Those Crazy Tuna (8/16)

[Latimeria]

Well damn, I'll leave the bulk of the trip out since it is already a huge story to tell.

The basic was that I had plans on Sunday afternoon so I didn't plan to fish this weekend.  At 9pm, I got a text from Tombo... "You want to hunt tuna tomorrow?"

Damn.. I have to leave for the party at 5, but felt like we would get back in time... I'm not feeling very smart, but had the drive to still get there late.  LOL

I met the guys at the dock at 3:30 and thankfully as the receivers started rationing bait and were out very early.  We headed out to the grounds in some fog and set up.  The day before it was a chunk bite, but not today. The chunk brought them to the boat, but they were chewing on the live stuff.  We hooked up early and lost a few in the process.



Bob, the captain was the hot stick and we let Rodney know he was missing out!



OK, he didn't do it with this picture, but was sure let him know on his second fish!  LOL





We had a crew of five and everyone was catching but Tombo and I.... The curse of Rodney I guess...



After we had a few on deck, the hot stick struck again!







I finally tossed out the 25# stick against my better judgment as I was afraid the 25# would attract the big one and screw me over.  I hooked up with the big one of the day in the mid 30 range!



We kept looking and found zoo tuna wanting to feed on the chunk, but refused any with a hook attached.

We hunted until we found a thousand skippies being chased by 30-40 pound dorado being chased by big yellowfin!  It was quite the unsurreal experience out there and one I wont forget anytime soon!  We did manage one tuna as we lost a few that morning, but still had a good plunker bite.

We saw life everywhere but had a hard time getting them to bite and commit.  It was a great run as all fish were legit fish and we adapted to what was going on instead of just falling victim to being a stagnant group.  Super fun trip..







Ended up with plenty of meat each, but we could have killed them.  Almost, but no cigar on the big haul.  In any case, I got home late, but with somer crazy driving skills, we were only an hour late which was crazy since I battles summer Sunday traffic.

Fun times, and thank you Tom! 

Rodney...  I swore you cursed me until I got the Jack Pot and realized the universe was back in alignment!  LOL

I think we came up with 7 tuna, but I can't remember for sure as I only ran on 2 hours sleep for the past 30 hours before that.  We also lost a few which sucked, but the crew worked hard to make sure everyone scored some meat!

Thanks for reading and thanks Tom for the invite.  Next time make sure Rodney is there.  I always do better when he's on board!  LOL

Thanks for reading!  Until next tide!


Oh yeah.... the loins were great, but the collars were beyond being blown away!

[WheresMyBeer]

Funny how many collars I've dumped ... Don't really know how to prep / cook it .. sad ... that looks so damn good ...

[Latimeria]

Funny how many collars I've dumped ... Don't really know how to prep / cook it .. sad ... that looks so damn good ...

Me too.    I like how tom head and gutted them, so the collar was really easy to get to.  I'll probably do that for now on as it made processing so easy.

Just an FYI.... I might take the collar meat over the loins.  They were that good.

[j.rasta]

Last pic looks like chicken Nice of Big Tom to tell Nicky to stay home so you could get your fix in B) Nice work out there boss! Too bad the captain kicked all ur asses ;P

[skrilla]

Way to score on a last minute trip.