We started out the New Year in style this past weekend with our first long range trip for the 2009 season. If you were planning on going on this adventure and missed the trip; shame on you, you missed a Jumbo Sea Bass trip that was arguably “as good as it gets!”

For a change the weathermen were fairly accurate in their synopsis of what the wind was going to do and we did have a great weather window to make this trip happen. Departure time was a 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning an the ocean was so beautiful that Capt. H.D. decided to go the extra mile and fish wrecks down the beach in the 35 fathom range. It was a good call! From the very first to the very last drop anglers were rewarded with Jumbo Sea Bass that would average three to five pounds with an impressive number of fish tipping the scales at over five and six pounds!

This was truly a memorable trip, limits of twenty-five fish were common all around the boat and virtually everyone got in on the action. Just about every cooler on the boat was chocked full of Jumbo Bass by days end. As the morning progressed the wind that was supposed to kick up later in the day had started to stiffen and Capt. H made the call to try another wreck in a little deeper water not far from where we had started before it got too rough, and once again we were treated with doubles and triples of more jumbos! This was the icing on the cake, we left the fish biting on both wrecks that we fished and were home at a reasonable time docking at around 7:30.

This was the first of hopefully many more of these long-range trips that we have on the schedule in the upcoming weeks. As long as the weather gives us a break success like this should be normal on these trips. The water temperature offshore is around 53 degrees, which is perfect for this offshore migration of Bass. We have several of these trips planned the dates can be viewed from the special trip link from the home page.

If you are thinking about making one of these trips remember we will be fishing a minimum of about 200 feet of water. A sturdy rod with a fairly soft tip is suggested and I would also recommend filling your reel with a few hundred yards of one of the high tech spectra braids. Power Pro or Spider Wire in the forty to fifty pound class will suffice. For the most part you can get away with under a pound of lead, this may seem like a lot but in these depths it is better to control your rig with a little more weight at the bottom.

If you would like any more information about these trips please feel free to email me or give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA. Reservations must be made in advance by phone and these are limited space trips. Our next trip is scheduled to depart Sunday morning January 18th at 2:00 a.m.

Until Next Time Happy Fishing!

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
Thelma Dale V
catchfish@verizon.net