After trying to live bait a giant tuna earlier in the week, my friend Jason and I decided to mix things up, and fish a completely different area using different techniques.
The change was part in due to a last minute report we received from friend and MFCC member Andrew Massard (author of Cape Cod Offshore Fishing Report | Fish Tails Canyon) about lots of tuna in very close to shore.
Andrew, Jason and I met up at 4AM en route to this new area. We all were excited and had a very good feeling about the prospects of this trip.
Getting Ready & Getting Out There
The guys worked on rigging lines and terminal tackle while I drove the boat.
It was an overcast morning and the winds were light. I could just barely make out the navigation buoys in the dim morning light.
On the way out we drove past many moored boats and waterfront homes. I began to imagine how wild this place must of looked, prior to all the human habitation.
There were several houses in particular, which were teetering on the edge of falling into the ocean. Imagine spending a night here during the midst of a February winter storm?
By now the guys had finished preparing the lines. I increased the throttle and brought us through the rest of the bay, towards the cold North Atlantic Ocean.
Life On The Horizon
We first began marking bait in just 50 feet of water. I was tempted to stop and check the area more thoroughly, but ultimately decided on pushing on towards deeper water.
I hate second guessing my decisions, but that is exactly what I was doing as our boat cruised away from the birds and bait at our stern.
Fortunately it was not long until more life began to appear on the horizon.
Whales, Bait & TUNA
As I was cruising along I noticed a big disturbance in the water. There was something large off the bow, perhaps 200 yards away. I slowed the boat way down, so that we were barely making headway.
Then a large adult humpback whale surfaced a stones throw away from our vessel, and let out a giant exhale of whale breath and salt water.
We had found the life, or rather, the life had found us.
With the whale still off the bow, we began marking loads of bait on the sonar. Birds began going crazy, diving and squawking all around us.
Chatter on the radio was promising too. Several tunas had already been taken, and we didn't yet have lines in the water!
Without hesitation we dropped our lines back behind the boat and started fishing.
