Hooked our first tuna of the year on Saturday! Incredible, though short, battle. The irony is that we were cod fishing. So here’s what happened:
There were mackerel out there by the millions. We had schools of of them outside of Green Harbor and we had them on the surface for more than 30 miles of traveling to the spot where I wanted to do some shark fishing. It was amazing. We set up and decided to drop some lines for cod as well. Surprisingly, we did fine on the groundfish and caught cod, haddock, and pollock.
Four experienced shark fishermen and one rookie were on board. After a couple of hours of drifting and setting up a great slick, I heard “I got a shark!” as he was reeling in a haddock. If he could have pulled the haddock away from the giant porbeagle, it would have stayed. It gave us one nice chance, biting the haddock in half. Then it took the head and norwegian jig, hooking it in the corner of the mouth. I was so excited as I had a shark rod in my hand baited up in the water. 5 feet away from the now-hooked shark, I knew that the battle wouldn’t last. The shark went nuts and all 400+ pounds of it exploded at the boat, wrapping the tail in the cod leader, snapping it immediately. Never saw it again. Big fish though.
After several hours of no sharks, we called it quits and decided to repeat the drifts over the better cod spots. Reeling in the shark gear first, one customer hooked up about 100′ below the boat on a spinning rod and reel! Granted it was a heavy reel, but not a giant tuna reel by any means. It came up remarkably easy, giving us a drive-by, coming within 20′ of the boat. Then it went nuts! It showed us just how fast a tuna can swim. 400 yards of 80-pound Tuf-Line screamed out against 30-pound of drag. I gave chase, but the slamming of the tail wore through the leader. Gone!
The cod, haddock, and pollock are around. The tuna, especially after this week’s winds, will be around in good numbers now, finally. And sharks will move up nicely with the warming water. We had 65 degrees on Saturday mid-day… That’s plenty for shark!
So, let’s get fishing. I love this time of year as the weather is often amazing and the fishing good for the meat-fisherman and big-game angler alike.
See you on the water, smiling!
Capt. Rich Antonino
Black Rose Fishing Charters
508-269-1882
LOVED the tuna fishing/catch video. The yelling and excitement was terrific. Good job taping it all. Keep up the good work. GO FISH!
rich me and two jims where out with you last oct got a 150lb tuna wanted two ask you about the stick we got it on it was a new one think it was american lable around 7 or 8 foot and what do u think about penn torque modle9 spinner verses van stall hope two be onboard again in fall good fishing smiley