The Mid-Atlantic Sportsman - Offshore Report - 5/27/16

Late report from Friday!

We loaded up the "Fish Tank" and departed Fenwick Island, DE at around 5am. At 5:30. we were breaking the OC inlet and pointed the boat southeast towards the big break between the Washington and the Norfolk.

The winds were blowing pretty good from the southeast in the morning. This made for a long, slow, 5 hour ride. Around 10am we finally found the temperature break in 500 fathoms deep in the Norfolk.

We found a fleet of boats working the break and we set out the spread. We used a mixture of Mid-Atlantic Sportsman Daisy Chains and ballyhoo skirts along with Sterling Tackle Spreader bars.

About 30 minutes after putting the lines in we trolled behind a boat and just as we were going by them we heard them start yelling and saw their rods starting to go down. About 30 seconds later we had yellowfins blowing up in our spread. After the chaos we had 4 tuna hooked up. 1 was on our Sportsman Bird Chain in Green, one was on a zuchini 18" splash bar from Sterling tackle. The other 2 bit green skirted ballyhoo.

Joe and DJ going to work on a couple of yellowfin!

Joe and DJ settled in to fight these fish while Mike maneuvered the boat. We left the two rods with tuna on out the furthest alone and went to work on the closest fish. After short fights Shane and I both took care of leadering and gaffing the first two fish. It was right back to work for Joe and DJ as we handed them the other two rods with fish on them and we made quick work out of these tuna as well. These fish were all nice 25 to 40 pound tuna.

Yellowfin Tuna on a MAS Sportsman Bird Chain in Green!

We quickly reset the spread and after about 40 minutes we had more tuna blowing up in the spread. A few fish missed some of the ballyhoo, I watched the big 36" machine bar from Sterling tackle get clobbered 3 or 4 times before one took the hook bait. Then the Mid-Atlantic Sportsman Squid Chain in Blue/White was inhaled and just before pulling back the throttles to fight these fish the same 18" zuchini spalsh bar form Sterling Tackle got whacked and we ended up with 3 more tuna hooked up after all that madness.

I went to work on the tuna on the daisy chain as I was right next to the rod. We quickly got this fish to the boat and gaffed, then we went to work on the other two. After short fights we had the other two fish in the boat. These fish were in the same size range with one nice one pushing 50 pounds.

After resetting the spread we hooked and lost a mahi. Shortly after we hooked an landed a mahi, around 8 pounds. The last bite of the day was a small 25" yellowin which was safely released.

After trolling for another couple of hours with no more bites we packed up and headed in. Going home with the seas was much nicer and we made it back to the inlet in 2 and 1/2 hours.

It was a great trip and it was awesome catching some tuna on our MAS gear! Looking forward to the next trip already!

Tight Lines!

Dave Twardowski
The Mid-Atlantic Sportsman