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This is the best worst day ever. I don't think it's a "worst" day at all, but it had it's highs and one, glaring low. Recap, Craig, forever to be known as "The Man", Sheppard, went fishing with a couple of friends and two nephews. Tuna, then cod/haddock. The tuna bite was looking good with fishy water around. First cast, "bluefish". Then some more knubs of tunaCandy came back. Then we released a couple of 40" stripers. So we moved. Not much fishy water around. Then, where I was hoping for some action, we found scattered schools of breaking tuna. Awesome way to start.
First cast near the fish an explosion 20' from the boat on Craig's yellow/red tunaCandy. 70+ inch fish just missed it. Next cast, another explosion on his lure. I didn't know what to expect from him if he hooked up. From anyone, actually. Craig works at an insurance company....
We followed the fish around for an hour, casting and casting, but nothing. Then, "I'm on!" from Craig. He's fishing on the bow, which is my favorite place to hook up on fish and fight them. Lines cleared, the fish takes a sick run. I am going to give full kudos to the tackle involved in this battle. He was using an Okuma VS80 spinning reel and the drag stayed smooth for the entire battle. At $200, I was very impressed with the drag on that reel. Some of the runs almost spooled us, but we were able to keep the boat close enough early on to keep attached. After about 3 good runs, we fought that fish from a standing boat for most of the rest of the battle. At one point, the fish ran at 30 mph for 20 seconds, then stopped all toghether, like it hit a wall or got grabbed. Craig reeled in 50 yards, pulling dead weight up to the boat. I was expecting half-fish to come up, followed by JAWS! Nope, it came back to life and didn't give up. I think it may have slammed into the ground!
Back and forth for another hour. He got the fish to surface 100' from the boat and we knew it was huge. Just plain huge. Another hour passes and he gets the fish, still green and belly down, right under the boat, 10' below us. "85+ inches!" Jeff, my mate, screams. "Monster! 350-400 pounds!" It dives. Another hour passes and Craig finally says "take it". I try to budge the fish, but it says "no way!" and dives again. Tug of war for 10 minutes; the reel is on the wrong side for me and I pass it to Jeff. Jeff gets beat up and gives it to Bob, Craig's friend. We're in this battle for the long term. Bob's a black-belt. Not a quitter. Fights the fish another 15-20 minutes. It's "make it or break it" time. The fish was still green and it broke off on a fast, fast run. I wanted to just go home at that time. Best battle ever.
So, why is Craig "the Man?". He fought that fish for 3 hours by himself on a a spinning rod with 20 pounds of drag, palming the reel for most of the time to stop the fish. That's "unlimited drag"! He wanted that fish like no one else.
The rod was from OTI, a tuna specialty company, and it was their 7'6" Popping Rod that was rated 60-80 pounds I'm very impressed by this rod for fighting tuna. Awesome rod for tuna! And, 65# Power Pro was pushed to the max for almost 4 hours. Anytime you have a huge fish on for 4 hours, you have to have quality tackle and fishermen who know what they're doing. We had it all, but still the fish won. I'll be back!
Black Rose Fishing Charters specializes in small, private fishing charters. Our rates are very affordable and it is much easier to put together a smaller charter. We are based in Green Harbor, but we fish all of Cape Cod, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth Bay, and Buzzards Bay. We target all species of fish, depending on season. We fish for "groundfish", which means cod, haddock, pollack, wolf fish, cusk, hake, halibut, and redfish. We would fish for sharks every day if we could and we catch blue sharks, makos, threshers, and porbeagles. We love it. Because of the design of our boat, we can have 4 people casting at one time very easily. We love fishing for bluefin tuna (casting, jigging, and trolling), striped bass, and bluefish. We have a fast boat, full cabin, and comfortable ride. See you out there!