The Reel Deal

After countless man hours, lots of money, a passion for life on the water and reeling in trophy game fish. The Reel Deal has undergone lots of maintenance, repairs and improvements to prepare Team Reel Deal for a successful 2020 shark and tuna fishing season. Sea trials have so far been nothing but a success and tomorrow morning she will set sail for the fishing grounds for a fully demanding day of shark fishing. The Halifax international tuna tournament for the IWK children's hospital will begin on the 16th of this month and Team Reel Deal is ready and able to make that money for the hospital!! I think it's worth noting that umungst all the negative changes we've had to deal with through COVID-19 there is one change that, to us, is very positive. This year there will be no opening or closing ceremonies for the tournament participants. This means that almost %100 of all the entry fees will be donated to the IWK along with all of the proceeds from the 10 giant bluefin that will be coming ashore. Its been a great summer but an even better season has just begun!!!

For the like minded...... Cheers and tight lines

September 6th, 2019 - The first of many adventures has taken place where several members of The Reel Deal Fishing Team joined forces with The Ocean Tracking Network from Dalhousie University to successfully catch and land 13 Blue Sharks and 1 Porbeagle Shark. We were more-than-happy to offer the folks from the OTN team a spot aboard our vessel and to partake in the acoustic tagging program. We can’t express enough how gracious we are to have the opportunity to help-out by making our contribution to science and the study of Blue Sharks. This program will help us better understand the movements and habits of the tagged sharks while providing critical data used for further and additional studies.

Some beauty photos of The Reel Deal taken August 31st, 2019 during a family harbour cruise and heading downtown to supper. Daytime photo credit to Mark Wilber and Amanda Weber in Halifax Harbour, sunset photograph taken by Stevie and Angie Murphy in the Northwest Arm.

Thursday, August 22, 2019. We loaded-up for a trip to the far off fishing grounds with every intention of heading towards Sable Island. 1500 litres of fuel aboard and a ton of groceries, we had a wind warning issued easterly of Halifax Harbour changing the game plan to head towards the west to Lahave Bank. We fished all night with the set-and-drift rods and the chum dragging behind the reels then trolled all day toward Emerald Basin after daybreak. We had great success despite the rough seas, the throwing up, the fog and the loss of a few teammates to the bunks for 10 hours to regain their abilities. No cell service and a great way to earn our sea legs, team morale went up once we started getting bites and seeing fish. Not the adventure we had hoped for due to the fast change in the weather during the search for the tropical waters of the Gulf Stream but we made out alright and conditioned ourselves for the next excursion far off. We’re all pretty excited to do this again after this trip played out as a scouting mission for the next big adventure before cooler waters move in.

Local shark expert encourages Shark Week education, not exaggeration (8 photos) Read the full story and comment on HalifaxToday.

Inspired by our friends at Ocearch during the tour aboard the research vessel in September 2018, we decided to fabricate Sally the seal pup decoy to try our luck at trolling while using it as set-and-drift gear within the chum slick. Thanks to Matty Gates for putting Sally together, she’s beautiful. We’re also pleased to announce that our decoy is made from 100% recycled materials including floor mats, pool noodles and old handline as stitching. The goal in using this tool during our adventures - Great Whites!

July 26th, 2019 - The second shark mission of the season. The water temperature increased dramatically by 11 degrees Fahrenheit since the last trip on June 28th to 64 Fahrenheit. We travelled 16 miles offshore from Chebucto Head and had great success with a good-sized Porbeagle circling the boat, successfully caught 5 blue sharks (4-8 feet in length), and had one additional shark that was interested in the seal decoy but just wouldn’t commit. The water was a slicker without a breath of wind with an air temperature of 26 Celsius. This made for the best of conditions for anyone to spend a day on the water.

June 28th, 2019. The Reel Deal set sail for the sharking grounds to see if there was any movement out there. Unfortunately...nadda! 53 degrees Fahrenheit just isn’t warm enough waters for sharking, but we had a hell-of-a day on the water and the perfect weekend! We later headed to Hubbards to The Shore Club to see Classified perform live then we spent the rest of the weekend aboard the boat for a killer Canada Day weekend celebration with the Prospect Bay Parade and later hosted a massive party aboard for the fireworks display in Halifax Harbour. Great crew and great bunch of fellas. Looking forward to having everyone aboard again now that the water is warmer and we’re catching the big boys.

Our baby boy Hilton. This little man was named after the famous Great White Shark who led the Ocearch team to Nova Scotia.
Hilton, weighing 1326 pounds at the time of his tagging on March 3rd, 2017, was caught off the coast of Hilton Head, South Carolina and gave us important clues to the migratory patterns of the White Shark. This led the Ocearch team to Nova Scotia for a very successful tagging expedition in September of 2018.