9/5 Report - Mike's 1st Tuna

[TBaker]

Ok, ok, I'm way late with this report. But better late than never! And since I'm lazy I'll let my son, Bret (bretabaker), do the talking:

Chicken Canyon – 9/5

After a pretty worthless Friday morning at work I headed up north. Our original plan was to head out to Wilmington Canyon for an overnighter, but the seas sucked Friday afternoon for a 28’ CC so we opted to stay closer in and just go out Saturday. Michael, my dad (Tbaker), Ty (ty2philly) and myself headed out early Saturday for a nice long run from OCNJ up close to Chicken Canyon. Normally I wouldn’t throw the spots out – but given that we were greeted with at least 50 boats I don’t think it’s a big secret! The seas were pretty sporty on the way out but once we got there it laid down and was very nice.

I started out jigging an OTI 200g Jager in green and within about 20 minutes or so hooked up. After 5 minutes, the hook pulled (8/0 gama siwash). Kind of annoying, but hey that’s fishing. The fish wasn’t huge either so not too big of a deal. Given how quick we got into the bite I thought it’d be a good day but from there on out it was pretty slow.

A couple hours later Michael comes tight on a fish. Short while later a 46” (50lb) bluefin hits the deck. Mike’s first tuna! Nice fish, they’ve got a lot of fat on them now so the sashimi was excellent later that night

A couple skipjacks and a chicken mahi later we headed in. Not a banner day but it was good to get out. The weather out there was great too – it was a nice break from the sweltering heat down here.



Mike and his tuna




Me preteding I caught his tuna



Butchering



a couple other things were: mike's new 28' scout was really nice. that was the first time i fished on a scout and was very impressed. its not the heaviest boat in the world so we pounded a bit heading out, but as far as fishability it is awesome. 9'6" beam on a 28' boat is really really wide. having 4 guys on the boat was no problem at all.

[Sea Draggin]

Pretty work Michael!!! Looking forward to a ride on the Scout one day. Way to break her in right.

[paul708]

thanks for the report tony.
nice to see some blood on mikes boat.

[BretABaker]

there was a lot of blood...too bad we didnt take a pic of it!

the scout is an awesome boat, i was very impressed

[Gmoney!]

congrats to Mike...first of many tuna i would suspect. Be careful Mike it is addicting, you catch one, then you want a bigger one, then bigger and bigger..your back will let you know when it has had enough Mine capped off at 300lbs hahaha..but on spinning gear, much less

[ty2philly]

It was a fun trip.

Mike you whipped that tuna with the 400g 4'10" Hopper rod, it was cool to see that rod bend like that.

Bret I learned a lot from you. And Tony you are one cool laid back dude.

I hope to fish with you all again. Its so addicting.

Ty