Day/Date: Fri/Sat July 6,7

Target/Type of Fishing: Sharking / Bluefish

Tides: H 12:22a 1:03p L 6:29a 7:00p

Moon Phase: 69% vis (July 7 last quarter)

Sun Rise/Set: 5:33a 8:28p

Water Temp / Water Color: 68, GREEN

Wind Direction/Speed: West, 10 knots

Weather/Seas: Clear, 1-2’

Departure / Return Time: 7:30pm / 11:30am

Lines In/Out: 8:30p bluefishing, 12:30a Sharking / out 9:30a

Starting Location (Name and #): Glory Hole

Report:

With the canyon reports sounding terrible, Bob and I decided that 110 miles was a long way to run for a shot at maybe 1 or 2 yellowfin (Bob had to convince me; I wanted to go to the deep!). So we decide to do some inshore sharking. We left the inlet around 7:30pm on Fri and headed out about 15 miles to the edge of the mud hole to load up on bluefish for the shark trip. And load up we did. We had enough bluefish for several shark trips, all in the time it takes to go thru only a half a can of chum.

Then we headed off to chicken canyon for a night/morning of sharking. On our way out, I marked a ton of bait in the glory hole. Several different large pods of bait. The water was still green, but I expected to find greenish water in chicken canyon. The temp was good and there was a lot of life, so I pulled back the throttles, we power drifted for about 20 min, then set up for the night.

The night was slow; a few bluefish here and there and 3 blue sharks. We were chumming heavily all night long to try and make something happen. We used frozen bucker chum, bunker oil and countless fresh blues and bunker thru the grinder. We also tried something new, an idea I stole from fisherman in Florida. With the water being so green, I figured a threasher would be our best shot to get something for the table. To get sent/chum down through the entire water column we mixed together a combination of ground fresh bluefish and bunker, bunker oil, instant mashed potatoes and sand. Combine the instant mashed potatoes and bunker oil a few hours before you leave the dock. The potatoes suck up all the oil. Then add the ground bait and sand. Add just enough water so you can make a softball size ball that stays together. Drop the ball over the side. It breaks apart very slowly on its way down, taking the bunker oil and ground fish down with it.

Back to the report. We released another 2 jumbo blue sharks in the morning. Then around 7:30 am we hooked up to a big threasher on a bluefish fillet/green skirt, about 50 feet down. A very typical threasher hit; the clicker goes off, then nothing, then he pick up the bait and strolls off. Only after that does he realize he’s hooked. The fight took about an hour and a half, with 14 year old Rick Oberci fighting that fish for 95% of that time. We had him by the boat about 45 min into the fight, but the fish was not ready. To let us know, he hit Bob in the head and arm with his tail, before he went back to the bottom for another 45 min. He weight in at 405lb at Hoffmans.

This has been a great sharking season. In the five shark trips this year, the Indy II has released 41 bluesharks (while turning away a lot more), 3 makos (est. 140, 154, est. 160) and 2 threashers (324, 405). Hopefully the canyons will open up soon (this sharking is wearing me out). Regardless, the next report you read from me will be a canyon report.

Thanks,

Lee