Reel Screamers

............. or should I say lack of one. It has been slow. The good weather allowed us to get out but there was not much waiting for us. There were 50 to 60 boats on the lump yesterday and a few less then that Thursday. Thursday about the only excitement was when two Makos showed up with one boat eventually hooking and loosing the smaller of the two that was cruising around.

Friday was about the same scenario except that the Makos did not show up. Had bonito behind the boat all day but was only able to scratch out one blackfin. Heard talk of a small yellow that had been caught overnight but nothing during the daylight hours. We could have sunk the boat with Vermillion Snapper and one of my buddies fouled hooked an 8 pound lobster but the target of the day never showed up.

My crew elected to stay on the lump to see if it would ever turn on. I know of one boat that left the lump and traveled out to MARS, picking up 4 yellowfin to make the ride worth it. Another buddy stayed well away from the lump and trolled all day. His first bite did not come until about noon but he ended up with 15 wahoo ranging from 50 to 80 pounds. In the end, staying at the lump was a good idea. When we got ready to leave, we sheered a driveshaft about 2 miles from the lump and had to 10 knot it all the way back.

The seas were great, the company was great but the main dish just never showed up.

The wheels should start turning Monday on a re-power and we will be abck on the water before too long.

Maybe the lump will turn on, maybe it won't but there are plenty of other options available.

reelscreamers.com</DIV>

Captain Woody Woods

that's an asskicking right there.

Harry Brosofsky

I was at the lump Thursday and we got a bunch of blackfin. The morning was dead, so we trolled around a few laps, picking up a 40 lb hoo. We went back to the anchor and right away saw a school of menhaden getting slammed, so we dropped the anchor, ran over to the bait, ans started casting poppers. I also used the dip net and literally scooped up 40-50 live menhaden, which we used for livebaiting more Blackfin. Final tally was 13 fish (8 Blackfin and 5 bonito). We also caught about 5 trophy size beeliners bottom bumping.

We had motor problems on the way home, ending our plan to troll the Horseshoe rigs yesterday. The motor ran, but was cutting out from 5K down to 3800 every few seconds...I think it's a bad injector, but there was no way I was heading out with a known issue.

Harry

Reel Screamers

There have been some blackfin show up and there have been a lot of open water schools of blackfin just north of the lump. They have been very boat shy so you either need to slip on on them by drifting with the wind and throwing poppers or trolling in the area of the schools.

Don't give up on the lump just yet, just know that there are going to be some slow days then there will be the day where someone is going home with the trophy.

Harry Brosofsky

These blackfin were not shy at all...I drove literally right up to the bait they were busting and had the BFTs right under the bow. I was so close I literally scooped up bait with a 6 foot dip net.

Harry