man.....I love catching me some nice striper during the winter. They keep some nice Meat on the grill and they fill the time between the last Offshore trip of the year and the first offshore trip of the year.

I found myself with a gift card for Bass Pro shop, which I had planned to use to replace some of my wilting striper gear. Well, once I got in there thoughts of spring YFT fishing out of OI and Hatteras filled all parts of my brain. I immediately replenished my stock of blue and white sea witches, 7/0 and 8/0 J hooks, springs, wind on leaders, crimps, new crimpers, a longer Gaff so Otter quits bitching at me about how short the gaff is (No jokes here OK), and yes, a new digital camera so I can take some better offshore pictures.

Sunday morning I'm sitting here watch offshore fishing the world with Captain Norm Isaacs wishing I had the luck to have a job like that. Some people say it wold become like a job if you fished everyday, I say BS to that, I could fish every day and remain very passionate about it. When I grow up I wanna fish for a living, for pelagics that is !......

Just rambling here thinking about the first trip out of Hatteras inlet coming up this year, hoping the inlet is kind to us unlike last year and remembering those great Wahoo Runs, Fighting some big tuna or a nice White. I wanna get a Blue in Still Think'n this year and maybe a sword...those are my two big goals. Hum, wonder if the swords are still out there RIGHT NOW ??????.......gotta go....bob

Bob,

I know what you mean about bass pro shops. I try to go in there for 1 or two things next thing I am grabbing a cart. Same with the boat show last year.. I promised I would not buy a boat just wanted to look.. Well I was not in the for 1 hour before I was signing an order and now I am already pricing a bigger boat so I can get offshore on less than perfect days. Today I am supposed to get both cars cleaned out... But now I am thinking about getting all my offshore stuff in order for this spring. The best thing about this addiction as opposed to other addictions is that our support group ENCOURAGES our addiction.


And the swords are still there .....


Hmmmmm


Tom

I have a couple of questions for you guys. I've been reading these forums for a while now and you guys seem to know what your talking about so.
Off shore VA beach. Is it a good place to Tuna fish in the spring and summer and how far offshore do you need to go. If you answer these I promise there will be more to follow.
Any help or info would be greatly appreciated.

Gary

spring and fall

The tuna moved north last summer when the water got too warm for them.

TTTTTOOOONNNNAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

Gary, Virginia Beach can be a great place to tuna fish. The season here typically starts in late may/early june and peaks in early July, depending on the water temps. The fish also run in the fall, heading back to points south of Hatteras for the winter. Keep in mind that most of the serious offshore folks on this site will be down in Hatteras Village in April tuna fishing. Then will move up to Oregon Inlet and finally in June fish out of VB. Once again I use the word "typically" you run 45 to 75 miles to reach the fish out of Rudee Inlet. Sometimes they move in closer, sometimes they are out farther. 35 miles for Oregon Inlet and 30 miles for Hatteras Village. Hope this helps.

I spent the day today working on my offshore stuff. Striper fishing is something to do but really is a poor substitute.

Man, I can relate to these thoughts.
Striper fishing is fun but it gets repetitive to me -same rigs, same places and same fish - week after week.
I was standing on the dock down at Teach's Lair last week and counted up the days 'til we return. I've worked up a few florocarbon/wire combo wind-on's to do battle with those hoo's down there. Last year we got bit off left and right with those straight tuna rigs on floro.
My angler got his citation last week, for the big blue marlin we caught last summer. He is still bragging about it - 8 months laterI.
It was a good season, but I learned alot-I think we can do alittle better in 2007.

bob -- we gotta get those blue billfish this year on our boats -- we are due

We'll sure join you in the quest. Teamwork has helped us this past year, expect we'll all be a little better this year. It would be great to get 5 boats from the Board on to Blues this year, 12 boats on Whites, and 4 boats on Swords. That's braggin rights to a forum like this and a great work-up for our own Bluewater Classic part deux.
When the Billfish doesn't see his shadow in February the Tuna will run early.
Tight lines.
Dave

Thanks for the info!! I will definately keep that in mind and will be sure to get back with more questions later.
Thanks again

Can't wait for the boat to be out of Bluewater so we can get it back down to Hatteras.

Bob,
Ive been taping those Salterwater Sundays and watching them over and over again. I can't wait to get out there myself. There are a few new tricks I want to try that I picked up from those show.
One was on Jose Wejebe's show. he was fishing in the Gulf for big yellowfin. they were getting marks down deep, but no fish coming up, so they stopped the boat and dropped irons over. He dumped his entire spool of the spinning rod and then just started cranking. As he neared the top, the rod doubles over and the fish is on. Now granted, its tv and editing, but its gotta work. His thoughts were "to take the fight to the fish." Sounds good to me!

yea I saw that one..fishing in the Gulf of Mexico !...pretty awesome...I've often thought about dropping jigs down deep when they're not marking....I don't see why it wouldn't work !.......Bob

I read an article about Stoneing for Tuna,they use the baits you described then they put 10 wraps around a big rock.They put the reel in free spool and dump the rig overboard the rock falls off and the lure gets to the zone rather quickly. No BS its in the new Saltwater Mag.FEB edition

duuuuuu!!!!!!!!
answered my own question
just look at "my boat"