Oregon Inlet 4-7-2010

Hi peeps,

here is the report from yesterday's crazy fishing
6 of us met up at Oregon inlet at 5am.
Chris aka Entourage.
Chris aka CJB08.
Ilya aka Surfmonster.
Arkady
Sami & myself
The flags were flapping hard over at the marina, the weatherman was calling 20-25 SW wind but in reality it was probably blowing 30-35.
We spoke to Captain Ned of Seabreeze sportfishing and he said we will sail
When we reach the tuna ground the sea was in a rage, the waves were 8-10ft high and water was crashing into the 58ft sportfisher.
At approximately 8am, while Arkady was steadily twitching and retrieving his lure Ilya saw a shadow under the surface missing Arkady's lure a couple of times, when the lure was 20ft from the boat the shadow grabs the lure and made a run! Fish on!
After a gruelling 25mins, the fish kind of gave up the fight and allowed Arkady to pump and retrieve, NO DEATH CIRCLES!!!
When the fish came up to the surface everyone was rolling on the deck...
The fish had tangled itself with the leader and was being brought in tail first, you could see the smile *from ear to ear* on Arkady's face.
While the mate (George) was bringing in the fish, Ned shouted down at us "more tuna behind the boat!" Sami and i quickly grabbed our rods and casted towards the wall of water Chris aka Entourage saw my lure hit the water and told me something is chasing it! i immediately gave it 2 short and hard jerks and ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz fish on and next to me Sami too was hooked. It was a pain fighting both fishes with a tuna already onboard and furthermore i did not have a belt on. Sami brought in his fish and released it after 20 mins, me...i had to pass over my rod, i have to admit i wasn't ready and i do not wanna risk upsetting the balance of mothernature in case i smash one of my b@$$ coz i stuck the rod between my legs Ilya was right next to me but had to hand it to Chris coz he was a lefty. Sad to say but the hook pulled after 5mins, the only consolation was that i saved my b@$$s and i got back my lure.
Later in the afternoon we had a Mako shark chewing on the teaser that George setup and even whales showed up around us!! That was a first time for me seeing whales in OI.
The weather continued to worsen and we called it a day at 2pm
These are some of the equipment we were using,
Souls performance studio 16 - Arkady, Ilya aka (surfmonster)and Sami.
Smith Tokara60 - Chris aka (CJB08) and myself.
OTI - Chris aka (Entourage).
Reels are all 01 and 08 Stellas.
Lines used were generally all Varivas and Daiwa(not sure).
Lures used - Souls Kanade (Sami), Meron Spirits (Myself)and Daiwa Dorado Slider (Arkady).
Alright now for the pictures everyone been waiting for

I had one of the finest tuna bites that I encounter so far this year, the reason for this statement as we caught fish on the jig and on popping gear.
I had the pleasure to fish side by side with Tony & Bret Baker, Brian and Michael.
We headed out of Hatteras on the Godspeed and made it to the 70 miles limit,
As soon we arrived to the fishing ground we saw most of the guys already hooked up, dropped some jigs and did not take a long time before Brian hooked up, fought the fish and get it to boat side after 10 to 15 minutes, it was a 70lb blue fin tuna with a lot of energy, we decided to release the fish and waited to gaff a bigger one,
Things start to die down but most of the troller’s are still catching fish,
Decided to put the jigging set up aside and give a shot with the casting rod,
All what it took is 2 twitch to see a monster shadow behind my lure and the captain screaming big fish, the boil that the fish created on the lure put me into shock but still manage to set the hook, fought the fish to the boat side after 50 minutes and made the call for the gaff,
The fish measured 70 inch x 50 inch and hit the scale of 207 lb.
During the fight Tony decided to throw stick bait and get inhaled right away and that put Bret on fire, he managed to grab my Tokara and it didn’t take much to had a strike and fish on, 3 guys fighting with no tangles and no problem, every body is doing the right thing, Tony manage to land his fish estimated at 130lb while Bret lost the fish due to pulled hook, from the fight I knew that Bret’s fish is big and it a shame not to have the chance to see it, but that is fishing and now he has a reason to come back,
After that we came in tight on the jig and landed 2 other fish in the 130lb to 150lb,
After all we went 5 out 7 and the captain made the call to head back at 12:30 pm as the weather start to change and Mother Nature has no mercy,
Looking forward to do it again!

             Sami.

