8-19 Hambone 106lb. Bluefin Report

**runnin late** · 08-21-2008, 12:12 PM

This summer has been crazy for me due to a major career change and we haven't had the boat offshore at all...my 11 yr old wanted to get a trip in before school starts next week. On Wed. morning, TFer SteveJ00, my son Tyler, and myself pulled Runnin Late out of the driveway in Pasadena at 4:00am and were launching in West OC at 7:00am. Quick stop at AKE and off to the Hambone with very little hope of finding a tuna. Plan was to chunk for a while then troll. When we chunk we always hang a diamond jig (old fashioned kind, not the fancy new ones) from an outrigger tip...gives the boat something to do while the crew slings chunks

. There was a really fast drift yesterday between the wind and ripping current. With no pulls from chunking, we decided it was time to troll. Just as Steve was bringing the release clip in from the end of the rigger to the boat, the line snapped out and it was fish on! We put a belt on Steve and stood back and watched...he had the fish on a 30lb outfit! He had the tuna to the boat in about 15 minutes...but...the fish seemed to know that running straight for the outboard would mean freedom because he did the same thing 2 other times. We had the leader 3 times and had to let go to avoid a breakoff. We could see that it was a nice one. After an hour fight we managed to put the steel in him. A good job at the end by everyone including Tyler who had the gaffs ready and took the rod so that I could leader him while Steve sunk the gaff. This is Steve's biggest tuna...he was so shocked to see that it was a big one, that he was standing there holding the gaff in the air admiring his catch

...I was yelling "stick him... stick him!"....anywhere! After cleaning all of that beautiful blood off of the deck, we were about 37 miles from the inlet...we trolled into about 25 miles off with nothing but a 16 inch bluefish that tried to attack a daisy chain. So we pulled 'em in and ran for OC. Many thanks to Ake marine for checking in our fish and weighing him, and calling Coastal Fisherman...even though they were already locking the doors for the night!
The fish weighed in at 106 lbs! By the time we cleaned the boat, the fish, a couple orange crushes and dinner at Harborside...3 tired fisherman pulled the boat and crashed in our hotel room! A long day for an 11 year old...not to mention a tired 41 year old captain

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