I got the call from cousin Mike on Tuesday, and I was 30 miles offshore trolling for
Bluefin Tuna on Thursday.
11 pm Wednesday we arrived at the dock and loaded up the gear, ice, and beverages onto a 23 foot
Grady White (alot smaller then I would expect to go offshore in) owned by Mike's friend Chuck. I haven't seen Mike in approx 3 years so the rest of the night was spent catching up, enjoying some beverages, and listening to his endless supply of great fishing stories.
Mike is 25 and already has more fishing adventures then the average fisherman can claim over an entire lifetime. I liked the story about the ex-girlfriend he left in the middle of a dinner date because he got the call during appetizers to go fishing several hours away the next morning (that night she became the ex).
I was awoken at 4am by the sound of my door slamming open against the wall, and Chucks 70 pound labrador's tail slapping me in the face. Patty (Chucks wife) explained the dog thought I was Novy (wait, I am Novy), it took ahwhile to get used to hearing Novy and not turning to acknowledge.
Shortly after we were jumping waves through the Cape May inlet and cruising past several pods of dolphins on our way to catch some tuna. We fought through the fog and huge swells on our way out and reached the fishing grounds 25 - 30 miles offshore in about 1.5 hours. The swells offshore were only 3-4 feet throughout the day and spread out, very calm. The temperature was also 10 - 12 degrees warmer then the water temperatures Jen and Ryan faced at the beach. We fished in an average temp of 64 degrees all day, they faced toe numbing 52 degree waters along the beach.
Mike had 7 lines trolling before I knew it ( I just tried to stay out of his way, tough on a small boat, did I mention the boat feels alot smaller once you can't see land). Within a half hour a long rigger goes off and I'm handed the first hookup of the day. 30 miles offshore, and after all Mikes stories of different fish species, and we catch the most common, hard fighting, unedible, Bluefish. Well it was a sign of life, little did we know that was all 7 hours of trolling would turn up.
Thats right, unfortunately we didn't hook up with any tuna on this trip, it wasn't for lack of effort though. On the way in we stopped at the
artificial reef off the Cape May coast and were able to jig some black sea bass. We had traveled approx. 70 miles total on the day and headed in to clean the boat and order dinner instead of grilling some fresh tuna steaks.
Mike came over to Aunt Stefs and Uncle Bobs house and met the DiPalma/Walker side of the family, including newborn Robert. Jen and Ryan also were there after a day spent at the beach with Grandma and Aunt Vanessa. Mike had never met Ryan but they became instant best friends, especially since Ryan got to sit in cousin Mikes yellow Jeep. (also, turns out that Uncle Bob and his partner had given Mike and the same yellow jeep a ticket 3 years ago while on patrol in Stone Harbor, both Mike and Bob remembered and recognized each other, Small World)
By 8 we were heading home, we didn't get the Bluefin Tuna that lured me down in the first place, but we ended up having a great day.
