As usual, I'll let the pics do most of the talking! I don't have a ton, as we were very focused on the fishing more than picture taking...but enough to tell a little story! ;)
After prepping the boat for the tournament earlier in the week, JR trailered the boat down to Cape May where he and I met up, slipped the boat in, and secured it for the following day while Vongas attended the captain's meeting and entered us into all of the prize pools! The three of us grabbed a quick bite at Lucky Bones before heading back to the hotel to meet with the other guys. Later that evening, Doug and Joel arrived and we began prepping the rods and rigs for the tournament. Afterwards JR went into his magical thinktank, formulating a strategy for where to fish on Day 1! With a location selected, we all headed to bed around 1:00AM for a glorious 3 hours of sleep before the 4:30AM wakeup!
Riding the streets of Cape May on Thursday afternoon before JR got down with the boat...
Day 1 arrives, as we all wake up ready for some sharkin action! A little over 3 hours of sleep seems to phase no one, as the excitement outweighs the need for rest! I don't think Joel even slept! We grab a quick breakfast and our lunches with 100 other people at the local Wawa and head off to the marina. We packed up the gear, threw off the lines and headed to the shotgun start!
Greg and Doug on the way out...
Heading on out to the shotgun start...
A Penn 50TW ready for some action!
Doug and JR with some more rods rigged and ready to go behind them!
A little scenery...
We missed the 7:00AM shotgun start by about a minute...if you look closely you can see the smoke from the engines in the distance out in front of us
No worries though, JR's 36' Yellowfin with triple 275 Mercury Verados gets us caught up quickly!
We get to the fishing grounds JR selected the night before well ahead of the 9:30AM fishing start time to find some beautiful water! Crystal clear and a nice deep blue!
Greg and Doug getting things ready...
The gaffs are ready to sink into a mako!
Conditions look pretty nice!
Action was pretty slow going, very little drift and couldn't cover ground as a result.
Late morning we had a hit but came up empty with a short bite!
Then things died off again until mid afternoon when we spotted two makos come into the slick, one big one and one smaller one.
They swam around the boat, through the slick, and we saw both come right by us a couple times.
JR hand fed a bait out and hooked up, but the fish came unbuckled in seconds.
He rebaited and fed back out and 5 minutes later sunk the hook into the right one!
He held on to the rod (beltless) and fought the fish all the way to the boat!
This is the only pic I have of the fight before the crew synched up in their roles to boat the fish!
JR was on the rod, Joel was the leader man, Doug and Greg were on the gaffs, while I ran the boat to keep the fish in good position and carried the shotgun to finish the mako off once it was gaffed! The team worked together beautifully, everything came together just perfect and we were able to boat the 240# mako after a wicked battle! The mako gave us a show, ripping drag, launching out of the water, rolling in the air, cruising across the top of the water...but JR held on and got her to the leader where the rest of the crew took over! Once we boated the fish, we called it in and headed for the weigh-in! Here's a few shots of it on the deck on the ride in.
Some shots at the weigh-in
The crew shot at the weigh-in (photo credit to Bob Weber)
After the weigh-in, we headed back to marina, cleaned up the boat, and took a few shots of the mako that day!
Captain JR Santos!
Joel!
Doug!
Vongas!
And an awesome group shot of the entire crew!
After the pics, we headed back to the hotel to get ourselves cleaned up before returning for some dinner at the tent!
We saw another nice mako was weighed in by the Miss Frances as well.
After dinner, we hit the hotel to recoup a few hours of sleep before the next day.
We began Day 2 with some pretty foggy conditions
The fireball in the sky was trying to peek through!
Doug mastered the art of sleeping standing up!
Vongas and Joel are ready for another day!
And our fearless leader taking the helm once again!
Due to the fog, we took our time getting out there and still managed to make it to our fishing grounds with a few minutes to spare before the start. Fitting shot, Day 2 was Doug's 31st birthday and this is the 31st annual South Jersey Shark Tournament!
Slow fishing for us on Day 2, not much on the radio either but we did hear a nice one was landed but nothing on size or species...they must have been talking about the one 3D weighed in that day. We headed back to our marina, cleaned up the boat and got it trailered up and then headed over to the tent again for the final weigh-ins. At 7:30PM, the event coordinator called it, and Out on a Limb was on top with the biggest mako of the tournament!
A couple hours later, the awards and checks were presented!
Shot of the trophies...
And the awards being announced...
Nora Jane awarded for Most Points Overall, Most Points Mako (photo credit to Bob Weber)
Noreaster II awarded for Most Points Blue (photo credit to Bob Weber)
Miss Francis awarded for Base Prize 2nd Heaviest Shark and Base Prize 2nd Heaviest Mako
3D awarded for Base Prize 3rd Heaviest Shark, Base Prize 3rd Heaviest Mako, Base Prize Daily Heaviest Mako Day 2, Overall Calc. A 2nd Heaviest Shark, Overall Calc. A 2nd Heaviest Mako, Overall Calc. B 2nd Heaviest Shark, Overall Calc. B 2nd Heaviest Mako, Daily Double Heaviest Shark Day 2, Daily Double Heaviest Mako Day 2, and Mako Mania 2nd Heaviest Mako (photo credit to Bob Weber)
And our crew, Out on a Limb IV with Captain JR Santos awarded Base Prize Heaviest Shark, Base Prize Heaviest Mako, Base Prize Daily Heaviest Mako Day 1, Overall Calc. A Heaviest Shark, Overall Calc. A Heaviest Mako, Overall Calc. B Heaviest Shark, Overall Calc. B Heaviest Mako, Daily Double Heaviest Shark Day 1, Daily Double Heaviest Mako Day 1, and Mako Mania Heaviest Mako
And Captain JR Santos with the big payday!
What more can I say...the whole weekend was truly an amazing experience! I can't thank JR enough for the invite, and congratulations to both he and the rest of our crew on a spectacular win! Without question, JR is an absolutely top notch captain, capable of winning any tournament regardless of the species...proven in the past and proven again this weekend! I was honored to fill in as part of the crew on a well deserved win for JR and his regular crew! It was a great time with great friends and a weekend I don't think any of us will ever forget!
