Posted on October 18th, 2020
Check out Atlantic Tackle’s selection in the above video!
I had the pleasure….well kind of pleasure of fishing on board the Fish On today with Captain Andrew Dotterweich and crew for their second and final day of the Inaugural Bishop Broadbill Bash. I say “kind of pleasure” because it was snotty rough and those kind of conditions and me just don’t get along. We did put a 160 pound swordfish in the boat and the crew did a great job in the challenging conditions. This is the first swordfish that Dave Messick and I have had caught in an episode of Hooked on OC in the 16 years that we’ve been doing the show so that is exciting. The Fish On adds this 160 pound sword to their 358 pounder from Friday and now holds first and third place in the heaviest swordfish category and first place in the stringer category with 518 pounds. Second place in the heaviest swordfish category is held by the crew of the Team Player with a nice 278 pounder. The tournament has been extended through tomorrow due to rough seas this weekend so good luck to those crews fishing tomorrow. Thanks to Jake Widgeon for the pics!
The party boat fleet had a tough go of it in today’s ocean conditions, but Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star was still able to put his clients on some nice fish including sea bass, flounder and triggerfish.
Great big Shantytown flag laying as if lashed to its pole, sure looked like a gorgeous day coming as clients & crew loaded reef blocks aboard in this morning’s predawn light. Sunday’s winds had been forecast at 5 to 10 E for days, then upped to 10 to 15 Saturday – still looked plenty OK.
Got challenging. Saw 21 knots on the anemometer briefly as we ventured off. Dropping blocks I had a steady 17.1 east. Ehh, that’s enough breeze to start a set should the wind lock on a compass point. Sure made Walter’s drone landing interesting—Got some cool video with it. Thankfully winds had minor shifts all day; otherwise, once it reached a steady 22 knots East we’d have seen a seriously steep set build. Waves became somewhat boisterous as it was.
Instead, just before hauling anchor one last time, winds fell back to 18. What were rough seas in most clients’ minds quickly became a fine fair wind/downsea ride home.
Either Ray Ricci was on fire or his buddy Ted was sandbagging to let him be first for once. Ray boxed out on sea bass at 10:45–had two nice fluke too. One of those flounder won the pool for him.
In all 5 clients limited & everyone has a nice fish fry at the very, very least.
Forecast I’m looking at shows winds under 10 knots all the way from Monday, October 19th to Sunday, October 25th..
Sweet. That’s a long calm.
Have lots of spots open this coming week. I have great confidence we’ll be catching.
Cheers All,
Monty
Captain Chase Eberle of Chasin’ Tides Charters braved today’s sea conditions today as well and put his father and son crew on a pile of sea bass.