       

Hatteras Mar 11th

Evan, Ilya, Milton, Aydan, Mike and myself headed out with the Tuna Duck in Hatteras, NC on Thursday. Although lately we all have hopes of landing double digit bluefin in this area, catching one quality bluefin can really make the day too.
Although we initially went to the Hatteras area the captain quickly realized the fish had all moved closer to Oregon Inlet so we chugged over there.
Ilya hooked the first BFT of the day using his Fisherman Spinoza 5120. He was really horsing the fish in despite what appeared to be a relatively large tuna. Ilya was using high drag and at one point when he was picking up some slack the tuna dove under the boat and everyone was shocked to hear a loud "PING" and looked over to see that the rod had snapped. So the first BFT would live to see another day.
We all continued to Jig but soon Tuna were busting all around the boat. In a flash, jigs came out of the water and topwater lures were flying through the sky. After a few lures hit the water, Evan came tight using an Ocea Pencil and began what would be a long fight.
While Evan fought, everyone else continued to jig and Mike also came tight with a BFT; double hookup! Mike made short work of the tuna and soon had what was probably a 60-70 pound BFT in the boat. We now had the age old dilemma: do we take the bird in hand or wait for the two in the bush? We decided to let the smaller bluefin go in hopes of landing what appeared to be a much larger BFT still battling in the water below.
After about 30 grueling minutes Evan realized that this tuna was in the for long haul and passed the rod. Over the course of the next hour, everyone helped out in landing what ended up being a 71" tuna; close to a 200 lb (weighed in at 195 at the dock after bleeding).
After the trophy BFT was landed, the action died down and no more tuna were hooked despite vigorous jigging. But at least everyone had their turn to fight a big tuna that day.
We did catch a couple of albacores too.
All in all, a really fun day despite only landing two bluefins (I guess that shows how spoiled we are that we lament over only landing ONLY TWO tuna :b)
Here are the pics:

Oregon Inlet 2010

Had an amazing day in the water today with Captain Ned of Sea Breeze.

5 Brooklyn blokes Sami, Evan, Arkady, Ilya and myself left for North Carolina in search of a cure for cabin fever.
We found it, winter blue fin casting.
I fished with Captain Ned last year and they were hot on the jigs and only one big eye was caught on the surface.
This year however, was a different story altogether. We had 6 blue fins on topwater and 1 on jig.
We left the dock at around 7 and the waves was calling in at 4-7 ft, no problem for the 58ft sportfisherman Sea Breeze.
We left the inlet safe and sound the breaks from the shallows were kind to us.
Sea Breeze went 38-40 miles offshore to the fishing grounds.
We saw gannet circling everywhere and big, I MEAN BIG HAMMERHEADS were EVERYWHERE!
At around 8:30am Captain Ned shouted from the bridge “marking fish at 30ft” we decided to cast instead of jig for them and try to raise them to the surface.
BOOM! Ilya was on! Sadly his orgasm lasted a mere 10 seconds and he was cut off.
We continued the search for them and again we had a called from Ned from the bridge.
Stickbaits started whizzing in the air, BOOM BOOM! Sami aka tuna terrorist and Arkady was on!
Arkady had a loose drag and lost the fish when it went under the boat. Sami’s fish chomp on the Moutokenmaru lure and by this time was winching in his fish on his new Souls rod PS-075P3CS
After a brutal 20mins…the fish was brought in and it measured a whopping 68” in length and 50” in girth and weighed 196.5lb (according to tuna weight calculator) when we weighted the fish at the marina it came out to 175lb without blood, guts and gills.
Another drift and everyone was casting their lures out in the water except Evan, he dropped a sevenseas hooker 1 speed darter jig which was attacked almost instantly.
Armed with his trusty WGJ50H he fought the fish estimated at 175-180lb slow and steady for 40mins before we released it to where it belongs.
Lady luck was smiling at Sami as he had another fish on the next drift, the fish was estimated at 135lb and was release after 7mins.
The next drift was something what I would call amazing fishing! 4 of us was hooked on at the same time, Sami, Ilya, Arkady and yours truly.
The 2 left standing was myself and Ilya, Ilya had his fish in the corner while mine that took the Souls Kanade lure was darting all over and i had to scramble left and right with the Smith Tokara60 to keep up with the fish.
After 25mins of scrambling and going over and under Ilya, my fish was brought up, estimated at 175-180lb and was released safely.
Ilya’s fish that fancied the Yozuri Bull GT popper was up after 45mins of grueling pain with his Zenaq Fokeeto 76-4 and estimated at 180lbs.
George our ever helpful mate had a good time battling with one of those brutes when he had one on.
Arkady who had been quiet all this while was greeted with a nice fish when we were doing our last drift.
With his new tuna rod from Souls and his favorite Tailwalk Gunz lure he fought the fish with ease and made it look so easy. It was estimated at 160lbs before we released the fish safely.
Alright 7 fish on and 7 lost, I know it sucks to lose the other 7 but it was total chaos when you have up to 4 anglers getting hooked at the same time.
Nevertheless every single one of us had at least a fish that will be discuss for the next few sashimi lunches and dinners.
Ok now, the tackle that we were using,
Rods – Souls Performance Studio 16 , Smith Tokara60 and Smith WGJ50H
Reels – Shimano Stella SW’s 18000 – 20000 and FA’s 100000 – 20000
Lures – Orion, Moutokenmaru, Souls Kanade, Souls Brabus, Garyukobo, Tailwalk Gunz and Yozuri GT Bull.
Jigs – Seven Seas hookers.
We would like to thank Captain Ned Ashby of Sea Breeze Charters and helpful mate George on one of the best trips we had for tunas since last summer!