Bigeye bite of August 09

[alex n]

I was one of the unlucky ones during the incredible bigeye bite of 09 in the Hudson Canyon, fished the 100 square twice and got skunked on bigeye's I know theres a lot of guys on this forum that fished it and caught fish. My question is what did you catch them on?

[giantfan]

I was out there during that mad dog bite but I was unable to connect. I know of a few guys that caught pretty well during that time and from what I understand most of the bites were on larger sized spreader bars (9")

[sportfishingusa]

I like to use the larger bars like Ted has said.. Also they tend to eat large heavy jets with ballyhoo stuffed up them!!

[norter79]

We caught them on canyon runner rainbow squid bars, green machines, a heavy jet and had a few bites on ballyhoo.

We didn't do anything differently, just were in the right place at the right time.

[getreel]

I got wolfpacked in Veatches AUG 8 and they took everything that was in tight. Green machine dasiy chain on flat line, 6" rainbow spreader bar and green machine splash bar on short riggers. Unfortunately we went a dismal 1 for 3 on the landings after an hour of keeping them separated. One fished pulled hook at leader and the other two got tangled and we had to cut one to save one.

[Canyon Runner]

We caught 9 or 10 that week and most were on our Canyon Runner Green Machine and Rainbow Green Machine bars. We were trolling 6 of they at a time.

[joeyg7]

If you were lucky enough to run over them they ate anything and everything. We got 7 one day, we caught 3 or 4 on jigs...it was insane

[Big Jay]

We're talking early Aug. right? I seem to remember it being like late July.

Bigeye would be any spreader 9" and over. Squids and GMs seem to be the ticket. Run everything in a tight pattern.

[Captain Fred Archer]

That bigeye bite was pretty amazing. I wish I had been there. Took me back to over thirty years ago when I fished them commercial rod and reel. (My old pal Tred Barta was doing the same thing in the same places back then.) Funny, some of the same lures are still working...heavy, dark jigs cut down to about nine or ten inches (especially at night, which is an excellent time to catch them, by-the-way), the very earliest spreaderbars that we made by cutting down our big giant tuna bars of that time and rigging them with artificials, were the basic best stuff. And yes, all fished tight and close together because that's where the whole school used to come.

The facts are that adult bigeye are very different than the other tunas. They spend most of their time in incredibly, almost unbelievably deep water and come up at very specific times, primarily to warm their bodies, kinda like swordfish. The keys to catching them used to be, and probably still are, being in the right places, at the right times (including and maybe especially at night), doing the right things. And, of course, your tackle had better be right and you should have your multiple big fish fighting tactics down pat, because they almost invariably come in packs and multiples are pretty much standard fare when it comes to the 'eyes.

I wound up writing a book about them that both bigeye newbies and dyed-in-the-wool fans might get a kick out of.

[mattmain]

i didnt get the chance to fish how long this bite last?