Sami and myself jumped on a 2 day trip to Cape Cod for some tuna action with Captain Dom of Coastal Sportfishing Charters and Captain Eric of Livewell Charters.
Day 1, 5-30-2010, Sami, Adrian, Dianna and myself met Captain Dom of Coastal Sportfishing charters at 4:30am in Green Harbor.
We left the dock and headed straight for the tuna grounds, somewhere between Peaked Hill and Race point.
When we saw birds and a couple of tunas feeding on the surface, Dom immediately steered his boat towards the feeding pod and gunned the throttle.
We cast right at the feeding tunas but they weren’t interested in the lures presented to them.
This happened a couple of times until Sami switched to his favorite Moutoukenmaru lure, he cast towards the tuna as soon as they surface and after 2 twitches, a huge tuna with its dorsal and pectoral fin sticking out jumped and inhaled the lure.
He was the only one that hooked up out of the 5 or 6 boat that were casting at the tunas. After 10 minutes, Sami brought the fish to the surface and we realized that it was tail wrapped.
The fish flapped frantically to free itself and dove straight back down. After another grueling 15 minutes and almost 25ft from the surface, the line popped and the fish won its freedom.
We “guesstimate” the fish to be over 75inch as we saw it on the surface 6-8 ft from us.
Adrian had his shot too when he was jigging and a tuna robbed him off his jig, it was peeling line for a good 30secs before his line went popped.
Day 2, 5-31-2010, Jason, Sami and myself met Captain Eric of Livewell charters.
It was dead quiet when we reached where we were yesterday, no signs of life or birds or fishes on the surface.
We decided to head south towards Chatham. It was a good call.
Fishes were busting all over the place and birds were gorging on scraps left by the fishes.
We started casting and were bringing in bass after bass until we saw a tuna jumped from a distant.
Eric immediately head towards that direction.
Tunas were jumping and feeding everywhere, I had 2 hookups, one spat the hook and the other totally swallowed a 10inch Moutoukenmaru lure and sheared the 150lb FC leader.
Jason had a nice fish for 25mins with the Dorado Slider only to lose it when it too spat the hook, as a consolation a stripe bass went straight for the lure and was released.
Another battle from Jason with the Goliath Tunas came shortly when the same slider was thrown at them. After a good 22mins the fish was gaffed and brought in through the transom.
It measure 71 inch and fed on herrings, butterfish and sand eels when we popped the stomach.
It was a good 2 days of absolute mayhem, both Captains showed professionalism and went out of their way to put us on the fish.
Tackle used.
Saltywater Tackle Race Point Special prototype rods, OR Black Devil 100, OR 10000 and Hot’s Gipang
Shimano Stella Reels .
Varivas SMP, YGK and Jerry brown hollow lines.
Moutoukenmaru lures, Daiwa Dorado Slider and Souls lures.
FCL Labo jigs, Deep Liner Jigs.
Black Magic and Sevenseas Belt.
Enjoy the pics! P.S Those of you heading for some tuna action please get ready for some pain. They are big this year!
Cheers,
Paul.