PARTY BOAT TUNA TRIPS - THE WAY IT WAS!
by Dick Alley
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| Over The Rail - Mates play a key role in Party Boat tuna trips. |
It was called an "assignment" back in the late 1980's. I retired from the Westport, CT Police Department in 1986 and took on a part-time job as a Field Editor for the New England Fisherman magazine, while also writing fishing columns for The Hour, the New Haven Register and free-lancing for a bunch of other publications. I had three solid deadlines a week, but could pretty much work my own schedule.
Tim Coleman, my editor at The Fisherman kept me busy with assignments up and down the New England coast from Connecticut to Maine, doing stories in conjunction with many of our advertisers on the various fishing adventures available in nearby waters.
I didn't make a lot of money, but had more fun than I could ever have dreamed about as a kid while devouring stories from Sports Afield and Outdoor Life and Salt Water Sportsman. Looking back now, I probably would have worked for nothing. It was that much fun.
A few of those "assignments" included stories on fishing for tuna, both from charter and party boats, during the heyday of tuna fishing.
My first tuna trip was aboard the Sunbeam Express, then the Flagship of the Sunbeam Fleet, under the leadership of the late Captain John Wadsworth and his son Captain Bobby Wadsworth. The Wadsworth family were early leaders in recreational fishing boats out of Waterford, CT. Their daily fishing trips ranged from winter flounder in early spring, to bluefish, blackfish, porgies, striped bass and black sea bass. When the recreational party boat tuna fishing phenomenon exploded, Captain John was the first in the area to purchase a 100-plus foot boat capable of long-range trips with accommodations for several anglers, captains and crew including a great cook who provided excellent meals.
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| Greg Daignault with the biggest tuna of the trip |
While most anglers brought their own stand-up rods, reels and fishing harnesses, there were also good outfits aboard that could be rented at a reasonable price.
I was lucky enough to cover the first trip to the Continental shelf and the Canyons some 80 miles from shore. We departed Waterford in the evening, slept much of the way out and arrived before sunrise. It was a 3-day trip. During the daytime hours, we trolled up to 6 rods off the back.
At night, we tied up to a buoy and fished butterfish baits at various depths with most everyone fishing to start and only a few as the hours passed. The bites came in spurts with first a flurry and a fish or three on board, then quiet, then another reel would shriek and the excitement started all over again.
Trolling was even more exciting. Anglers took turns at the spots for 30 minutes at a time. Near sundown and again at dawn, a school of fish would suddenly come up for the baits and it was everybody hooking up. Mates did a fabulous job, calmly passing rods back and forth under and over other angler's lines, so that almost everyone caught fish.
The weather was great and everyone was happy on the return trip. I had another new and different offshore assignment only a couple of weeks later and couldn't wait to go. Those pic's are for the next story.
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