We headed out yesterday morning with Kilsong a crew in search of the tuna with really high hopes. The fishing has been really good for the last week or so but when we arrived to the spot it was a desert. Not exactly what I was expecting but thats OK. We kept moving around looking for some signs of life birds, whales something. We soon found a small group of birds sitting on the water just picking a little bit at the surface. We fired a shibuki in there and it was on. The anglers did an excellent job on the fish and we had a nice fat 63 incher on the deck and it was only 5:45! Thats the way I like to start the day off. We continued working around the same area with not much sign of tuna at all. We made a big move in the middle of the day which didn't pay off and by around noon we were right back where we started, blind casting catching bluefish and stripers. We were all starting to wonder what happened to the fish when I hear a grunt from the other side of the boat and I turn around to see Troy and JM powerspell doubled over with line smoking off the reel. This definately isn't a bluefish! Troy fought the fish for about half an hour and finally brought it boatside foul hooked. No wonder it was such a mean SOB. We released that fish and decided to call it a day. Congrats to the anglers on board for landing to stud tunas today.
When we left dock on Capt Chip's boat at 4:00 am on Friday, I had great expectation as fishing had been hot until Thursday, but I sensed it would be going to be pretty tough day when we drove around Race off Provincetown as I didn't see any surface action at all in calm weather.
Chip found some bird action off Peaked Hill Bar. As it was the first time ever popping trip for Choi and Park, I gave some instruction to Park how to cast and how to work Shibuki. But he casted with his rented spinning reel upside down and Shibuki landed only 40 yards away from the boat. He akwardly reeled the slack line and made a first jerk. Then line tightened. I thought he got a bird on his line, but suddenly drag was singing. Tuna is ON !!!
The loud drag sound might frightened Park as he passed the rod already to Choi when I came back with my camera.
After 10 munutes fight Choi asked Yong to fight as if he let Yong enjoy fighting while sweating. Yong who has the most experience among three as he fought his first bluefin on a popping rod two weeks ago,
He showed other guys how to fight bluefin properly and 63 inch tuna showed up to the surface within 5 minutes.
The tuna was hooked at 5:30 am and landed at 5:45 am.
Smith 80P/35 rod, Saltiga Z6500 Dogfight with Varivas Avani PE7 was used.
Park passed the rod to Choi as soon as he heard drag singing.
Yong took over the fight
Park with his trophy
As I expected, tuna fishing was almost dead even we searched around very far to the south, but it gave time for us to enjoy bluefin sashimi on the boat.
When tide turned around noon, we saw some bird actions and baits on the surface. Then, we saw acres of surface were boiled with fish, I thought they were baits, but it turned out to be hundreds of stripers, if not thousands. 8*
While we continued to throw poppers, Yong started to play with a jigging rod. When I saw he made Chip busy to unhook dogfish and bluefish ( he landed 2 dogfish and 3 bluefin non-stop), I felt sorry for Chip and yelled at Yong to get back to popping. As soon I yelled at him, his rod got bent sharply as if he tried to make me look bad. I tried to catch bluefin on jigs on 7 trips this year, but he hooked up a bluefin in 15 minutes try. @(
The fight lasted about 30 mintues. the fork length of the tuna is 64.5 inches, probably in 160 - 170 lbs range
Yong used 350g Jigging Master Power Spell, Blue Heaven L50 reel filled with YGK Ultra Jigman PE 6 and PE8 ( top 100 meter portion) along with Varivas 100 lbs fluorocarbon, and Jigging Master fighting belt with JM supporting belt. 8 oz hammered diamond jig was used.
I know life is not fair, but it is too much as I had to watch a beginner catch a tuna on a popper with wrong cast and Yong hook up a tuna trying to play with dogfish and bluefish.
but I am really happy as much as they are when I saw them smiling.
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