HIT N RUN
05-31-2005, 11:02 AM
Boat~ Reel Fancy
Crew~ Becky, Tommy, Matt, Joey and Me
Pics~ on page 2 and 4
Passed under OI bridge at 6am running a little late. Set a course for the water that had pushed in late Sat. and through the night at the 450 and up. At about 20 fathoms the temp started rising slowly from 67 degrees on up. This is what we were looking for. No hard edge and beautiful blended blue green water. Hallalluia! This was not going to be another snot hot dolphin day!
We put lines out and started zig zagging north between 50 and 100 fathoms and found our first hard tuna mark at about the 480. Started jigging the bridge poles and yelled down at the crew to do the same and whammo, rigger clips started popping. 8 lines in the water and 8 lines tight. When it was all said and done, six in the box, 1 broke line and 1 pulled off just outside of gaff range. Re-bait, back around over the mark, repeat with 7 down as one flat didn't have a take! This time only 4 in the box with one real pretty one swimming off just outside of gaff shot & two more pulling off further out. Lost marks so we continued north looking for more.
Then it was slow for a while till we found our next set of nice marks at around the 560. The fleet was thick in this area and the tuna were very leader shy. Many boats were using poppers with spinning tackle. Schools of skipjack were surfacing and feeding on smaller bait and the tunas were crashing in and around those area's. But because you could not get near them without spooking them it seemed that surface casting with poppers was a good way to coax a bite.
We decided to let our two longs and center way way back and made long circles outskirting the schools while aggresively jigging the outside baits which allowed for hard pops out of the water. The bait in many cases if timed right would pop off a wave and fly 10 feet before landing. This also required a quicker than normal trolling speed. Once we figured this out it was asolutely amazing watching the first strike air out and slam a jigged bait. At the point the first fish would hook up the whole school would race in and start airing in behind the boat. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Big tuna's!!! At one time I would guess 60 to 100 at a time all over the spread but oddly enough were not getting hooked. With this happening three or four more times the average was no more than 3 lines coming tight per round and even more oddly only one fish coming to gaff from those. It was as if they were in such a freenzy they were short striking or just plain missing the baits. Anyways, it was a sight that I will never forget and I learned a lot out there about how finiky these fish can get and what a tremendous advantage it must be to have a green stick w/ baits popping in and out of the water when conditions are like this.
We were one shy of our limit and decided to get ready for the evening chunk The water started moving back to the south and pushing out so we decided to drop back down to about the 500 at 100 fathoms. This is where my job for the day was over. I was tired and had been working the bridge all day and had too much sun and was looking forward to the break. This where Tommy Tuna, Matt and Joey took over.
They are very experienced in chunking and I enjoyed watching them work, relaxing and learning. We decided that we would just drift because there was minimal current so I started up the generator and Becky made dinner while the other guys set up shop. Dinner was awesome, thank you Becky. And the sun went down.
As it got dark and the chunk started to float out behind the boat in the spreader lights the water started coming to life. First came the flying fish just laying there beside the boat like little pets. You could literaly dip them out of the water with a net. Then came three to five inch squids lit up pink. At one point an injured bird came down and landed in the boat and became a crew member for the rest of the night. As for the chunking results, let me just say that chuinking is hard work and I give much credit where credit is due.
There was a lot of time inbetween bites througout the night and Tommy mentioned that we probably should have set the boat up for our drifts slightly different to have kept us in more productive water longer througout our sets but it's all a lot of work and it's hard to do everything perfect. I will get better at this and will be back to do it again soon. There were a number of bites throughout the night that would scream a reel and then come slack.
