It’s been an interesting few days of fishing. We started out with live grass shrimping trips in the bay on Fri and Sat. Friday had a mix of species including 5 weakfish for the Rick Masters charter. They had the usual assortment of species that visit our shrimp slick: weakfish, juvenile sea bass, little blues, blowfish, fluke, sand sharks, spots, and sea robins. Non stop action. On Saturday I had Mike and Karen Romance out for an Inshore Shark/Live Grass Shrimp Combo. We got bit off by a few bigger sharks that were not invited to this particular party but Karen did get the best of an Atlantic Sharpnose Shark, the targeted species before we decided to head into the bay. I anchored in the exact same spot as the day before but it was S L O W……..and then S L O W E R. Just doesn’t make sense sometimes, same spot, same tide, but my other spot was infested with silver perch, so we stayed put. We finally hook up and Mike is fighting what I tell him is going to be a big weakfish. The 6 lb ultralite rod is bent, the reel is singing, and as the fish finally gets close enough to land, we see it’s a cobia. Twenty incher. Not legal to keep, but great sport on that tackle. They then proceed to deck two keeper weakies, a 13 and 19 1/2 incher to wrap things up and put a little fillet in the Ziplock. 

Now, Sunday (yesterday), the weather is nice enough to head offshore looking for tuna with the Jim Padilla party. I knew the fleet on the inshore tuna grounds up North has grown to 100 plus boats on a weekday and with a bluebird Saturday, that would surely almost double. I stayed south and after trolling for an hour we had only managed one false albacore and heard of one bonita among the few boats that were there with us. We reeled in and started to run further offshore. After a while, we stumbled on some fresh slicks with a good amount of chick birds picking at them. The machine showed a carpet of bait readings that looked like the squid that have been so prominent on the tuna grounds this season, so we dropped in some squid jigs and started swinging jumbos over the rail. We put them out for bait and proceeded to hook up with shark after shark. Mostly 150 to 200 pound brown sharks but one 12 foot hammerhead that fooled me into thinking it was a tuna run off. He hit and ran so hard. At 1:00 PM we get another good run off on the balloon that was set at 60 feet, and no one is enthused about doing battle with another shark. So I left it in the holder, rod bent, and giving out a good amount of line. I figured, let him bite the hook off. Jim finally said, begrudgingly, “I”ll take him”. He fought him for a while and then his son Greg took over for a while before I realized this fish was deep and starting to spiral. I yelled to Dave Flood, our deckhand for this trip, to get a gaff ready and then we saw color on a good size bluefin. Decked him after a good fight. 51 inches, about 90 pounds. Everyone was ecstatic and we headed for the barn right on schedule. Here is the final five minutes of that tuna: youtu.be/6-0-EjBKoVg

I only have tomorrow, Tuesday Aug 8 available for a Live Grass Shrimp charter in the bay and Thurs Aug 10 for the same or an Open Boat Tuna 9AM to 5PM, we are only running 16 miles from the inlet to the fishing grounds. Thursday looks like the marine forecast is good enough to get to where we need to go. If we go Open Boat Tuna on Thurs, 9AM to 5PM, $300 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared.

After these dates, my next availability is not until Thurs Aug 17 and Mon Aug 21 for inshore or offshore.
 

Dave DeGennaro
Hi Flier Sportfishing
732.330.5674 cell
hiflier.com