to 25,not a very comfortable situation to be in, but the guys has been looking forward to this trip since May, and all of them were dying to wrestle the reef donkeys which they heard from friends and forums. LOL the power of internet!
After more than 2 hours of airborne and crashing on angry seas, they reached Eden…Mike signaled to us, “I’m reading fish” and down went my jig followed by the rest, crank crank crank…ZZZZzzzZZzzzz and I was tight and ZZZzzzZZ Raymond was tight and followed by George.
Triple hookups! Both me and George landed our fish and Raymond got cut off…we went back and started our second drift only to be greeted by a school of hungry and aggressive fish! YES we all hooked up, all 5 of us!
For the rest of the day, we encountered triple, quadruple and even a couple of fives, largest AJ was a 75lb – 80lb’er, some other species that were caught are African Pompano, Scamp Grouper and a Sand Tile.
Anyone who wants to go down to NC and tackle some donkeys should do so soon, SW winds have been blowing for 2 straight weeks and should be dying out welcoming calmer seas.
I’m not gonna elaborate on the tackle used, as 90% of the tackle used are from us, for those who are new and would like to try this painful sport (just kidding it’s not that painful), here are some tips, long jigs = AJ’s, Almaco Jacks, shorter jigs = Groupers or African pomps.
Before letting the pictures do the talking, Captain Mike, thank you very much for your professional service as a captain, and the Fantastic Four that were fishing with me, thank you! I had a blast! See you lads soon in the water!
Ok, now for the pics
Cheers,
Paul.

I had the pleasure to be onboard Captain Josh Osprey along Captain Dave from Miami and Raymond from New York.

Left the dock at 4:00 am and encountered busting fish early in the morning, around 6:00 am Captain Dave came in tight and fought the fish and had it to boat side, took some picture and released the fish to boat side to fight another day, I believe he was using a Calstar custom rod,
Capt Josh decided to move to a different area and we encountered a great feed and busting fish all over the place,
We saw fish from 70lb, 80lb to over 300lb air borne,
Just to be out there was a blast,
Had a good shot while casting the Shimano Ocea Pencil and came in tight to lose the fish after my line broke,
We kept on trying and had another shot and came in tight on the Daiwa dorado slider in Anchovy color, fought the fish to boat side and lost it 10 feet from the boat to find out that the owner ST66 3/0 had opened
There was no rest and I am sure we drove Captain Josh crazy as we where screaming left and right and the excitement and the rush did not stop us till we made it to the dock.
Captain Josh had his shot as well and get tight, as he was looking left and right to pass the rod Raymond was next to him and had the pleasure to fight that fish, after 10 to 15 minutes he was begging for mercy,
That fish was really pissed off and she sent the reel to a screaming mode and made it to the 550 feet mark! We end up losing that fish due to line breaking and I believe that Capt Josh get tight on a Black hole rod,
The problem was working the lure properly to trigger a bite; the birds gave us no chance to do that,
But the last shot was what I asked for , fish broke at a close distance with no birds around and Captain Josh put me in a great position to land the lure right on the feed, 3 twitches and game on,
I was testing a new rod and wanted to push it to the extreme to find out if it was suitable for this kind of fishing, after 30 minutes or so I broke the rod but manage to land a 69 inch and released it along the boat side to fight another day, (the broken rod is not the Race Point Special).
I don’t have to boost Captain Josh reputation I think his record speak for himself, a great Captain with so much experience and excitement on board his boat, will be back to fish with you Captain.
Thank you


Tackle used:
Race point Special
Souls Performance Studio16
Smith Tokara
Calstar and Black Hole

Reels:
Shimano Stella SW18000
Shimano Stella SW 10000 with 16000 no limits spools
Shimano Saragosa

Lures:
Daiwa Dorado slider
Shimano Ocea Pencil
Ronz

Tight lines
   Sami

Cape Cod with mogi-san and Okubo-san

Mogi-san, Okubo-san, Glenn and myself fished with Captain Dom today,

we had a great day on the water with a lot of fun and laugh,
not to mention that the action was beyond what we expected,
Mogi-san hooked up his fish early in the morning and had it to the boat side in about 16 minutes, the fish estimated around 130lb, the fish hit a Carpenter Gamma 90, after that we kept on seeing fish and the action start to get better with a lot opportunity but the fish seems to feed on small bait,
i changed my lure to the Shimano Ocea and in no time i was hooked up on a descent fish, it was one of those fight and i am not going to exaggerate,
the fish was a hefty one, i fought the fish for 47 minutes to loose it at the end, had it to boat side couple of time and had a glance at it,
i hooked up the fish on the new prototype rod (Race Point Special) and i assure you that the rod is a beast, i am very convinced that the adjustment came in right this time, i had the whole fight on video, the bend of the rod is great and it has the backbone that i requested,
we will start production very soon,
Glenn came in tight on his Souls rod and the lure of choice was the daiwa slider, fought the fish for 19 minutes and lost it at the end when his line broke,
we find out later that he had a knot on the braid and he forget to untie it,
Okubo-san had several hits but no hook up on the Meron Spirits lure,
fish were busting all over the place and we were going crazy screaming left and right, Captain Dom did in amazing job putting us into the feeding zone,
will update tomorrow.
Tight lines
Sami

another good day at the Cape

Mogi-san, Okubo-san, Paul, Ilya, Adrian and myself had the opportunity to be onboard 2 great Captains',
Mogi-san Okubo-san and Paul fished with Captain Eric,
while the other group consisted of Adrian, Ilya and myself fished with Captain Dom,
we had a great start and thought that the day is going to be as good as yesterday with a lot of surface feeding but that died down early morning.
around 6:00 AM Captain Dom put us on feeding tuna and that did not take too long to come up tight,
for 2 days on the row i hooked up on our prototype rod (Race point special)
i am very confident that the rod is a beast and will be a hit for the Cape,
a lot of back bone with nice sensitive tip that allow you to cast the lighter lures, i will be conducting more testing for the rods in the next couple of weeks and with all honestly i don't think we will be going through anymore adjustment, rushing the production to catch up with the season is not what we are looking for, we'd rather wait a bit and get bigger and better fighting time result.
we will keep you posted
the fish came in to boat side after a brutal 45 minutes on a PE6 line, estimated at 180lb to 190lb and around the 71" mark.
took quick photo shot and released the fish at the boat side to fight another day,
after 15 minutes Captain Dom cast into a feeding frenzy and fish on, the fish took a daiwa dorado slider, after the first run the fish bit through the leader and Captain Dom lost his fish and the lure
on Captain Eric's boat Mogi-san hooked up while using a Carpenter Gamma 160g, despite the length of the rod (Carpenter DJ 83MH) that he is using he manage to bring the fish to the boat side in 34 minutes, the fish was released next to the boat and was close to the 190lb mark.
overall we had a great day and both Captain worked hard to put us on the fish,
i thank Captain Dom and Captain Eric for their effort,
Tight lines
Sami