"Hook Me Up" 7/27 report. 2-2 Longfins, 3-5(?) Yellowfins, missed Bigeyes. Pics

[Big Jay]

After sitting out the last trip due to work, my pops was anxious to get out there and try to do some damage on some tuna. With NOAA being horribly wrong as of late, we picked today as our best shot.

My father, brother, good friend, and I broke LEI at about 0200 under a bright moon. I had decided we would fish some very nice looking water a good ways away from where the fleets would be. Sure enough, we reached it about 0600 and it was all ours.

Trolling around for about an hour we hooked up 2 longfins and boated both. Both of those fish hit Sterling Tackle Splasher Machine bars. Back on the troll we slow circled back to our mark. Sure enough, we hooked up 3 YFT. These were bigger YFT for sure. 75 lb fish easily. We were able to put 2 in the boat but unfortunately broke the other off boatside.

We set back up again. By now 1 or 2 boats had made their way over to us. Guess they had really nice binoculars.

We went on for another 45 min. before we hooked up another lone YFT, also big. We boated this one as well. Now these 2-3 boats were circling us.

Water was crystal clear, blue, and 80 degrees. Was looking better and better. Then out of no where, what I believe was a "wolfpack", crashed our party. I replaced our center WWB line's bird/GM (hasn't produced for us yet this year) with 14" blk/prpl Hawaiin-style bullet. Hoo/Illander gets nailed, Sterling Splasher Bar, and then I see a torpedo annihilate the 14" bullet. My father yells down and I see the 50wLRSA with 23 lbs. of drag screaming. Unfortunately, that and the bar came unbuttoned. My buddy worked on the fish on the remaining hook up. It had some weight and made some vicious runs. But alas...came unbuttoned as well.

I would like to note that during this all: What looked to be a 50' Sportfisher decided he wanted to troll about 50 yds off our stern. He didn't cut us off but we did have lines in the water and still had a fish on. Completely unnecessary.

At that point we made our way back in. Around 80 fathoms we got covered up in yellows again. Bunch of boils and misses. One found a hook. We dropped him boatside in a same manner as the earlier one. Frustrating, but we all remained composed and were very happy with our day.

Ended with:

2-2 LFT's
3-5(?) YFT's
0-3 Bigeyes (?)

[gameover]

Have to love those bastard Big Eyes...

They will break anything. Damn, consider yourself lucky to have been visited by the pack!

Full moon is bigeye time....

Sounds like you guys are getting some quality bites on that boat, keep up the good work, and hope they will start to stay tight.

[Big Jay]

Yeah i still have yet to deck an eyeball. Oh well. They came and wrecked shop for sure. One day...

[SeaBiscuit]

Very nice report and good fishing Jay. Haven't had fresh longfin in years. Fantastic eating tuna!
SeaBiscuit

[Sterling Tackle]

Yeah Jay. You are definitely having a good season. I hope the longfin hang around. They make great tuna salad sammies. Better luck on the bigeye's next time.

[Big Jay]

Originally Posted by SeaBiscuit

Very nice report and good fishing Jay. Haven't had fresh longfin in years. Fantastic eating tuna!
SeaBiscuit

Thanks man! Longfin for salads and yellowfin for a nice seared steak. Can't beat it.

Originally Posted by Sterling Tackle

Yeah Jay. You are definitely having a good season. I hope the longfin hang around. They make great tuna salad sammies. Better luck on the bigeye's next time.

Thanks Steve! We owe a lot of it to your bars. Those things really hold up. Only thing we end up changing out is the stinger baits. We had 2-3 YFT's crashing them at some points throughout the day. Didn't bend, break, or get messed up in any way.

[Sushi50]

Which Canyon/area did you fish that day?

Thanks,
Charley

[Big Jay]

Originally Posted by Sushi50

Which Canyon/area did you fish that day?

Thanks,
Charley

Well with all the tournies going on right now I don't want to disclose exactly where.

However I can tell you it was NOT the Hudson and it was not South of the Lindenkohl.

The same water we fished that day has now made it's way South so you're going to see the fish moving down that way.