Cape Cod Jigging/Popping

[Rob Langridge]

Just a quick question Kil : Is the Ron Z lure the soft plastic in the picture of captain Dom with the 79'' bluefin..?

[Kil Song]

Yes, that is Ron Z.
There are similar products in the market, but Ron Z excels for some reason.
I don't think any lure caught more bluefin than Ron Z in Cape Cod last year.

[Kil Song]

06-15 report

Tsurusaki san of FCL LABO, Okamura san and Higaki san arrived from Japan and we went directly to a Korean  restaurant in Fort Lee, NJ before heading for Cape Cod, MA.


We met Capt Jimmy at Bass River, Cape Cod at 3:30 am. We drove around for hours from Chatham, Golf Ball, Peaked Hill, SE Corner and back to Chatham in search of signs of tuna.
Finally we located them in deep water. 
Okamura san got tight first, but it pulled the hook after brief fight.


He used FCL LABO CSP-S180S


It didn't take long Okamura san got his second fish. There was volkswagen size boil behind Okamura san's lure. When he made another cast, he got tight again after another huge boil.
Tsurusaki san got hit at the same time, but it pulled the hook.
He used custom 8' Black Hole Cape Cod Special graphite and Saltiga.
















He got help, but Okamura san fought most of time.




















Thanks Jimmy for your extra effort to find tuna.

[Patrick Cooper]

Hey Kil, I haven't seen that style of gimbal that they are using before.. do you have any info on it?

[Kil Song]

06-16
We headed for the area we left yesterday.
We saw Capt Dom fighting a tuna.
We checked the area, but it was pretty quite. We checked inshore first and went deeper water as there was no life inshore. Finally we found mother lode of whale and birds. There were only two commercial draggers. Capt Called other Capt and I could count at least a dozen of boats within 1 - 2 hours.   Jimmy is such a nice person that he always want to share info with other Capt.
After casting with prototype FCL LABO rod and FCL CSP150 Sinking, I decided to rest for a while until tuna showed up. Jimmy picked up my rod and he hooked up a tuna after a few cast !!!
We let Higaki san fight the tuna. He had his first bluefin fight yesterday while helping Okamura san. It looks he is totally different fisherman today fighting with confidence.
within 30 = 40 minutes he brought tuna next to the boat. The size looked similar to the tuna we landed yesterday. But tuna made another strong run and it pulled the hook.
We tried hard to get another hookup among so many whales without success.

see actions of the rod with 250 lb bluefin.














 


FCL CSP 150S used.

[Kil Song]

06-20

It was tough to get up at 3:00 am after two fishing trips yesterday.
Weather was gorgeous and sea was flat calm.
3 - 4 miles before you arrived at our destination, we saw a few tuna pushing on the surface.
Dallen from Singapore threw his first cast and got tight !!
After watching a few minutes, I realized he is not an ordinary fisherman. Even he never caught big tuna before, he made all the right moves while fighting. Judging from the way the rod  bent, I knew it was not big bluefin we used to catch here. Nontheless, he fought beautifully and he could release a respectable 120 - 130 lbs. It was only 5:20 am in the morning. The lure was again FCL CSP 150g sinking model.















Dallen did it again, but this time it was a nice striped bass.


It didn't take long before we found a few tuna on the surface.
This time tuna took FCL CSP180 sinking lure on 8' Black Hole Cape Cod Special Graphite with Stella 18000 filled with Jerry Brown 80 lbs/130 lbs Fluoro carbon connected with Mid knot.
Dallen had a hit at the same time, but it pulled the hook.

Khoo from Singapore  also never fought bluefin before. He used Braid Power Play full harness with  Braids Harness strap. I could tell he was fighting pretty comfortable with the setup though it was her first ever encounter with over 100 kg tuna.
It didn't take long he could adjust using the harness and he landed 74" tuna within 55 minutes. I rarely saw anyone could land 200 plus lbs tuna with long popping rod alone for the first time. Definitely fighting with harness lug help fisherman tremendously.
It was only 6:30 am when we landed the fish.


















We saw lots of whales and bird actions, but couldn't find any tuna on the surface, but there were lots of marks in deep. I felt it was time to jig. 
By 9:00 am, Khoo finally hooked up a nice bluefin on LABO SL jig. We knew it was a  big tuna as it took lots of line and we had to chase it.
Khoo let Dallen fight, but it pulled the hooks afer Dallen fought for a while.
The rod was Mogi Special of Valley Hill.  I checked the rod and it was great to work jigs as tip is pretty fexible, but I would rate the rod upto 80 lbs.









We decided to go back to the dock by 10:30 am as action died down and Singapore guys wanted to taste different fish inshore.

