Tuna Meltdown First Blood. 6-14-08

[Tuna Meltdown]

Hey guys, first off I'm sorry for not posting this earlier but I am running on pure addrenilen right now and it is running low. As a fishermen we all have days that will be etched into our minds forever and this weekend was just that.
My father, Mike, and I left the dock Saturday morning around 3:45 a.m. We got to the SW corner around 5:00 and we were seeing fish bust and breaking water within 15 minutes. This went on with out us getting a strike for hours. Needless to say I was getting frustrated. We headed south, off the bank to deeper water but closer to P-town and thats when I saw Bigeye on a beautiful 36' yellowfin. We had left the fleet on the corner and found the mother load of fish. The good news: We saw fish ranging in size from 50 pounds to well over 500 pounds pushing water all over the place. The bad news: They were not interested in eating anything.
But I was able to snap quite a few pictures from the tower.
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Those are not boat wakes in those pictures guys but hundreds and hundreds of bluefin. When they decide to eat it is going to be an all out horror show.
After about and hour of fruitlessly draing my bars over those fish I was called by my friend Craig to head into the Bay because he had just boated a 54" fish off a school of pogeys and the fish were still up busting after 30 minutes . Needless to say I was off like a prom dress and showed up just in time to see the blitz ending. There was fish there but unfortunatly the whole fleet started following the bright red hulled center console. I decide that I needed to find my own fish and get away from the crowd and started trolling north towards the BE bouy. My Father and Best friend Mike had started dosing off and I was having ahard time staying awake too so I climbed up into the tower to get some fresh air. I was up there for about 5 minutes when I saw the port rigger bounch. I turned to see only a splash but nothing else. The fish came back a second time and mauled the bar but did not hook up. At this point I have seen the size of the fish and I am cusing every word in the book. This woke Mike and my father up just in time to see the rig get slammed a third time and we were tight. The fish stripped off 200 yards on the first run and Mike had his hands full. After about 35 minutes we got the fish close and I decided that the harpoon was going to be my weapon of choice to end this battle. Ten more minute of give and take and my father was able to grab the leader and I drove the poon through its gill plate and out the other side. That was one of the sweetest moments in my fishing career.
The fish was not officially weighed but my best guess is 200+ and it was 67" long.
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BLOOD ON DECK
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Thats it for tonight guys. I was out today and got two more fish, both around 55 inches long and 110 pounds. I'll post up a seperate report and pictures of those after I get some well needed sleep.

[ChasinTail]

Danny, i am typing this as my eyes close, i posted some pics on that other thread, Sick pick of the three of us. Night ALL

Mike

[backman]

I would reread the regulations carefully before posting of 2 55" fish.

[Satans_Chariot]

ever consider that he might have released one of those and purely told you that he caught two of 55" or better for the sake of measurement?

[shoefish]

Backman you can be sure that Danny plays it by the book- he released the second fish.

Congrats Danny! That's a hell of a weekend. I guess you don't have to wonder if the new ride raises fish

[wrap-check]

Congrats Dan.

Those are some great pics.

[Boonebird]

Nice job. How often do you hear of eyes being caught up there. I thought they where a fish of the 100 fathom line? I know there is bait so that does not suprise me there. Do you guys ever tangle with yellows up there on stell? Any wyas fine job. Think white on the next boat.

[fin-chaser]

TM,

Very nice fish. We saw you out there on Sat.

You had much better luck than we did. We went 0 for 0, only catching slob Blue fish now and then.

We'll be back at it next weekend.

Fin-

[ChasinTail]

Danny is one of the most honest people i know! We killed one fish, and brought the second into the boat for a few pictures and then let it go! It almost broke my wrist when we were releasing it.

Mike

[ChasinTail]

Go to the CALLING TUNA MELTDOWN thread, about 20 or so pictures of the 2 we got yesterday