Reports
- 160 lb Bluefin and 7 Yellowfins on the Hooked Up II today
- Tuna Fishing Report for August 1st-5th
- Outfished by Center Consoles But Still a Great Day
- Blue Fin Tuna Fishing Report
- Updated report on the Hooked UP II
- Tuna report on the Hooked Up II
- 25 Yellowfin, TRIED for Bluefin, Marlin-Big Eye on 55 Hooked Up II
- A very detailed report on new world class jigging-popping tackle on the 55 Hooked Up II
- My thoughts on spinners versus conventionals for jigging those 80-175 lb. Bluefins
- August 24, 2008 Report for the past few days.
August 10, 2008 Bad Thunderstorms on the Reynold Panettieri Charter Trip
2008-08-10
Our game plan for our trip was to leave Cape May at 1:00 am and start out for some daybreak bluefin chunking and jigging at Massey’s and then to move offshore and troll for marlin, wahoo, yellowfin and mahi-mahi. We thought we would beat the afternoon winds and any thunderstorms that were predicted but that did not happen. At about 10:30 am while trolling just inside the 40 fathom line, we saw a major, solid line of thunderstorms coming off the Delaware, MD and VA coasts provided by Sirius Satellite Weather on our 12 inch Raymarine screen. Along with the real time sea temperature charts it provides, this is one of the most valuable features that new modern electronics offer and has really helped us so far this summer to avoid some pretty nasty thunderstorms on the Hooked Up II--but not today. We ran close to 40 knots at times trying to avoid the lines of storms but they just seemed to keep developing no matter where we went and eventually we got slammed with strong winds, driving rain and scary boomers all around us. Of course, I just loved being at the helm steering the boat with a stainless wheel and 40 foot aluminum outriggers right beside me as the lightning was hitting everywhere around us. It was just flat out nasty out there and I hate being caught in this stuff period. We had a close hit several years ago that fried all my electronics and although I don’t ever want any part of storms like these, sometimes you just get caught and have to do your best to ride it out as we did today. One of the main reasons I spent the money to have a 55 foot boat built was because we have been caught many times over the years in weather that was not predicted and once offshore, there is not too much that can be done. Having a bigger, high quality boat that can handle bad weather is something very comforting compared to the old days when I ran offshore in much smaller boats and got my butt kicked more than a few times even though I tried my best to go only when the weather looked okay. Unfortunately, the weather rather than fish makes up my report for this trip.