So,
I have been meaning to post this and to thank the guys on this
forum for the solid advice. Special thanks to Niko, for quite a bit of
insight on targeting these fish.
I booked a charter in late August, joined up with my buddy Scott and
met up with Captain Domenic Petrarca from Coastal Charters
Sportfishing.
The only tuna I have caught prior to this trip were 30# albacore on a
1.5 day boat off southern California. I am as green as they get.
More of a surf fisherman than a boat. Scott too is mostly
a surf fisherman. So Dom had his work cut out for him, a pair of
green horns.
Got to the dock around 4am and motored out 34 miles off
Chatham, MA. Pretty exciting stuff as there were a number of boats
in convoy heading to the same area.
As we motored out, I asked Dom to give us the tuna fishing for
dummies crash course to tuna success.
As we pull up to the spot, we immediately got word that there were
fish busting the surface and Dom put us to work with some
topwaters.....nothing....we may have been just a few moments late.
Dom fired up the search.
We got into a pod of Minke whales and started metering fish.
We switched over to jigs, 11 oz Pt Judes. I have jigged for bass
before and really... I hate jigging, mostly because I am not very good
at it. Can't seem to get the feel for it, and to top it off we are in 250
feet of water and I am using a righty conventional. I fish lefty.
Second or third drop, Scott hooks up and gets tight to a fish. The
bluefin ends up winning the battle by taking the line across the
motor. It was a bummer but I saw it as a good sign for things to
come. We had hooked up early, and I was pretty stoked that Scott
was able to connect. Even though the fish wasn't landed I felt it was a solid icebreaker.
After a few drifts we start moving around a bit. We were trying to
train our eyes to see breaking fish. I created a couple false alarms
with what ended up being whale activity. Then I spotted a shape that
looked like a big duck with its head under water and its ass in the air.
I looked again and it never came to the surface. Hmmm..... big shark
fin. We thought it was a Great White but it was a 20' basker shark.
We motored up next to it, and it turned and swam under our feet.
Whoa...pretty sick. In general it was astounding to see how much
life is cooking out there. We saw minke whales, humpbacks, blue
sharks, basker sharks, all kinds of different birds.
We started metering again and jigged...and jigged...and jigged some
more. We probably jigged for what seemed like a couple of hours,
and my string bean arms just couldn't handle it. I started alternating
drops. Rest during one and jig the following...while Dom and Scott
kept at it.
Dom noticed that I was getting fatigued and really struggling. I am
not sure which it was...probably a combination of pity and disgust,
but he decides to let me off the hook and sets me up with a spinning
outfit and a ron-z and tells me to take a couple casts off the bow. It
was initially sort of embarrassing as I kind of felt he just wanted to
get me out of the way. Hahaha....anything to get out of jigging in
250 feet of water. He definitely relocated me to a better briar patch.
So, I have thrown ron-zs before but not in waters that are 250 feet
deep. The lure can only be about 4oz, so with the current and drift it
definitely is not going to get to the bottom where all the sandeels
are. Really what are the odds of a fish being anywhere near my
presentation.
I ask Dom how I should be fishing the soft plastic. He gives me a
couple simple instructions. Basically casting up drift a little and letting
it free fall until it swings down drift. Sort of like swinging a bucktail in
current.
Dom shouts out fish metering at 40 feet! I take another
cast.....then... I see the line twitch on the drop. Just like how a
largemouth bass will twitch the line as it inhales a sinking jelly worm.
Slowly, the line starts to move making an accelerated v-wake as line
starts to swing to the fish. Dom, at this point is yelling at me that I
have a fish on. Yeah! I know!
I flip the bail over on the Stella, and line is just screaming off. Dom
walks me through the fight.
That thing had so much power. Nothing compares. I got up and
down on the fish and started walking the fish to the back of the boat,
when I just got gassed out. I just couldn't crank the handle one
more time. I really thought I was going to loose grip on the rod and
send it overboard, so I handed it off to Scott, who finished the job.
the gaff...Dom estimated this fish to be in the 120 -150# class and
he heaves it over the rail.
Once the cork was popped...Dom and Scott unleased their fury on
ten other fish to about 250#. I was physically done for the
trip...my hands and arms were useless. I just served as
photographer and did my best to stay out of the way.
Scott and Dom Tagged a few really nice ones.
The sick thing is that Dom and Bobby Rice were the only boats visibly
taking fish, and there had to be over 30 boats circling around us. A
pretty definitive testimony to the skill of both captains.
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