OK folks, most of you already know the capt. is a little loony, but after much deliberation, calculation and begging it looks as though this is the new vessel, and that is final:

Port view Bow view Console view

THANK YOU Capt. Dad for the correct fathom to feet conversion. At this point now I can't clearly recall how deep we were it just seemed like thousands of feet after trolling for so long. Anyways check out the new edition (transfer pending) to the capt.'s fleet. Introducing CLOSENFFer: Check it out.

More pics from Kona, the blue marlin on the left weighed in @ 185lbs., just a pup. I did NOT catch him, tho the capt. almost lied about that until he was warned that if he was caught lying, he'd have his beard tarred. The Wild West had a helluva crew although we only caught skippies and a shark, which a shark is similiar to a catfish on the CLOSENFF point system. The pic on the right was two of many porpoises we followed. In theory the porpoise follow the Ahi, in reality they are just fun to watch and yeilded no yellowfin, but look how blue the water is, that was at about 30 fathoms (180 ft. deep).

Some pics from Kona, on the big island of Hawaii. We set out in search of some Blue Mar and/or Ahi. We did manage to catch the bait (skipjack or Oku in the middle) but only managed to land the whitetip shark on the left. I had the shark on a 20lb. test rod for about 1 min. until he sawed off the line, he hung around and a girl on the boat had the honors. The big Ahi or yellowfin tuna on the right weighed in at 148lbs. Unfortunately I didn't catch it but was still worth pic.

A nice largemouth taken on a very cold lonely morning. Wind was blowing and my nose was running. No sign of stripers this morning. Made it out that evening for a sunset cruise. The fish may not always be there but the sunsets always are...

Hey there folks, some technical difficulties and slow fishing has caused the recent delay in posts. Still have to go through some of the pics from Hawaii too. But in the meantime to wet your FS blog appetite here's some shots from this previous week on LKN. We've caught a bunch of small largemouth (too small to photograph) that were schooling up around the shoals. Michelle killed the white perch on bait (it's ok Michelle you can touch him!!), we caught 5. I managed a couple of smaller stripers making casts with crankbaits.

Well folks it's been awhile. The capt. is trying out the fishing in Hawaii. The first trip was a disappointment yeilding fish the size of the brim. The next excursion however proved a little better. Apparently this time of the year is a transistion period so the fishing has been SLOOOW. The capt. did manage to catch this Mahi Mahi aka dolphin fish (dorado). Can't say it was much of a battle as we were geared for marlin using 130 lb. test rigs. The fish weighed in about 20lbs. and was delicious for the whole family. The boat was gorgeous and the crew was cool but that didn't help us catch too much. The next trip is scheduled for the big island of Hawaii or Kona, supposedly that is where all the fish are hanging out, we'll see...

The capt. may have a new project to satisfy the Mrs. capt. She sure is pretty, actually they both are ;-)

Hello folks, it has been quite a while. The captain did NOT secure enough funding for a new boat oh well. Charter reservations have been weak. So the capt.'s capt. and the capt.'s friend took advantage of the cheap summertime rates. Fishing has been tough for all in the dog days but lookie here Mr. Greg and Mr. Jeff managed to bring some luck to CLOSENFF and landing a nice striper very early in the am. Some topwater action yielded the largemouth later that morning.

THEY'RE STILL HERE! Picked up a couple the other morning. We were using lighter tackle and these fish put up a helluva fight. Out of town for the next couple weeks so CLOSENFF was cleaned up and dry docked. Capt. needs a bigger boat may be putting her up on ebay to try and catch buyer. That maybe the toughest one to land but we'll see. Capt. is graciously taking donations. This boat here would be ideal.

Ok apparently the stripes aren't as deep as the capt. has been chasing for them. Finally got one in bout 45ft. on a plug with out a planer. The photographer will start taking pics while the fish are still in the water, this may put less pressure on the capt. to actually land the fish. The photo below has about 2 dozen blue heron in it, never seen so many in one location. Would have bet the boat that there'd be fish there, not a bite.


larger image

Well the live bait fishing didn't go as planned. We sat around and not even a bite. Capt. Ray says not to give up on the live bait if you truley want to catch a real big fish. Kinda tough to argue that point with the good ole capt. Check out this monster circa 1981. That's a 781lb. giant tuna, unfortunately these fish are not in the lake but you see why I can't argue with him.

Alright well CLOSENFF has recently hired part time fisherwomen to procure bait. Thanks to Mrs. Shirley and Michelle for filling up the bait bucket on their 1st call to duty. Just need to train them to put the worms on, although think that may take some coercing.

Mr. Bob and his inlaws made it out after their 1st trip was a rain out. A lot of running around led us back to the dock for some striper action. Notice the man who caught the fish seems to have a more genuine smile for the camera. Looks like Mr. Ron Ricco is skeptical bout the CLOSENFF call of 4lbs. and DA is looking at the capt. wondering where all the largemouth are. The capt. caught one as well that he fumbled at the boat.

Why is the captain smiling with the fish?? Isn't the crew supposed to catch 'em?? I know Todd and his buddy Bob didn't come along to hear the captain's bs. Although the bs turned into reality, as the capt. was explaining how he caught one at the dock last time, BOOM the striper on the left hit right at the boat and took off for the deeper water. Maybe Todd really does like being the photographer... maybe not. Todd CLOSENFF owes u a big one for all your great pics!