Team ReelTime had to cancel its Friday Night Charter due to inclement weather. And the punch line was that the bad weather never showed up. It was a dead calm evening. This was a disappointment, to say the least.
But we made the best of it and actually ran a make-up charter for a different client on Saturday morning. And, boy was it worth it! We left the dock at 0630 and ran north towards the Highrise and immediately got on the bite with a nice 38" Rockfish, followed by a 42" Cow. Here's photo of the 42":
With the Skunk was out the box , we settled into the cadence of working the tide and passing the time. Such is the life of an Eeler...
Our client, Don made fun of that fact the he demanded a "50 Inch / 50 pound" Class fish. And if he didn't bag one on this trip, he said he would bad mouth both the Captain and the First Mate. With 2 nice 30 LB class fish on the box, we laughed it off... It was getting deep, and I rolled up my cuffs a little higher... LOL.  ...
The morning progressed and we freshened up our rigs and Eels several times. Things seemed slow and an occasional Eel would fall victim to a Shark. You can tell a shark from a Striper from how aggressive they hit the hook and rate that line peels off the reel after the hook up. The Shark are just plain sneaky, while the Rockfish hit much harder and zing the line off.
We fished good marks around 1PM and the bite turned on quickly. One of the lines on the port side went off and line ripped at an incredible rate. Our customer, Don was on deck and carefully lifted the rod out of the holder, reeled the slack out and OH BOY !...
What an aggressive Fish! 1st Mate, Carl and I started clearing rods that might get in the way, as Don's fish worked around the transom from Port to Starboard and back. We new it was a nice one... and the fight was on!
It was then that I picked up one of the WWB (way-way-back) lines to reel it in and while I was retrieving it, a Rockfish hit it like a freight train and it was GAME ON - A double Hook-Up for Team ReelTime with two potential 40 LB class Stripers... To our advantage, Don's mammoth Cow stayed to Port far back and mine stayed to starboard and only flirted with going over Don's line. The rod that I was working my fish on had only 20# test and the drag was set OK, so the rest was up to me.
( By the way, that's a "I caught a HUGH ROCKFISH" smile !!!)
Meanwhile, Don was having one heck of a nice fight over on the Port side. It was sureal and Carl was standing between us with the net just laughing. I wanted hail 2 other captains on the VHF, but could not seem to free a hand up. Everytime I thought I had my fish close to the boat it would make another run.
Don's fish surfaced for the 1st time and we wanted to make sure that Carl had the net ready because we new it was way bigger than the one I had on. Don did a stellar job of keeping just the right pressure on the fish. However, it one of its last runs took quite a few yards off the reel and I asked Carl to check and make sure our NC liscense was current. LOL. 
Finally, I managed to fight my fish to the net and Carl carefully scooped him up and placed him on deck. Don's was still quite as ways away and the fight continued. We worked as a team to quickly clear the net, measure my fish at 46" and release it healthy back to the water.
Don's Cow made several good runs and when we finally got it to the boat, Carl and I made quick work of netting it and bringing it onboard. We length checked it at 49" and new it was probably a weight citation. We were still seeing great marks and felt that if we didn't have our limit we could've probably scored a few more nice Rockfish. However, it was 2:30PM by then so we headed back for the weigh-in:
Team Reeltime Congratulates Mr. Don Anderson of Virginia Beach, Va on his first Weight Citation Striper! :
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47.5 LBS Weight Citation - CONGRATS and WTG, DON !!!
( Well, Teem Reeltime extends our apologies to our client for only bagging a 48# / 49 Inch fish and not the 50# / 50 Incher that he wanted. The team feels so very, very bad.  (not) LOL !!!. Perhaps another day...)
Overall, it was fun day and our diligence paid of as we brought back 3 nice keepers at 41", 38" and a 47.5 LB / 49" Weight Citation for our Client. We released one at 44 Inches as well. Carl and I really enjoyed hooking Don up with some awesome striped bass action!
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God Bless & Good Luck to All - Have a Great Christmas, Tight Lines and See You on the Water,
Captain Fletcher Dunton - USCG Liscensed, OUPV
PS - We still have a few key dates available so let us and we'll be glad to setup your next charter aboard ReelTime! Call Fletcher at 757-292-7702 and book today. |