So went out with Capt. Dom, Coastal Charters Sportfishing today for some Awesome Bluefin tuna action on the bank. A whole lot of spread out birds and a lot of white caps made it hard for spotting the tuna in the morning but they were there as we saw a bunch of them in the waves. Started a nice drift on the bank marking lots of fish deep and seeing monsterous fish break surface right next to the boat along with some 50 inch fish. I'm casting up on the bow with a 8'6" OTI Tuna sniper rod, Van Staall 250, 80 lb OTI braid, 100lb leader with a Tattoo Sea Dog. (Correct me if I'm wrong Dom) I'm walking the dog with the plug back to the boat and look away from it for a second when TOADZILLA!!! (as Dom calls the monsters) Nails the plug and all I see is a 3 foot tail sticking out the water beating down to the depths, and instantly starts taking drag, Fish ON. While that initial run took me from the front of the boat stumbling down the side all the way to the back of the boat with massive amounts of line dumping into the ocean. The fish stopped and shook its head violentley just as we could start to see the spool!!!!! That's when the line went slack and I started reeling as fast as I could because the fish was coming back to the boat. Dom had to rocket his Tuna Missile to 15 knots just to get me tight on the fish while I'm continuously reeling at mach speed. Finally back tight with the fish, oh here we go again, starts another run and I'm pumping and reeling like crazy till I got it straight up and down, I can not move this fish from the bottom, all right I give up before I end up doing something stupid so I pass the rod off. The rest of the hour and 19 minutes goes like this between the 5 of us. Each person took their share of fighting this fish because that rod was not good for pulling Toadzilla from his depths. We would pass the rod when somebody got tired or really wasn't making much line and have two people on the rod one palming the reel and reeling and the other helping lift the fish, Tag team baby!!...So we did some hurting on the fish and I must say that Dom did an incredible job without help pulling that fish up a bunch of times showing the rookies how to do it but even he was getting beat up by the monster on the end of the line and had to pass the rod. We had the fish 3 times at color, 1 harpoon miss probably at 12+ feet under the boat, Dart bounced right of the monster's head. Right at the end we thought we had him, I had the rod in between my legs where the sun don't shine with 30+ pounds of drag, palming the reel just so we could lift the fish with the Russian (I already forgot his name, sorry man) helping lift the rod. We had the fish probably 15 yards from the boat 10 feet down when the line got wrapped around the middle guide and SNAAAPPPPP!!!, Dom took a last ditch harpoon shot but nothing and I screamed the F word to the damn Tuna gods. Now I won't be able to sleep for months and will constantly have nightmares about the one that got away. Estimated the fish at well over 80" 400lbs. ToadZilla Lives another day and I have the sore arms and back to relive his memory for the next week.
We ended up getting tons of hits on jigs with plenty of them taking drag then throwing the hook. Got a nice 69" fish on the deck, probably 200 lbs, fat as hell with about 32 full Whitings, somebody said the stomach was so big it looked like a boat fender.
So Dom I tried calling you to ask you what the names of the guys on the boat were because I suck with remembering names and also that I decided to buy a $20 scratch ticket on my ride home because of my goodluck of hooking that monster and I won $500 so i was going to tell you to do the same, Anyways thanks for the awesome time again Dom and putting us on the fish as always..I Had a blast!!!!!! and im looking forward to seeing the Pictures of the tag team
Capt. Dom has been doing that all season. Can't tell you how many toads he has hooked this year but they are toads for a reason and it ain't because they are weak or stupid. You gave it your best shot and the fish just happened to win this time no foul in that story just a good memory. The sniper is a great rod but it isn't the best rod for the vertical fight game as i have one and will be switching it out for a shorter rod for next season. Great story loved reading it.
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