Due to our own error, we held August 5 for a European couple who kept insisting that the "check is in the mail for their fishing trip of a lifetime." When the check had not arrived by the Monday before the charter date, we tried to notify them that their date was not being held. Yahoo had terminated their e-mail address. A scam from the get go.

Soooo, we went to Plan B and put together a charter to go Tuna fishing. It turned out to be one of the best trips of the year both due to the people in the party as well as the catch. Everyone except one person had fished with June Bug before and were on our short notice call list.

Harry Downs of Shore Memorial Hospital (maybe his co-workers will actually go with him on his overnighter this year), Charlie Tomlinson and Maarten Pesch of Wallace Roberts & Todd Architects in Philadelphia, John Hancock (yep, we have historical personalities in June Bug crews) of Harris Corporation, and Ted Rose, artist and fine fisherman, made up the crew.

We had to delay leaving until 1 a.m. due to the tide but the seas were kindly and we made it to the Lindenkohl Canyon right at daybreak.

We staretd fishing about 4 miles inshore from the Tip. Mate Chris Mitryk had the baits in the water quickly and before long, we had our first strike in the middle of a pod of baitfish. The fish hooked up on the short rigger and others were pounding other baits. We tookj one fish out of that first bunch and no sooner got trolling again when another bait pod swam through and POW, a triple header.

It kept up like this for a couple of hours until we had 7 Yellowfins aboard. A few fish were lost shortly after the strike since they likely grabbed the baits but didn't get hooked.

The bite stopped abruptly around 8 a.m. A ton of boats had arrived by then and perhaps the noise put the fish down.

We worked our way to the Tip and worked the pots that were there. They had either been picked over by other boats already or they just weren't holding any fish.

We went out into the Deep and found a lot of floating wood. This stuff has been in the canyons for over a week. A freighter must have lost a deck cargo since there is an awful lot of this dangerous stuff floating around along with tree trunks and other debris. While Mahi and other fish hang around floating wood, it is a hazard to navigation.

At around the 500 farthom mark, we found a 4' piece of 6" x 6" wood that had a large bull Mahi under it. He would not take a trolled bait so we pulled everything in and backed up to the wood. John Hancock flipped a bait hook on a wire leader with a ballyhoo fillet toward the fish. The bull charged it and hooked up. John had him in the boat in nothing flat. Short work for a nice fish. He was the only one under that wood though.

Back to trolling and we found a family of Dolphins including a baby that couldn't have been 18" long. They let us get a good look and then swam away. It wasn't 10 seconds later when we had a really hard strike and the fish took a spreader bar and headed straight down pulling a lot of line as it went. Harry Downs was in the cockpit ready to go and fought this fish really well. His back started to get sore about 30 minutes into the fight so Harry jumped into the fighting chair to finish the battle. The fish was a really nice Yellowfin that after it had been collared, gutted, and bled weighed 72 pounds. That fish was somewhere between 110 and 120 total weight when caught. Chris gaffed it well but the fish was so heavy, John jumped in and hit it with a second gaff in the head to held drag it aboard. It adds to our fun when everyone pitches in to make sure the job gets done. Nice reaction John!

We heard that lots of boats didn't do much in the Lindy yesterday. We can't address that since we had a great day. We also heard some boats complaining about the "high" seas. Until about noon, the wind was about 10 knots out of the East NorthEast and then shifted to the North and picked up to about 15 knots. The seas were 2' or so in the morning and only increased a foot or so in the afternoon. The further inshore we went on teh way home, the lower the seas were. June Bug came home at our normal cruising speed with no trouble.

Chinking dates are booking up. This is turning into a very good Tuna year. If you want your share, call and check available dates.

Call my cell 609-685-2839 or e-mail me at CaptLindsay@Fish-JuneBug.com.