With the weather window that opened up, Capt. Chip Baker, Chris aka Demon, Mikey and I decided to head up to Hatteras Island in search of bluefin tuna on jigging and popping tackle. We did not expect it to be as wide open as it was. Both myself and Chip/Mikey had new equipment to test out, and this was the perfect opportunity.
Day 1
We arrived in Hatteras and decided to wait until the swell/wind died down a bit on Sunday, and did not venture out of the comfort of Teach’s Lair until 11:00 AM. In less than an hour, we put out a few trolling lines. No luck trolling, but we could see a few boats grouped in the distance. As soon as lines were in and we were on plane, I hollered to Demon to pull down. When everyone saw the boils I had seen, it was a scramble to the jigging tackle.
Mikey and I immediately hooked up on jigs, and Chip and Demon were shortly behind on topwater lures. All lines busy with a quad hookup in the blink of an eye. Needless to say, we are short of many pictures from day 1; we were all hooked up the entire day. Nonstop action; jigs, topwater…. You pick the poison.
I clearly remember looking down and thousands of fish at one point, a school of bluefins so thick that it resembled a livewell stuffed with menhaden. All jokes aside, Discovery channel, Blue Planet, etc. has nothing to the degree of what we witnessed. Many fish were loss due to line breakage when a stray 200 lb’er would swim into the taught braid.
In four hours of fishing, we landed 11 bluefin tuna, 6 on jigs and 5 on topwaters. Biggest fish of the day was 75 inches on a Baby Runboh, average fish from 65-70 inches. We harvested a 69 incher than fell victim to a Star Plasma PJC52XH and a Hot’s Kitan jig.
Tackle: Star has launched a new Plasma Jigging series, and they have done it properly. If you have fished a Smith AMJ, these are their American counterparts. They are available in 300g and 400g models, both spinning and conventional, all 5’2”. Don’t bother bringing the 300g for these fish, but it is a great rod for everything else. The 400g rod is a big fish rod, and can deadlift 40+ lbs. at 45 degrees. $330 with a warranty. No, not too good to be true.
Mikey and Chip were using their new Synit rods. They are great rods with perfect actions, but aren’t cheap. However, they are the top of the line tackle. They lived up to anything you can expect from this stuff and more.
All drag settings in these pics are a true 25 lbs+. This is the only way to land these MEAN MEAN creatures in a timely fashion.
Sore, tired, hungry, it didn’t matter. In a rage of glutton for more punishment, we left the dock at 7. What can I say, us Wilmington/Wrightsville crowd are used to a 65 mi run, extra sleep could not be passed up!
Within an hour from Teach’s, we were back to the same routine as day 1. My first cast consisted of a 66” fish blasting a popper 20 feet from the boat. I was ready to recast, and the next thing I knew the fish was airborne with the Sashimi Bull “dogboned” in his mouth, cutting a 20 yard roostertail and spraying water everywhere.
And it did not stop there. Eight mile drifts. Constant action. Fish marking from 20 feet to 240 feet. Topwater. Jigs. Nearly getting spooled straight down. I don’t want to write much more, because it is truly an indescribable fishery. We ended the day with 9 landed fish; 5 on poppers and 4 on jigs, including a 79” giant, ON A TOPWATER POPPER! I don’t type in caps much, but it was truly that incredible.
If you haven’t done this, put it on the list. In my honest personal opinion, this IS the ultimate. I have not caught big yellowfins jigging/popping like this, but I can say with true conviction this is my favorite fishing. Period. It was even better to be able to do it with my best friends in, relatively speaking, our backyard.
Nice guys we were out Monday and had a blast. Caught ours on the troll. We kept one at 167#s.... The bite is smoking right now and now is the time to go....Mark
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