The highlights of the night were first the 80 lb Mako that hit a bait with a glow stick and aired out just outside of the spreader lights. It was amazing! Luck would have it that the fish got tail wrapped from the line and once boated we discovered that the line was already broken off and we literaly pulled him in by the tail and into the boat once roped, cut, bled and killed. Then another surface jumping fish hit came tight for a minute and got off. Maybe it was a large dolphin. And finally at about 4am in the morning when we were down to our last three butterfish in about 100 fathoms at approx. the 500 line a rod started screaming and those that were sleeping woke and got excited. It too came loose and dissapointmet set in. Tommy said "okay it's time for the day shift to begin!" and began preparing for the pre-dawn trolling where we had big hopes of pulling big spreader bars for a big eye at first grey light. Not even five minutes later three rods go at once!!! All three screaming!!! Two 50 lb class outfits set to do business with big fish, One out of commision with the previous missed bite and no baits left to replenish and one TLD 30 rigged with 50 lb main line and 60 lb fluoro. Assuming that big eyes come in packs the probability was that all three strikes were tuna. Murphey's law strikes again! Guess which rod stayed tight.
So much for the morning troll, the fight was on and it was miserable. We could not put enough pressure on this fish to move it. After 2 1/2 hours of batteling, and backing down for 5 miles Matt finally broke his will and now that the sun was well above head I got my first confirmation that this grueling effort was not in vain. Thank God it wasn't some huge blue shark or even worse a manaray. So, out came the big gaffs and in the boat came Matt's citation 185 lb Big Eye weighed in at Pirate's Cove for a pink slip!!! [excited] Tommy Tuna did some fantastic leadering and gaffing!
We were low on ice but we trolled a little in the am hoping to get a shot at a blue one. There were so many caught in the area but we had focused solely on tuna Sunday. We saw a beautiful blue one free jumping but after circling didn't get him in on the baits. We did end up with a few more tuna bites and a dolphin but we were out of ice, had our limit so we packed up and headed for the barn. I and other crew members will post pics once back from the beach.
Thanks everyone for all your hard work and excellent angling skills. It paid off with approx. 800 lbs of fish being brought to the dock! After re-filling the boat at Pirate's Cove I couldn't even see the blue stripe which is above my normal water line. It was good to finally use Chris-Kay Joe's fish bag for something other than a sleeping mat. [excited][excited]
I enjoyed the company, can't wait till the next one! Call me when your ready.
Bill
edits were to break this thing up some. After posting I read this novel and got a head ache. [grin]
2nd edit to note pics on page 2 and 4.
Crew~ Becky, Tommy, Matt, Joey and Me
Pics~ on page 2 and 4
Passed under OI bridge at 6am running a little late. Set a course for the water that had pushed in late Sat. and through the night at the 450 and up. At about 20 fathoms the temp started rising slowly from 67 degrees on up. This is what we were looking for. No hard edge and beautiful blended blue green water. Hallalluia! This was not going to be another snot hot dolphin day!
We put lines out and started zig zagging north between 50 and 100 fathoms and found our first hard tuna mark at about the 480. Started jigging the bridge poles and yelled down at the crew to do the same and whammo, rigger clips started popping. 8 lines in the water and 8 lines tight. When it was all said and done, six in the box, 1 broke line and 1 pulled off just outside of gaff range. Re-bait, back around over the mark, repeat with 7 down as one flat didn't have a take! This time only 4 in the box with one real pretty one swimming off just outside of gaff shot & two more pulling off further out. Lost marks so we continued north looking for more.
Then it was slow for a while till we found our next set of nice marks at around the 560. The fleet was thick in this area and the tuna were very leader shy. Many boats were using poppers with spinning tackle. Schools of skipjack were surfacing and feeding on smaller bait and the tunas were crashing in and around those area's. But because you could not get near them without spooking them it seemed that surface casting with poppers was a good way to coax a bite.
We decided to let our two longs and center way way back and made long circles outskirting the schools while aggresively jigging the outside baits which allowed for hard pops out of the water. The bait in many cases if timed right would pop off a wave and fly 10 feet before landing. This also required a quicker than normal trolling speed. Once we figured this out it was asolutely amazing watching the first strike air out and slam a jigged bait. At the point the first fish would hook up the whole school would race in and start airing in behind the boat. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Big tuna's!!! At one time I would guess 60 to 100 at a time all over the spread but oddly enough were not getting hooked. With this happening three or four more times the average was no more than 3 lines coming tight per round and even more oddly only one fish coming to gaff from those. It was as if they were in such a freenzy they were short striking or just plain missing the baits. Anyways, it was a sight that I will never forget and I learned a lot out there about how finiky these fish can get and what a tremendous advantage it must be to have a green stick w/ baits popping in and out of the water when conditions are like this.
