BillableOurs had the pleasure of hosting Phil (G&H Lures), Greg (1GreenThumb), John (Carolina'sMan), and Todd (Todd30) for our first run out of Shallowbag Bay and Oregon Inlet. The wind was manageable early getting through the inlet, but steadily picked up in through the day. We worked through it and Don had a 9 line spread out which the guys helped manage. They all did a great job and Phil also brought some new G&H Seawitches with the latest Hatteras Flash material, I gotta tell ya, they look great and brought fish into the box! I call the Blue and Crystal Flash Witch "Crystal Blue Pursuation" because the Tuna turned right in on it. Don chalked up another TikiBar kill as well. Lord knows I bought a lot of fishing %#@$ over the years that claimed to catch fish, and most of it just doesn't. Don't know why, but I just don't waste my time with it when we want to put people on fish. Don and Phil have some great stuff and it works.
We worked a well defined Temp break around the 600 line in 100 fathoms. We found a great color change to pretty blue water, but the weeds were blown apart from the wind. Picked up a respectable Gaffer Mahi and started working a bit south. A nice YFT crashed the spread and hooked up, the boys jigged the short riggers as I kept spead up and they hooked up dash 2 in textbook fashion. Moving the anglers to the cleared positions, they fought inside the long lines so we kept some lines out in case. Phil and John worked their fish onto the gaff and both hit the box, joining Todds gaffer.
The next bite slammed the short rigger and Greg put on the belt. This fish sounded and stayed deep for 2/3 of the fight and we thought it might be a Bigeye. Every bit of recovered line was given back time and again. Greg, not a weak man by any stretch was having it handed to him. This fish had heart, and it looked like Greg was going to have his huge hands full! The fight went on for over an hour, Greg got to the leader, only to have the Tuna dig in and take it back. This happened 20 times. I was fighting to keep the fish in position as the seas stacked up in the wind. At one point a Freighter was bearing down on us, and I suspected he was not going to be sympathetic to some fisherman locked in battle, so we dragged our fight off to the side as quickly as possible. Greg ended up winning, and Don even punched the Tuna in the head when he had it boated because it gave us such a hard time. I say, Good on Ya Mr. T, you were a stud!
Pat finished the day by landing another Gaffer Mahi, but she didn't let up on it and it kind of caved in to the preasure, so it wasn't much of a fight in her view. We had a great day, each angler getting on a fish and some great stories to share. Hope we'll have many more from OI to come!
Sharp hooks and tight lines!
Dave

Great report!

Man, great report! LOL Mr. T! Greg is a big dood, and when he told me earlier he fought that thing for over an hour, I was shocked! Sounds like you guys had a great day on the water, and thanks for sharing.
JOE

Great job putting the crew on fish i find every tuna to be different in the course of battle. Any problems navigating out of SBB it was tricky last year in the dark i haven't been out of there since. Again congrats on a fine day indeed. Conch

Nice report and good meeting you. See you down later this week.

Great job to the Billable crew. Way to find the fish Dave. It was a pink/white/Foil that caught our yellowfin Wed. and the faithful b/w tiki that got our 30lb bull as well.. Both are awesome products.

Pretty work Dave! That was quite a team you put together!

Congrats to all on a sucessful day on the water.

John didn't screw your outriggers up did he?

Great job guys

Good job billable ours !...way to get fish in the boat first trip out this year...gonna be a great season...good luck today guys !.....Bob

Great job! Just keep on scouting so we get on some fish Fri and Sat!!! See you Thurs afternoon.

Nice trip guys!!!

Thank you Dave and Pat for a great trip! It was a beautiful day on the water with a great crew. Good Luck fishing the rest of the week!

Phil

Great report here Dave. Really good to hear from Billable Hours --back in the saddle

Good luck to you and Pat this week

Kent

Dave,
Thanks for having me aboard, it was a great trip. Pat, nice to see you again. Don, great job in the pit and on the gaff. Phil and Todd nice meeting you both. John, good to see you again. Phil, those G&H sea-witches are indeed awesome and thanks for "driving" the chair. As for the tuna that just about wore me out, I lost count on how many times we watched the leader go from the reel back to the sea, what a blast!! Enjoy the remainder of your stay out of Shallow Bag Bay. Tuna Beware!! Thanks again.
Greg

I second what the rest of the crew said....great day on the water, thanks for the invite Dave! I'm already looking forward to the next one.....cedar plank smoked tuna steaks for dinner tonight !!!!!!!!

Dave

Nice job sorry we will miss out this week. Navy calls so you have to do the duty before you can play. Let's do it sometime soon.

Thanks for the invite.
Mark

How big was the hard fighting tuna?

That was my question "How big was he?"
Thanks for the report,I'll be there Fri until...


Jeff

Thanks for having me aboard Dave, Pat and Don.
I had blast fishing with you all. Nice meeting you guys (Phil, Greg and John)
That was one long ride back to the house!


Man it is nice to have some fresh TUNAAAA!

When are we going again, I am ready!

Todd

The tuna, if memory serves were, 31, 35 and 51 lbs...

Sounds like you guys had a great trip. How could you not don and phil aboard, nice fish guys. Wish we could have gotten into them for the tourney.

Nice job guys! Great Report.

I expected Dave to post a Tuesday report but I don't see it so here goes: The BillableOurs went 6 of 7 on some nice fat yellowfins with a 90 lb bigeye thrown in today. Conditions were good in the morning but started to breeze up in the afternoon. The boys reviewed the sat shots and weather reports, made the call, struck out on their own and found the fish. It doesn't get any better than that! Pretty work guys! I'll be down fishing with them on Friday and Saturday, so Tom you boys better bring your chest waders. It could get deep quick, and I ain't talkin about the water!

Looking forward to it, and I really don't see how it could get much deeper than on my boat!!!

The Volunteer crew will be there Thurs afternoon wanting free beer, cable TV, and lotsa fish!!!