Hot Bluefin Bites on Jigs off Hatteras, NC

[kilsong]

I fished on the 50' Viking Nice-ly Done for two days.
The original plan was to go to bluefin ground off Hatteras on the 50' Nice-ly Done out of Morehead City on Sunday (03-22), but Capt Mike decided to fish off Morehead City due to unfavorable weather forecast.
The highlight of the trip was non-stop action of AJ in 30 - 50lbs on jigs. Everybody on the boat used hammered diamond jigs and it worked very well. They seemed to be surprised how powerful AJ were.

We arrived at Hatteras Harvor after a long run and we got excited to hear most boats had very good bluefin bites in 300 - 400 line.

We left dock around 6:00 am on Monday (03-23) and headed to north. After running 30 - 35 miles, we started to troll for nothing for an hour in 73 degree water. We headed 10 more miles to north and the first bluefin hit the trolling lure in 5 minutes after we started fishing. I grabbed my 350g JM Power Spell rod with Saltiga 40 and I hooked up a nice bluefin on 7.5 oz flat hammered diamond jig on the second cast.
But I lost the fish as my trusted Mid Knot got loosened while fighting the tuna. 8*
This was the first of my misfortunes/mistakes to come. A lessen is learned. To make a knot, make it perfectly.

After the boat repositioned for drift, I decided to use custom JM 500g with Accurate B2 30. The reel had 150 lbs leader line and I wanted to experiment whether bluefin don't mind heavy lines and the result was negative. While there were four hook-ups by other crew who used 80 lbs leader line on the drift, I didn't get any hit.
Another lessen is learned.

Capt Mike ran a few miles norh and he made a long drift which eventually was the last drift of the trip.
I decided to test 7'9" custom St Croix rod rated to 80 lbs, but is super light. The choice of reel was Accurate 665 two-speed with 80 lbs braided line and 80 lbs Japanese soft mono leader line.
It took only a few minutes to get a bite, but the mono line got broken. Japanese soft and thin leader line was never my favorite and it proved again.

As I didn't have time to make a knot to connect braided line and leader line while bites were hot, I chose to connect both lines with a barrel swivel. And I lost a nice tuna again due to the knot failure. I never had a knot failure before even I landed 200 lbs plus tuna using the knot. It is apparent I hurried too much to get my line in the water as quickly as possible.
Third lesson is learnded.

I used the St Croix rod for the rest of the trip and fought a few tuna in 100 lbs - 110 lbs range. The rod performed beautitully and it reminds me of my favorite 8'Costotech Japanese rod. The Cosmotech rods were lightest 8' rod I could find, but the St Croix rod is lighter. 8* While the Cosmotech blank weighs 6 oz, the St Croix blank weighs only 5.5 oz. I caught several hundred tuna with the Cosmotech rod. I have a good feeling that the new St Croix rod can do the job as the Cosmotech rod did for me.

While other fishermen used regular hammered diamond jigs and had good bites, my 7.5 oz flat hammered diamond jigs attracted tuna as I expected as I had 8 hook-ups with the jigs.

This is a kind of trip which tuna jig fishermen dream about. It seems I had tuna bites on every 10 - 15 minutes and they are not small ranging from 100 lbs to 150 lbs.

I must thanks Capt Mike of the Nice-ly Done for the invite and Capt Mark Garrison for the arrangement of the trip. I met new fishermen on the boat and had a great time with them. They were great.

[Sea Draggin]

Kil,
I'm glad the trip came together for you. Hopefully you took a picture or two.

Thank you for sharing your learnings with us. It goes to show that there is something to learn on every trip, even for the well seasoned fisherman.

--------------

As an afterthough........It is a Good fisherman to understand they don't know it all, and that there are still things to improve and learn every day. It is a Great fisherman to admit it.

Too many act like they have seen it all, know it all and are the ultimate authority who can't be taught anything. I appreciate your post very much as a fellow jigger. In fact, I appreciate this aspect about the whole jigging community.

[paul708]

nice report kil.
like seeing those long rods get used.
that 7 and 8 ft is still my favorite length.

[kilsong]

A wreck loaded with AJ in 30 - 50 lbs.


multiple hook-ups












Capt Mark fighting AJ with JM Power Spell 400g






Cobia caught on a jig

[kilsong]

Hatteras Harbor






The Nice-ly Done




To bluefin ground




hot jigging Action

[Anders]

great post and pictures, i guess that would be steam in the one pic. awesome to hear about all the tuna being caught right now down there.

[SeaBiscuit]

Excellent report and pictures Kilsong. Glad you were able to get on the bluefin bite you've been looking for. Bottom fishing remains slow off the NC coast, so tuna was a very good decision!
I know you have probably talked about this before, but if you don't mind, please explain what the pros and cons of a long (7-8 feet) jigging rod are when compared to the typical short (5 feet or so) ones.
Thank you,
SeaBiscuit

[swell rider]

Kil,

It was good to see you at the show Sat and Im glad the trip came together for you and the boys..Those 7.5 are some of the best jigs that i've used..We smoked the AJ'S and Sea Bass on them the other day as well..Hope those BFT stick around for a while...Ken

[Ponce]

Kil

As always great report. Thanks for sharing your lessons learned.

[kilsong]

I know you have probably talked about this before, but if you don't mind, please explain what the pros and cons of a long (7-8 feet) jigging rod are when compared to the typical short (5 feet or so) ones.
Thank you,
SeaBiscuit

For Japanese style jigging, short rods haver advantage as you just drop jig and crank.
The advantage of long rods for tuna jigging is you can cast farther. By casting upcurrent, you can stay your jigs in the right depth longer especially in windy condition or when current is strong. For conventional tuna jigging, all you have to do is to move your rod up and down and longer rods can cover more range for this purpose.
If you used to it, it is pretty easy to use Japanese style jigging with longer rods, but you can not cast far with short Japanese style jigging rods.
I had same amount of hits between Japanese style crank/jerking technique and conventional up and down technique yesterday.