Deaner a.k.a. Dean Ween a.k.a. Mickey Melchiondo, Jr., guitarist for avant-pop outfit WEEN, has been fishing his whole life. He recently got his captain’s license to run his own big craft. He has been chartering fishing trips on his boat in the Delaware River and will be doing so this spring on the Atlantic Ocean out of Neptune, NJ so if you ever dreamed of hanging out with Deaner, this might be your golden opportunity. Below is his first fishing report of 2011 which also comes with some video footage (not for the eyes of PETA folks). – The Deli Staff
“We just got back from an amazing fishing trip for Bluefin tuna on the ‘Tuna Duck’ out of Hatteras Inlet, NC. My good friend Nick Honachefsky was writing a cover story for Saltwater Sportsman Magazine on jigging and popping giant Tuna and I was lucky enough to get to tag along and fish as well. We had some very sharp anglers on the boat in Sami Ghandour and his partner Paul Chua who together own Saltywater Tackle Co. These guys have been involved in importing the top jigging tackle from Japan as this style of fishing has gained popularity. After witnessing it firsthand I think it’s safe to predict that the days of fighting these fish on 130 wide reels are numbered. This is a fun and effective way to land these fish instead of just trolling around and watching someone fight a fish for hours in a fighting chair. We left the inlet at sunrise on Saturday to be greeted with 8 foot seas that eventually subsided a little throughout the day. The good news is that we were on a 55 foot boat and it kept a lot of other smaller boats off the water. We pretty much had the tuna grounds all to ourselves. We had constant action with small Blackfin Tuna and False Albacore and we also managed to bring 5 Bluefin to the deck, all about 90-100 lbs. I had the first fish of the day at about 100 lbs and we finished the day going 5 for 8 on Bluefin and released all our fish. Sunday was a different story with beautiful weather and light seas and a lot of boats. We boated another 5 fish including 2 fish over 200 lbs. Sami managed to bring his 250 lb. beast to the deck in only 12 minutes on a 5 foot spinning rod matched with a Shimano Stella 20000. He is about my size and weighs probably 25 lbs. less. Watching him put the boots to this beast of a fish was one of the more impressive rounds of angling I’ve ever witnessed and I learned a lot from this guy. Hopefully we get to fish again together.” – Dean Ween