We headed off to the Coimbra Wreck 30 miles out of Moriches Inlet. Conditions couldn’t have been better with flat seas, a light breeze, and low humidity. We were treated to a spectacular Sunrise on the way out on Capt. Adrian Mason’s boat Big Trouble and made the journey in about an hour and had lines in by 6:30 a.m. We saw a water spout about a mile or so south of the Coimbra and decided to pick up and move in that direction and soon spotted several Fin Whales, a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins and a few boats hooked up with small Tuna.
One of the whales swam close enough to give us a huge and very smelly exhale. If you have never smelled Whale breath, OMG let me tell you it’s bad they need a GIANT TIC TAC !
After that the pod of Dolphin came right to our boat and rode along the front side of the bow. I was so close I had to stand on the front seat to get them in focus.
Dolphins like to use the boats wake to glide along and maybe take a look at us, either way we all loved it, what a treat.
We found a pod of bait I believed to be chub mackerel but I really could not identify them. We trolled around and near that pod for a while with no knock downs or fish. After the whales and dolphins left we trolled around for a few more hours spotting two sea turtles and a Mola Mola or Ocean Sun Fish. About 11 am we decided to call it quits and headed towards Shinnecock to work the lobster pots and schools of bunker that we would encounter on the way back home.
We were able to pick off a tiny Mahi Mahi and 2 Jack Caravelles but nothing big or notable. As we headed back west toward Moriches we stopped at another bunker pod that seemed to be agitated and harassed by something underneath them. We all snagged a bunker and didn’t wait long for some action as I spotted a Shark Fin headed straight for us! Angelo Peluso just happened to be casting in that direction and hooked a 6′ Thresher Shark!! The Shark took took off, spooling his light reel set up in about 60 seconds all 300 yards of line gone before we could turn the boat in its direction and make chase.
We all had a good laugh and that was all she wrote as we headed back into the Great South Bay.
-Paul
This post was adapted from a blog from Fire Island and Beyond, read the original here
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