Morning Star hits Dec. 31 tuna

Capt. Mony Hawkins of Morning Star from Ocean City, Maryland reported his Dec. 31 trip started “on a glassy sea with a clear sky revealing pre-dawn constellations in their glory. Cygnus the swan; or, as is also understandably known, the northern cross, lead a long string of boats east.

A hint of wind began to ruffle the sea’s surface just before dawn causing mirror-like conditions to be lost.

We paused briefly at Kathy’s Reef where Tyler & Jeff deployed a twenty block reef unit.

From there I pressed on — in the wrong direction. (again!)

Birds are dependent on predators forcing bait to the surface. We found hundreds of bonaparte gulls – the right kind for locating tuna – but they were mostly siting with a few sentinels on winged march; all waiting for a signal the show was about to begin.

For us? That signal, in that area at least, was not to be seen.

I pressed offshore.

With blank screens for hours I decided to interrupt our fishing with some catching – to put some sea bass in the box should the unthinkable occur.

While the cbass bite was not what we’d had just a few days ago, it dern-sure wasn’t bad either. With plenty of fish in the box after just an hour, and today’s summer-like southerly breeze picking up in a big way, we hauled anchor and got back to bluefin fishing.

And fishing..

Well? Then what happened?

Some dern fine tuna catching is what happened.. Our best day yet, in fact. Went 6 for 9. Two were caught on spinning gear. Two were lost also. The shelly caught one on the troll. There were four others – including Greg’s – which bit at one minute after sundown.

I’d heard the chatter on the radio. Fleet must have knotted up tight. Lots of ungentlemanly language owing cut off fish and gear!

Last day of sea bass. It’s closed until approximately May 15th.

Last day of generous bluefin limits too. We drop to just one between 27 and 73 inches January 1st. Hothrough latewever, we’re also allowed one over 73 inches a year.

Believe I’ll begin hunting that one before too long.

Happy New Year Everyone!”

A gale watch is up through late tonight in NY/NJ Bight. The Friday forecast is for west winds at 15-20 knots plus gusts to 25.