Honest Report from the Tuna Grounds

[tunajoe]

Headed out of MI yesterday around 3AM. Of course the seas were not quite as forecasted and we could ran only at 23kts into the seas with the SE wind.
Go to the grounds around 5:15 AM. One 45# YFT in the boat within 10 mins on the jig. About 20 mins later, another MASSIVE fish was hooked on a jig. We chased this fish around the fleet for nearly 45 minutes - backing down, chasing it, getting ahead of it etc. We flat out got spooled - over 400 yards of 65# braid gone. The captain did everything possible to gain traction on this beast but this fish fought like none other. It's been many years since I've been on a boat that was spooled. The folks fishing on the Jamaica witnessed this "show" as our fish headed right towards their boat. BTW - when fighting this fish, we were surprised that a seasoned "fisher" charter captain came running over to us and nearly cut off our fish. Glad you and your charter got an ear full. Completely rude and not expected from an experienced captain. Thought you were one of the better guys out there...

About 20 minutes after getting spooled, another YFT about 50# was boated again on a jig right off the bottom. It got quiet for a few hours. We decided to move over to the chunk and put another YFT about 40# in the boat. As the day moved on, we finally marked some fish around 1PM- jigged and another YFT about 50 # landed. All in all, we went 4 for 7. A couple of boats had a better day with 6-8 fish caught. One of those boats hit most of their fish inside the AP around 5AM. BTW, MOST boats had 1 fish many had 0. There were about 50 - 60 boats in the fleet. Headed back to the barn around 230PM with the seas at our back - 1:45 total return time which was nice. All fish were loaded with sand eels and bunker chunks. Marked and saw very little life throughout the day. Nomads 120-200G were the best jigs. Good luck fellas!

[Capt Sal]

80 lb. braid and what lb. leader? How many pounds of drag set on a scale? Back in the eighties we would hook some giants while chunking med. BF and yellowfin . Got spooled quite often. When we went for giants we only put out heavy leader on large reels with 80 w being the smallest. If you put out lighter line they were sure to hit that first and you would never land one. Problem is if you put out heavy leader on the mid range grounds you won't get bit. There were days on the Bacardi when the Med BFT would hit 100lb. leader but not often. Can't have it both ways. Had some real heart breakers back then like five hours on the rod and two miles off the ball and loosing a giant next to the boat. Been a long time since there was a good yellowfin bite this close.

[Capt Sal]

80 lb. braid and what lb. leader? How many pounds of drag set on a scale? Back in the eighties we would hook some giants while chunking med. BF and yellowfin . Got spooled quite often. When we went for giants we only put out heavy leader on large reels with 80 w being the smallest. If you put out lighter line they were sure to hit that first and you would never land one. Problem is if you put out heavy leader on the mid range grounds you won't get bit. There were days on the Bacardi when the Med BFT would hit 100lb. leader but not often. Can't have it both ways. Had some real heart breakers back then like five hours on the rod and two miles off the ball and loosing a giant next to the boat. Been a long time since there was a good yellowfin bite this close.

Very nice post and enjoyed reading it. Hope you land the big one next trip!!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Great post Joe. Glad you had a good trip and thanks for sharing your experience here.

[Gumada]

Not out of character for fisher.

[stugots]

We went 3 for 7 in the same area. Good day out there for sure!

[Capt Derek Fisher Price 3]

If your referring to myself and my boat, then I apologize and you can contact me personally or dm me. At the time no one on my boat had realized that you were hooked up as the angler was on the side corner and the boat was moving forward. We actually thought you were trolling for a second and were setting out a line trying we were trying to get around you, not tight on a fish.