[Kil Song]

06-21

They found no tuna on the surface, but Capt Jim saw huge school of tuna on screen and ask them to drop jigs. All three had instant bites. One reel got almost spooled even on 30 lb drag and had to use thumb to break the line before it got spooled completely.
They couldn't chase the fish because three tuna ran in different directions.

Amazing thing was the 77" (270 - 280 lbs) was caught on Evergreen's Poseidon jigging rod which has line rating upto PE4  filled with 65 lb Tuf line.
The 71" tuna which was released was caught on Valley Hill's Mogi Special.
All three tuna were hooked on FCL LABO jigs.

[Kil Song]

06 - 22

Darren got nice tuna on FCL CSP-S180S early in the morning, but lost it because
Decoy hook got opened.

 



It was pretty slow day. We could find one very small area where birds are and we decided to wait there until anything happens.
In deed we saw bird working nearby.  Everyone cast and Capt Jimmy dropped FCL LABO jig on Evergreen Poseidon PE4 rod when he saw some tuna marks on screen. Darren hooked up again at the same time when Jimmy hooked up on a jig. We decided to chase Darren's fish as it took line so fast. Unfortunately jig line got broken by prop.  I met so popping fishermen in Cape Cod and Darren is a rare breed.  He always right move. He fought the 79" for himself for one and half hours though he never caught bigger tuna 100 lbs tuna before.
The FCL popping rod's action was great for the whole fight. It is extremely light, but it never got overpowered by the tuna.

Jimmy gave me the jigging rod with tuna no to chase Darren's fish.
I took pictures while holding the rod one hand and camera on the other hand.


















When tuna was close to the boat, Darren took off harness.








Darren put one hook on top of the lure and tuna took the hook.






Jimmy hoisting 79" tuna.





tuna was full of sand eel

[Matt Kilpatrick]

Kil,

I love this thread ... great work and beautiful fish. What drag pressure was being used when the decoy hook opened up? Have you experienced this problem before? I have Decoys on a lot of my lures.

Cheers,

Matt

[Kil Song]

I got emails from overseas fishermen who show interest in fishing bluefin in Cape Cod.
This year is very strange. I thought it get better, but it's been pretty quiet ( they had good bites yesterday though). This is the prime time usually, but we have to see how it develops.

[Jason Wormald]

Awesome stuff would love to fish there one day

[Ed Nicholas]

Wow . . As always seems like you dominated!!  Awesome pics & post Kilsong.

[Kil Song]

After Tsurusaki san's group left, fishing slowed down.
We were fortunate to work with small school of nice bluefin for a whole week.
There are some giant in Cape Cod now, but they respond only to bait.
We ventured out offshore as there were reports smaller bluefin were abundant last week and we found them.  We had 8 - 9 hookups (3-4 on FCL CSP, 3 on Soul Brabus and 2 on Ron Z) with smaller 50 - 60 lb.

Here is the report of the trip.

07-05 full report
Fishing has been very slow in normal areas. I discussed with Capt Jimmy to explore other areas. Some caught smaller tuna offshore a few days ago, but we got reports that boats fished there on July 4 couldn't locate tuna again.
Capt decided to go where a few boats spotted tuna while returning from canyon trips.
I told my friends we might not see any tuna on the trip as it is an exploratory trip, but I assured that they could load up with jumbo scup and fluke in case we didn't locate any tuna.

Fortunately we located tuna and loaded with scup and fluke in the afternoon.

We had 3 out of 8 with smaller 50 - 60 lbs bluefin, but we quit fishing by 10:30 am and went inshore for scup and fluke.

We had three on FCL CSP sinking, three on  Soul's Brabus and two on Ron Z.
I was surprised tuna hit normal size lures though they are small. We found the reason after we opened stomach of a tuna. It was full of small halfbeak.



It was like we fished smaller tuna in Cape Cod a few years ago. They pop here and there, then they disappeared when we approached them. They reappeared again and we ran. It was fun.

Choi and Park used OTI popping rods and I think the rods are good for smaller tuna as the price is very reasonable and the rod can handle smaller tuna.
I feel you don't need expensive Stella or Saltiga for those smaller tuna and Shimano Saragosa is good enough for them.


















I used 8' Black Hole Cape Cod Special/Shimano Stella 20000 filled with JB 80 lbs hallow.
The setup is for big bluefin over 200 plus lb and 50 - 60 lb bluefin was no contest with the setup and I landed one in one or two minutes.

[Ladd Yoshimura]

Hi,  And word on the black hole surf rods?

[Kil Song]

Hi,  And word on the black hole surf rods?

We got 10'6" surf blanks and expect to get surf rods in a month.

Bluefin popping has been erratic and most tuna caught on poppers become smaller in 100 lb - 130 lbs range.  More 100 lbs - 130 lbs tuna showed up in normal areas, but they are hard to catch on poppers for some unknown reasons.
Once water temp goes down, we should see more action.