Live report of bluefin hunt

[kilsong]

I left NJ around 9 pm last night and arrived at Green Harbor, MA at 2:00 am this morning. Choi and Park who arrived later woke me up at 4:30 am. We left dock around 5:00 am. It was calm and visivility was excellent. Capt Dom told me we were heading deeper water where bluefin popping bites had been hot last 10 days.

I decided to test Ron-Z lure (sluggo) as Ron Z of Ron Z lures sent me an e-mail asking how I did with Ron-z lures and I had an obligation to answer to him.
Ron-Z lures are pricy, but they are well made (designed) lures.

Tuna started to make surface action here and there short after we arrived.
Capt Chip and Roger (pametfisher) were nearby and we worked together to locate tuna. While trying to locate tuna, the trolled lure with deep diving lip ( I forgot the name of the lure) had a hit.
Choi fought first, but he didn't last long and gave rod to me. I knew it was not small tuna and I put Smitty harness/JM fighting belt with Braid harness ring for a spinning rod. Dennis Braid sent it to me to test, but I haven't had chance to use it until today. I tried JM fighting belt, but I realized the plate is too small to fight big bluefin and Capt Dom gave me huge Alutecnos Fighting belt. With Braid hareness ring and super wide Alutecnos plate, I could fight pretty easy and effectively. However it gave me some trouble when tuna dove under the boat because I couldn't take rod off harness quickly to lower rods toward water. Even I could fight effectively, I hardly could gain lines and I didn't want to increase drag as I didn't know how was initial drag.

When I saw color, I tried too hard to gain line for gaffing, and when Capt Dom finally gaffed fish, I had nothing left. The tuna was 67" ( about 180 lbs), but it fought extremely hard for some unknown reason.

After testing Ron-Z lures for hours for nothing, I switched to a small Carpenter stickbait for testing. I bought the lures even it cost over $65 because I was told this stickbait works for tuna even Shibuki doesn't work. However I didn't see any special action of this lure. Contrary, the action didn't look good. But tuna might have different idea. I casted the lure just for testing it as there was no bird action or tuna surface action. After jerking the lure for a while to see how the lure act, I experimented to twitch slightly.
After a few casting, I saw a big swirl behind the twitched lure.8@
I kept casting to that direction and continued switching and pausing.
Then,something held the lure. I cranked as fast as I could while setting hook hard, and tuna was on ! But it lasted only 5 - 10 seconds as the main Varivas Avani PE5 line was snapped when tuna started to run hard. :? There must be some damage on the line or might had a wind knot.
Even I lost very expensive lure, I was very happy because I found a new tuna killer lure.
We didn't have any more action except Capt Dom had a couple of hit on his casting iron and we decided to go back to the dock as storm was approaching.
Paul of Anglers Proshop was on Capt Chip's boat and we had lunch together along with Capt Dom and Capt Chip.

I am staying in Cape Cod tonight to fish with Roger(pametfisher) on his boat out of Pamet Harbor, Cape Cod tomorrow morning.
Hunt for bluefin continues. Of course here is a sign of "GONE FISHING' at my shop.

[Sea Draggin]

The tuna was 67" ( about 180 lbs), but it fought extremely hard for some unknown reason.

Sometimes they are like that aren't they.

I hope you guys do really well form Pamet.

[DoubleA_FL]

so so jealous

tight lines guys! good luck

[kilsong]

[CaptV]

kil,

i will be out there tomorrow around mid morning. the fish have been off of the ledge around noon.

i will be on 68.

jeff from the HH

[Tenacious]

Kil,

Sweet report and pics, is there a spinning outfit that you don't have to thumb the spool? What's your drag set at?

[controlled chaos]

Dang Kil... That is freakin impressive!

[WildeOne]

Kil, what's your opinion of the Braid harness lug device after using it on the big tuna?

[Gmoney!]

nice meeting you yest Kil, heard lots of stories about you so it was nice to finally say hi in person, I fished with Paul, Jose, and Chip. Wish I could have stayed for luch, but the wifey and kids were back at the hotel waitin, next time they stay home

I agree these fish fight damn hard, especially in this deeper water. I remember paul 3 times saying "Ok, that was his last run" on the fish we landed. And they do these damn circles of death that are like a 100 yards in radius...I am used to nice tight circles of death from the yellowfin..this was my first blue.. and regarding the belt, I agree with you. These fish are not to be fought on smaller belts, I had a small tunamax belt on, and its just not anywhere near enough support for my back. Chip switched me over to a black magic belt, and it made a huge world of difference. But like you said, when you get the fish close to the boat, its more difficult to take the rod out of the harness if you need to put your rod tip in the water if fish starts to go crazy...and they WILL go crazy. When I got the second fish close to the boat, I just took the rod out of the black magic belt, and put it under my arm, and when i needed to lift, just put the rod to belly area and lifted ....what can i say, this is damn exciting fishing...i'd love to see a bluefin exploding over a live kite bait.. Btw we saw a lot of fish out there today, and I definitely saw several fish over 200lbs, although most hooked seemed to be in the 62-67 range. These fish were FAT too, not skinny.

Does anyone ever try to fast troll with kite and skipping bait under it? This technique worked good in PV for big yellowfin, wonder if it would work for the bluefin.

G

[Sea Draggin]

These fish were FAT too, not skinny.

G

Put some pics.