I purchased my new Regulator 26 FS (Jenny Ann) from Bluewater Yacht Sales in Hampton, VA in December of 2005 and have enjoyed chasing striped bass up and down the coasts of VA and NC. Well the time had come for an offshore adventure and there were fresh reports of a hot tuna bite in the Norfolk Canyon.

At 4:30 am on Memorial Day, Chad, Glenn and I left Rudee Inlet in Va Beach. It was fate that they should be along for the inaugural offshore trip of my new Regulator since it was these guys who initiated me into offshore fishing several years ago.

We made the 76 mile journey in about two and one half hours through east wind blown 2 to 4' seas with a nice chop on top to the southern tip of the Norfolk Canyon.  In less than 30 minutes after we arrived we had our first fish on, but unfortunately after a brief run it came unbuttoned...dang. No problem we just kept trolling and it wasn't long before we had our first pelagic on the new boat..a nice 35" bluefin tuna.

After catching and releasing numerous small bluefins we decided to troll south along the southern wall of the canyon in 50fathoms. Suddenly there was a huge explosion behind the boat and our spreader bar and green machine went smoking off into the deep with the 50 W reel screaming. Chad made relatively short work of the fish and in about 20 minutes we had a keeper bluefin tuna weighing about 70lbs in the boat...nice.

A few hours later we hit a double of keeper pup yellowfin tuna. At 3pm I decided to end our great day on the water and pack it in for home. The seas had laid down nicely and we ran in at 35 kts in just under two hours back to Rudee Inlet. We covered about 200 miles that day and Jenny Ann was more than up to the task.  We were the smallest boat in the fleet out there that day and fished comfortably while running a 10 line trolling spread.

That huge forward fishbox came in handy and there was fresh tuna steaks for everyone. Thank you Regulator Marine!

Sincerely,
Ben A. Skinner, MD

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