2012 New Year Fun Fishing Trip!

As we say goodbye to 2011 and usher in 2012, Our good fishing buddy, Raymond chartered a trip with Tuna Duck Charters captained by Dan Rooks in Hatteras, North Carolina.
What a blast we had! Nope, no tunas this time but D R U M S! Big Red Drums! All of them were way over the limits and we had to release every single one of them. Biggest one broke the 50lb scale we had on board and the average were 30lbs - 40lbs.
We were jigging for them in 60ft water and it was non stop action as soon as we hit the spot!
Later in the afternoon we tried heading to deeper waters to try for the yellowfin and blackfin tunas but unfortunately the tunas were out celebrating New Years Day and were no where in sight.
Thank you Captain Dan and Mike from Tuna Duck Charters, we'll see you guys when the blue fins season starts!
Enjoy the photos and Happy New Year Everyone!!!
Tackle used,
Rods - MC Works, Saltywater Tackle Race Point, Smith, Synit and Valleyhill.
Reels - Shimano Stellas, Studio Ocean Mark, Daiwa Dogfight and Accurate
Jigs - Deep Liner, Sevenseas Hooker, Shout Shab Shab, CB One, Diamond Jigs, Nasout Jigs.
Line - Sunline, Varivas, Daiwa, Jerry Brown.
Leader - Sunline, Varivas and Yozuri.

Paul.

Rigging up!

Getting out of the inlet

The Spot

Tuna Duck!

Fishing Dogs!

Busting Bluefin Tuna with Captain Adam Sherer from Shore catch December 3,2011

I got a call from Captain Adam from Shore Catch stating Bluefin tunas are in good numbers and close to shore.
New Jersey Bluefin tunas offer the ultimate challenge to many and to catch one on top water, one will have to be blessed with “a lot of luck”, skills and determination. Fortunate enough I know that I am fishing with one of the best Captain in New Jersey and was confident that he will put me on the right feed. He has done it in the past and I know that he is capable of doing it again this year!
During this same period last year I had the opportunity to land a nice fish on topwater with Adam and I am hoping today to set the pace of last year that was my attitude while I was driving from Princeton to Barnegat Inlet at 4:00AM.
We launched at 5:30AM and made it to the fishing ground at the right time, just when the sun was peeking out from the horizon. It took a while before we started seeing tuna rolling and crashing lazily all over the place and by the time we reached them…they went down under. We couldn’t get a good shot at them in the beginning but as the day progressed, things started to get better and better until we got into a nice feed with diving gannets and birds diving all over the place.
I made a cast to come up tight with a blue fish, we were a little disappointed when we notice that they were mixed in with the Bluefin tuna, it was pretty frustrating when we saw the blues and we all know how hard it is to score in New Jersey.
The Tunas started crashing again and this time, I saw bait flying out of the water, for a second I thought they were Anchovies or half beaks, is it possible? We all know that most of the times these fish are gorging themselves with sand eels but hey! Anything is possible!
Once I saw what kind of bait (FISH) were present, I switched right away to my trusted Moutoukenmaru Minopenmaru which was lucky enough to have the same profile as the bait.
A nice pod just busted not far away from us and in a split of a second they disappeared,
I made a cast to that same spot and saw my lure getting inhaled almost immediately,
I set the hook twice to secure it on the Race Point 200, got it to gaff within 4 minutes and Santa presented me with a nice fat 58 inch on the deck!
My day is made and now and I can rest, after a frustrating day we finally got the job done!!
I can’t thank Captain Adam enough for the incredible opportunity (we got blown out at least 2 times!) he gave me to get the job done again this year!!
Thank you Captain!!
Enjoy the pictures :)
Tight lines
Sami

Tokara Japan November 2011

Tokara Island has always been a dream that finally, became a reality,
I planned a business trip to Japan and decided to top it up with a bit of fishing. I contacted Mogi-san and ask him if I could join him in on one his trip, kind enough Mogi-san offered me 2 trips to choose from, stating it is not a prime time for GT Fishing, and the whole idea is to explore the area and gain more experience.
I was greeted at Narita airport by Mogi-san and beerman Okubo-san, they picked me up from the airport and we headed straight to Tokyo, we had a great dinner amongst nice people talking about fishing and discussing future destination.
I spend the 2nd day with Mogi-san touring and getting introduced to tackle shops, it is amazing how well the tackle shops are stocked up with products and how the Japanese in general are into fishing, I spend almost and hour in one of the shop and saw a variety of anglers from 16 years old to 70 years old buying tackle, I guess fishing in Japan is more like a cultural thing :)
Mogi-san had arranged the trip for me which made my life easy; he picked me up from the Hotel and off to the airport to take the flight to Kagoshima and then transferred to Amami island to be greeted by Fukui-san the master of the infamous boat in the region ( the big dipper),
We arrived and the weather was not looking good, heavy rain and big swells,
Fukui-san suggest to fish around Amami Island for the day and take off to Tokara on the second day, we landed one GT that day and made it back to one of the lodges on the island which is a typical traditional Japanese Inn, it was a great experience and reminded me from where my Mom comes from in the South of Lebanon.
Fukui-san pushed the big dipper in heavy rain and big swells and we finally made it to the first island, the scenery was out of this world and the structure added to it to make it look so unique, our second day was slow!
Right around dark Fukui-san called the day off and puts the big dipper next to the lodge on Takara Island,
Takara Island has a little story to be told: it is also called Treasure Island!
The story goes back to May 23, 1701. On that date in Scotland, just as he was about to be executed, the famous pirate Capt. Kidd shouted, “I have hidden treasure,” but the executioner paid no attention and carried out the sentence without hearing Kidd’s explanation.
It is believed that the treasure is still on the island.
We launched from Takara island on our third day and I can finally see the harbor and the marina, the harbor is build with high concrete barrier wall and on the other side you have natural rocks with about 7 to 10 feet from the sea level, this is where all the top water GT action happen in the past 20 years, and there is a prime time for it, the GT’s will push the flying fish inside the harbor and the top water bite will be on fire, it happens every year and it last for about 2 to 3 weeks , Mogi-san pointed to me where he landed his 60kg GT from the shore, I spoke to Fukui-san and manage to gather more info about casting from shore.
I decided to jig due to the slow action and manage couple of fish here and there, we popped in some area that you would imagine it to be loaded with fish but NOT!
Right before dark I start getting doggies on almost every drop and I lost a good one, lost 4 jigs that day due to cut offs, I jigged from 40 meters to 150 meters and had most of the strikes around the 60 meters mark. The guys manage 2 nice doggies on top water.
On our last day we made a couple of stops near Takara Island and caught more doggies and lost more jigs, at least I am going back home light J
The guys where only focusing on popping and none of them had any jigging outfit, some of them are not interested to do any jigging while others don’t even own a jigging rod.
We get a couple of fish and called the trip off.
I had a great time regardless of the fishing, adding Tokara Island experience to my log book is something that I was always keen to do,
I thank Mogi-san for his hospitality and friendship; he was so kind to me,
Delighted to have the opportunity to fish onboard one of the most famous Captain in Japan Fukui-san, a very humbled person!
Till the next trip TOKARA!
Enjoy the photo!!!
Tight lines
Sami

Takara Island Harbour

Where Mogi-san landed his 60KG GT from shore on Takara Island