Bluefin Monday

[Healthy Grin]

My weekend started out with rigging a pack of ballyhoo various ways. Not for fishing with, but to take photographs of. I’m not sure exactly why other than the photos are for a scientific paper Dr. John Graves is writing. A paper with ballyhoo rigging is the type I want to read!

After rigging those billfish baits, I really wanted to get offshore. A bit early for billfish but there is some great tuna action going on. A group of us drove down to Hatteras Sunday afternoon to fish on the Big Tahuna the next morning. We all have our own boats, which we fish offshore in, but it is sure nice to go out on one of those big Carolina boats on occasion. Plus, every time we fish with one of these professional crews, we always learn something new. The Big Tahuna is one of our favorite boats: www.bigtahuna.com . They know their stuff, are super friendly, and pretty much let us do whatever we want to do.

We went down there this time to catch some tuna of whatever species. We thought we would be jigging for blackfin or trolling for bluefin and yellowfin. The bluefin bite is hot right now so that is what we headed out for. The mate brought out the big tackle, typical bluefin stuff. Then he said that these fish were biting everything and that if we wanted to, we could skip the trolling gear and just catch them on jigs.

Being young and studly, in our minds, we decided that we would catch these fish on the light stuff. Those jigging rods look like bass tackle. We actually did pretty well with them. The fishing action was great. We would look into a wave and see 15-20 bluefin riding the face. There were acres and acres of 100 to 200 pound fish. Our one kept fish had a fork length of 71 inches. Charles caught that fish, in about 15 minutes, on that little tackle. Multiple hook-ups were common, but they did not work out too well, resulting in break-offs. We did better fighting one fish at a time. We had one reel freeze up and we had one rod snap but considering what we were doing with it, the tackle held up well.

Then someone had the genius idea to bring out a spinning rod. When Stevie saw the mate bringing that out, he told him that you are on your own with that. Unfortunately, I did not hear that. We all have a history with bluefin tuna and spinning tackle. It is one of those things you do once and then talk other people into doing it. Some tackle rep wanted to have the rod tried out on these big fish. We all stuck to the conventional tackle. Kenny, the mate, picked up the spinning rod and started casting to those tunas in the wave face and worked the jig really fast, on the surface. It was fun watching those fish explode on it but then he hooked-up. Now he wanted someone to crank it in. I told him that he might as well give it to me because none of the others were going to take it. The last time I fought a bluefin on a spinning rod it was 6.5 hours before I landed the thing and that was when I really was young and studly. This fish was larger than that one but the fight was much shorter. This is only because I called for help. We all took turns on that stupid spinning rod. It turned out to be the largest tuna of the day.

We had a blast and are looking forward to our next trip on the Big Tahuna. We may just try and sneak that spinning rod off the boat before we leave the slip next time.

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[torquetowers]

Beautiful.

[classicrockfish]

Now that looks like fun!!:yes: Nice job out there:thumbup::rockon:

[Jim Hensley]

Awesome. Do you ever have a bad day fishing:whistlingatu: We were out with Capt. Warren on Saturday and couldn't find them anywhere (well we got a few small ones). He and Kenny are great and we're fishing with them again on the 14th of this month so here's hoping they stay around for a couple of weeks. Congratulations on a great day!

[jengel]

Awesome report, great pics! Looks like a real a** whoppin with the spinning wheel, but one to remember.

[jig monster]

Looks like you guys hit it right. Great day and awesome pics. What size Saltist spinning were you using ? Would a 4500H hold up to one of those bigger tunas?

[enjoideez]

Nice work with the jigging tackle!

[Healthy Grin]

It was a 6000H. Those Saltist are tough.

[DAWGONIT]

Thanks for the pics & report.
Excellent.

Evan.

Fishing from the Norfolk Canyon to the Gulf of Mexico aboard the GW330 Express DAWGONIT

[Capt. Skid]

Great catch ! I remember when Capt. Scottie was Bowman`s mate. I had
an invite to go with Bowman 3/2 but I declined after reviewing the wx
forecast..Bowman`s motto is " if it don`t have a name I`ll probably go.."
I`m not as hardy as I used to be..From the pix`s, looks like all had a great time..
Capt. Skid

[Wes Blow]

Bowman`s motto is " if it don`t have a name I`ll probably go.."


I like that one

[c-note]

You know you can get a harness made for the jigging rods without clip spots it really helps. Man, that looks like a fun trip pretty work nice to be on a big Carolina.

[Kayak fisherman]

Man, I am dyin' to get out there. I hope it lays down enough this coming week.

[2ntow]

Hey Conner -

When are you going down there again??? I still have a score to settle with those bruisers!

[tonydivefish]

You know you can get a harness made for the jigging rods without clip spots it really helps. Man, that looks like a fun trip pretty work nice to be on a big Carolina.

conner i was thinking the same thing, must be wearing a cup. fine job on the blues.