Decided to take advantage of an open weather window and hot bite and booked a trip with good friend and capt Chip Baker for bluefin out of Hatteras Inlet. Chris and I drove up from Durham Wednesday night and got to Village Harbor Marina around 10 PM. Glenn joined us around 10:30, and we passed the time in the hotel room swapping stories until Chip and his dad Bizz pulled up with the boat around midnight. We all hit the sack to get some rest for the next day.
We shoved off around 6:45, and after some precarious navigating through Hatteras inlet, we were in the open and made the 20 mile run to where the tuna have been spotted. We pulled up short of the main fleet and started to search, waiting for the Furuno to light up! At the same time, Chip took the Synit PE8 rigged with a Daiwa Dorado slider and tossed it out there to troll behind the boat. We all poked fun at him for trying to bring the fish up with a single lure...but not 30 seconds have passed and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! We all were stunned. Chip handed the rod to Glenn so that he could position the boat as the fish was taking line fast. after a 250 yd run, Glenn finally turned the fish and started to bring it in. After gaining about 150 yds back, the fish took off on another run, and the mainline parted. What a shame, it was a really nice fish...
We went back to searching, but had trouble marking anything including bait. We dropped but nothing...not even albies or AJs. We wove through the boats trolling looking for marks, but yet again nothing. We then made the decision to try and get away from the main fleet a bit, and try and find some bottom structure that would be funneling bait. we found what we were looking for about a mile away from the main fleet.
1st drop chris nailed the largest seabass I have ever seen. Second drop glenn nailed a fat albie. 3rd drop ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Chris hooked up. We knew right away it was a bluefin. After doing a great job fighting his first tuna on jigging gear, Chris brought a solid 90lb fish to the boat, which we stuck with a gaff. We will be having Sashimi tonight!
Video of chris fighting his bluefin!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1895631188973&set=a.1895631108971.2116199.1187388802&theater#!/video/video.php?v=1895667189873
5 minutes later I cam tight on a solid hit on a torsa40 and synit 450g rod. The fish proceeded to kick my ass over the next 20 minutes, and under 30+ lbs of drag was a stalemate. For every foot of line i took the fish took back 8". When I finally thought I had the fish broke and coming up it would take another run and sound deep. After 25 minutes on the right-handed conventional, my arms and back were burning and I had to pass the rod off. Chip proceeded to fight the fish. The fish was doing circles now and finally ours. After another 10 minutes of slowly gaining line on the circle and running around the boat, We placed a lip gaff in it (after several botched attempts). We measured it at 71.5"...oh so close to 72"! But we released her safely. Glenn, who has caught many tuna this size, said it was the fattest he's ever seen, and every bit of 220lbs
Video of the release:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=32347187&id=1187388802#!/video/video.php?v=1895673990043
Now this is was one of those days where, albeit the awesome action, the fish just won more battles. We got into a group of monster-class fish that destroyed us. We found some topwater action mixed in with jigs, so we were having consistent bites both on jigs and poppers. Glenn had a monster fish every bit of 80" blow up a popper 30 ft from the boat, only to have the hook pull a minute after. We all still have the image of that beast flying out of the water with Glenns popper in its mouth etched into our minds. I will never forget that. Glenn also got spooled TWICE today...something that has never happened to him before...and this is with the Stella initially set to 25+ lbs of drag.
Because of the bigger fish, we set the drags tighter, but this led to pulled hooks. It was just one of those days...We did win a few battles, with Chris safely releasing a 150# and Glenn releasing a 110# fish.
In the end, we went 4-15 overall. although the fish won most of the battles, it was a great day on the water with great friends. Already planning my next trip up there! I'm out...time to take another tylenol
