We fished the Star Island tourney this weekend out of Montauk on our 32 Regulator. Thursday was a pre fish day to look at a spots 25 to 40 fathoms and also to run the boat offshore and get the crew working together. We found the mother load of dogfish inside of 30 fathoms with less as we pushed offshore ... the boat performed beyond my expectations by a longshot with an efficient cruise of 35 to 37 knots with full gear,fuel and crew.. For all you outboard guys, we just installed the new Simrad autopilot with no rudder feedback and I could not believe how straight it ran the boat in a variety of conditions and speeds. Friday saw great weather and we took advantage of the 41 knot cruise and ran to the break in 600 fathoms of the Hudson ... 105 miles give or take. We found all kinds of life but no makos or tigers. In the afternoon we move inshore to 80 fathoms and had plenty of bluesharks. Returning to Montauk , the leader board saw 1 thresher at 298lbs (congrats to Chris and Jimmy Earle) take the lead with a 264 blue an makos at 241,230 and 221 (congrats to Mike on the Bluefin/ HC Canyon) weighed. A 173 mako also came in and took the lead in the 5k and 10k calcuttas... Saturday saw decent weather and our plan to run further west based upon the reports of good mako fishing off NJ. We knocked out the 76 mile run in under two hours and had great action releasing 30 bluesharks.. we pulled one through the transom door and he taped around 225 lbs, big enough to take the 5k Calutta but not meeting the 250lb minimum set by the Tourament comittee , so back in the water he went. My 10 year old son baited and battled a bunch on a Penn 975 entertaining himself and my crew throughout the 3 days.. The leader board saw a 353 Thresher take the lead on Saturday with no other changes in the other categories. The 173 mako held up in the 5k and 10k Calcuttas and paid $270,000 .... what a day that had to be for that crew ... we ran 41.5 kts coming home and the boat ate up the 3 foot sea ... all in all we had a great time and saw many friends ... great action but not the right one ... I have to thank Regulator, Northstar, Penn, Berkley, Braid and BHP for all their help over the years. I also have to thank Jimmy Litteri from Suffolk Marine for really going out of his way not only for us, but for all his customers. He and his crew moved a bunch of Regulators out to Montauk for this event and had us all docked side by side. He quickly made us feel like part of the Regulator family. Here are a few pics rom the weekend ....
Mark
Mark