We were one shy of our limit and decided to get ready for the evening chunk The water started moving back to the south and pushing out so we decided to drop back down to about the 500 at 100 fathoms. This is where my job for the day was over. I was tired and had been working the bridge all day and had too much sun and was looking forward to the break. This where Tommy Tuna, Matt and Joey took over.
They are very experienced in chunking and I enjoyed watching them work, relaxing and learning. We decided that we would just drift because there was minimal current so I started up the generator and Becky made dinner while the other guys set up shop. Dinner was awesome, thank you Becky. And the sun went down.
As it got dark and the chunk started to float out behind the boat in the spreader lights the water started coming to life. First came the flying fish just laying there beside the boat like little pets. You could literaly dip them out of the water with a net. Then came three to five inch squids lit up pink. At one point an injured bird came down and landed in the boat and became a crew member for the rest of the night. As for the chunking results, let me just say that chuinking is hard work and I give much credit where credit is due.
There was a lot of time inbetween bites througout the night and Tommy mentioned that we probably should have set the boat up for our drifts slightly different to have kept us in more productive water longer througout our sets but it's all a lot of work and it's hard to do everything perfect. I will get better at this and will be back to do it again soon. There were a number of bites throughout the night that would scream a reel and then come slack.
The highlights of the night were first the 80 lb Mako that hit a bait with a glow stick and aired out just outside of the spreader lights. It was amazing! Luck would have it that the fish got tail wrapped from the line and once boated we discovered that the line was already broken off and we literaly pulled him in by the tail and into the boat once roped, cut, bled and killed. Then another surface jumping fish hit came tight for a minute and got off. Maybe it was a large dolphin. And finally at about 4am in the morning when we were down to our last three butterfish in about 100 fathoms at approx. the 500 line a rod started screaming and those that were sleeping woke and got excited. It too came loose and dissapointmet set in. Tommy said "okay it's time for the day shift to begin!" and began preparing for the pre-dawn trolling where we had big hopes of pulling big spreader bars for a big eye at first grey light. Not even five minutes later three rods go at once!!! All three screaming!!! Two 50 lb class outfits set to do business with big fish, One out of commision with the previous missed bite and no baits left to replenish and one TLD 30 rigged with 50 lb main line and 60 lb fluoro. Assuming that big eyes come in packs the probability was that all three strikes were tuna. Murphey's law strikes again! Guess which rod stayed tight.
So much for the morning troll, the fight was on and it was miserable. We could not put enough pressure on this fish to move it. After 2 1/2 hours of batteling, and backing down for 5 miles Matt finally broke his will and now that the sun was well above head I got my first confirmation that this grueling effort was not in vain. Thank God it wasn't some huge blue shark or even worse a manaray. So, out came the big gaffs and in the boat came Matt's citation 185 lb Big Eye weighed in at Pirate's Cove for a pink slip!!! [excited] Tommy Tuna did some fantastic leadering and gaffing!
We were low on ice but we trolled a little in the am hoping to get a shot at a blue one. There were so many caught in the area but we had focused solely on tuna Sunday. We saw a beautiful blue one free jumping but after circling didn't get him in on the baits. We did end up with a few more tuna bites and a dolphin but we were out of ice, had our limit so we packed up and headed for the barn. I and other crew members will post pics once back from the beach.
Thanks everyone for all your hard work and excellent angling skills. It paid off with approx. 800 lbs of fish being brought to the dock! After re-filling the boat at Pirate's Cove I couldn't even see the blue stripe which is above my normal water line. It was good to finally use Chris-Kay Joe's fish bag for something other than a sleeping mat. [excited][excited]
I enjoyed the company, can't wait till the next one! Call me when your ready.
Bill
edits were to break this thing up some. After posting I read this novel and got a head ache. [grin]
2nd edit to note pics on page 2 and 4.