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Hi Flier Stripers, Blues, and Fluke…..and Giant Bluefin Tuna

We will be sailing Open Boat or Charter Fri, Sat, and Sun this Memorial day weekend. Targeting stripers, blues, and fluke. All three species are very active right now in the bay and inlet. We will be using a mix of bait and lures on light spinning tackle. 

Open Boat Trips:

Fri May 26 11AM to 5PM  

Sat May 27 and Sun May 28  8AM to 2PM

$175 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared.

We are gearing up for a shot at the Giant Bluefin Tuna that have been holding steady to the north of us for a few weeks now. It is a troll bite. We have rod and reel outfits that are specifically designed to fight these fish standup style. It’s a 45 mile run to the grounds for us, so about a 2 1/2 hour run each way. We only sail in very calm water. Sat, Sun, and Mon’s will be the days we will be looking at for these trips. 

Here are some of the particulars: $750 person, 3 people max, anything over 73 inches belongs to the boat. Anything under 73 inches we cut up for everyone on board to share. Obviously this is not for everyone. The chances are much greater of us not even hooking up than catching a giant. That’s not to say we are not properly geared for it or that we won’t be committed to catching one, more than anything else we will ever do. It’s just the reality of giant tuna fishing. I was the deck hand for one of the top Giant Bluefin Tuna captains in the history of the sport, Bob Pisano out of Belmar, NJ. This guy was the Babe Ruth of giant fishing. He fished for them in the 1970’s when they were not worth anything. The lobster boats would pay .25 cents a pound for them to use as bait. He continued his pursuit well into the 2000’s. I was fortunate enough to be his mate for three seasons in the late 1980’s. We chased these fish from Brielle, NJ to Cape Cod, MA and back from June to Oct. Our best season we had 7 fish. During one stretch, we fished 21 days in a row out of Point Judith, RI and the rod never went off. Then, in the next 4 days, we boated 3. I am in the million chunk club, an exclusive membership to those that have cut enough butterfish and bunker chunks to fill a baseball stadium. I have line cuts on my fingers so deep they have never healed from rigging trolling baits with waxed thread just for this fishery. I have $5,000 invested in three rod and reel outfits specifically for these fish that only get used a few times a year, along with a few thousand dollars in tackle, lures, harpoons, gaffs, darts, etc. I go out of my way to tell you this because when the day comes, when lightning finally strikes, and we deck a Giant Bluefin Tuna, any financial reward is returned to the boat and captain, not to those that were lucky enough to pick the most exciting day of fishing you can ever experience. What I can offer you is a chance to be part of a crew that could make this happen. We will need you guys to rotate on the rod, if you want to leader and harpoon the fish, keep the guy on the rod hydrated. Look for whales and birds while we are searching. It’s a team effort that lands one of these remarkable fish. 

You can call or email me if you have any interest in a trip like this. 

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com

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