Bluefin Basics Fishing Reports
(Sorry for the lag in fishing reports, the Bluefin Basics team has been extremely busy over the past few weeks. Because of the missing fishing reports, I will list the short version of the last few fish caught and all the details with them.)
August 28, 2008
As usually with late August fishing, it was a parking lot out there around the BC buoy. There was somewhere in the range of 50 to 60 boats fishing. We listened to the radio for awhile to hear that a few people were picking up some nice sized fish including a 63”, 67”, 65”, and supposedly an 80” (which is still yet to be confirmed).
We showed up late and dropped our lines in the water around 7:45 AM. The only thing out on the ocean was the boats. There wasn’t a sign of whales, birds, or porpoises. Because of this, I was forced to fish trying to find clusters of bait on the fish finder. We spent around two hours trolling with nothing to look at but the fleet.
Around 10:00 AM I began to look around and seemingly out of nowhere whales began to surface. A few minutes later birds showed up. Around 10:15 AM anywhere that I looked was whales and birds crashing the surface. By the time this all registered with me I heard the short starboard rigger go off. We quickly strapped our angler into the belt and set him onto the fight.
While he began to fight the fish, I moved to the port side to clear the lines. As I began to reel in the long port rigger, I looked back into the spread (to make sure I wasn’t tangling lines) and a monster bluefin crashed on top of the rig! This was an absolutely amazing and breathtaking sight. I looked down and the line began to scream. I threw the reel into strike and cleared the rest of the lines.
I checked on the angler fighting the first fish and the line has gone limp. We reeled in the line to see that the tuna had bite about 2 feet into the spreader bar! We lost our stinger plus 1/3 of the spreader bar. That was one hungry fish.
No one was very upset over the loss because we had another fish still peeling line. We strapped our angler into this fish and began the fight. We watched humpbacks cruise by the boat as he reeled in the fish. About 20 minutes into the fight we had the fish straight up and down. I jumped on the wheel to keep the fish on the back of the boat and watched the angler start pumping the fish. Suddenly, he stopped and said “uh oh.” I looked back to see the rod start to double over (keep in mind this is a custom built 70 – 130 blank in the rod). The drag started screaming again and the rod continued to bend. After about 15 seconds of this BAM! The line snapped off and it sounded as if a gunshot had gone off. The angler went flying towards the back of the boat. This was a serious fish!
We reeled in the line to find out we lost about 100 yards of line and our spreader bar. By the time these two fish were gone all the whales and birds has disappeared (it was very strange). We trolled around for another hour before deciding to call it a day. After doubling up and losing both fish we deemed ourselves very unlucky and went back to the docks with a very interesting fishing story.
Note: The two squid bar colors we hooked (and lost) were 11” green glow and 11” rainbow. Also, we were fishing about 4 miles southwest of the BC buoy.
August 25, 2008
1 for 1
A long day of trolling with very little excitement. We dropped lines in the water (3 miles SW of the BC buoy) around 5:45 AM and trolled until 12:00 without a single bite! Just as we were about to give up hope, SNAP! Finally! We milked this fight for all it was worth to get some enjoyment out of a very long day. A 57” fish caught on a 13” black spreader bar was enough to make us happy and content with the day.
August 22, 2008
1 for 2
Today we fished in much closer than we have been this season. We were about 2 miles east of the shipping lanes, just shy of the BC buoy. We dropped lines in the water around 6:00 AM and had a monster swell within 5 minutes of trolling but the fish missed the hook! Talk about an early morning adrenaline rush.
We trolled for some time until we found a group of a few hundred birds diving on the water. This was an amazing site! I was convinced this was where the fish we. We made five passes through this area with nothing to show but a few disappointed fishermen. After those few passes we decided to give up and move farther west and try to see what we could find. Around 10:15 AM we heard the left long port rigger snap off. Another late morning blind strike! After a quick 15 minutes battle we had the fish boat side and landed him. 56” caught again on an 11” pink spreader bar.
August 18, 2008
1 for 2
We were fishing about 3 miles south of the BC buoy just inside the shipping lanes. The first fish swelled at the green and brown squid bar around 10:30 AM. It took around 100 yards of line before the rig came floating back to the surface. The second fish hit late, around 12:00 and yanked off close to 400 yards before we were able to slow him down. The fight took 30 minutes and we landed a beautiful 57” fish (caught on a pink 11” spreader bar).