a fisherman's dilemma

[Sea Draggin]

Willy,
Welcome to the site. Congrats on your fish!!!

Hopefully you can learn a few tidbits here and share a few along the way.

Cheerio,
Jim

[kilsong]

Hi Willy,
Welcome aboard.
We are watching weater closely as we might have a decent weather on Wed to go tilefishing on the Voyager out of Pt Pleasant, NJ.

My friend got a 165 lbs bluefin on troll at Hambone, about 45 miles off Cape May, NJ yesterday and it is a just of matter of time when bluefin respond to bait and jigs.
We had excellent bluefin jigging last year and I expect similar action with bigger bluefin in 100 - 150 lbs this year.

I am not sure good bluefin popping will continue throughout summer in Cape Cod, but you will see fantastic tuna popping and jigging in the fall from mid September.

[Hunt n' Fish]

Half of fighting those fish is boat handling. You can REALLY take a lot off the angler by "curly cuing" the boat in front of the fist. They love to put their head down in that deep cold water and sit. It's a matter of putting the boat in front of the fishes head.

I am not doubting any man's boat handling skills, just something to ponder over.

Having fished with Kil and Capt Dom a few days earlier than Willy's trip, I can say that Capt Dom does do a great job of maneuvering that boat around to help the angler fight the fish. I got my butt kicked by a similar sized fish, and most of the time was spent at the end game, slowly trying to raise that fish up from it's circling under the boat.

But when it ran, Dom was on it, and when it was down under the boat, Dom, kept adjusting the boat to help fight the fish as you can see from this pics Kil posted last week.
.

I am used to stand-up tuna fishing with short rods, and harnesses. Using that tackle, we don't bring the rod up over 45-degrees as it's just putting extra strain on us, and less on the fish. When I got on the boat that morning, Dom told me this tackle was tough, and that I should expect to have to "high-stick" these fish with the longer rods, and not to worry about it. I've watched Kil on a few trips beat fish on long jigging rods, with long fights, employ many interesting techniques. I was able to beat that fish in about 25-minutes, and got my own lessons on how to improve fighting with the long rod. #1, was sit down when you can and relax. And this is where having a longer rod was nice, to keep the line off the boat as you're fighting him. #2 Looking at the pictures Kil posted, I see that I had my rod arm bent most of the time, this again is just beating me up. Relaxing, and keeping my arm straight, would probably help me out too. #3 I learned after the fact, as that fish was circling under the boat, and that was palming the spool. After the fish was whipped, and just circling, I was inclined to increase the drag knob. Later on, in talking with Dom, he suggested in trying to put the screws to the fish at the end, just to palm the spool to horse him up and to the gaff, and this way, if the fish runs, you can let go and still have the drag set to allow it to go. . .

It was a great learning experience for me, on new tackle and techniques. I'm looking forward to applying it again soon.

I know you said you weren't doubting the captain's boat handling, I just wanted to clarify that Dom does use the boat to the anlger's advantage as much as he can. Dom's got a 30' Dusky that is ideally set up for this fishing. A large bow deck, and stern platform, with a small T-top that fishes 4 guys very comfortably, is very maneuverable, and quick on the get-up-and-go to chase these fish around.

Chris