Finally 2024!!! (6/30)

[Latimeria]

Hey guys, sorry but I'm a little whooped today.  I'm trying to get the new website completed and it's been tough to get time to work with the new webmaster, but it's coming along.

I'll probably just do a short post for my day trip with Cayleb and Shaun on our quest for the first tuna of 2024.  The last few trips were pretty uneventful....

We got to the grounds and trolled a big Spreader Bar for no luck.  We were literally the only boat from horizon to horizon, but there was a 1.25-degree temp break here and we saw some life.

We decided to troll the Mad Macs instead as we're 0-12 at this point with them and I think I modified them enough not to have the lure leverage the hook out. 

Big Screamer and we put Cayleb on the reel.



My Rainshadow rod was way overmatched for the fish, but with the softer tip, it had a lot of action.









Mad Mac got crushed and quite a few teeth marks in it now.  Success!



We had some luck trolling, but saw a lot of fish starting to jump in big packs here and there.  We opted to go live bait because after all, we bought it...





Not the big boys we were looking for, but still fun on the live bait gear.



Actually, Shaun had a REALLY big one comparatively, but almost got spooled on his 20# rig.  The fish were line shy except for the fast-moving macs which were just reactionary bites.



We then started heading back to the barn and made a few stops on kelps.  One kelp and the guys saw a big yellow on it.  They both casted on it before I got a bait on and just pitched the dine to the side of the boat.  Well.... 1 yellow on the paddy, and now No yellow on the paddy.



Oh, and I forgot.  We saw this HUGE black back creature chasing our hooked tuna.  It was definitely going full force at it, but never got it's fins out of the water.  Cayleb and I both saw the same thing at the same time and was probably an 8' Mako, but it never gave us any positive ID except that it was BIG!

Well, that's it for now.  Need to get some sleep.  lol

Thanks for reading!

[jrodda]

Congrats on finally scoring offshore! Been a good chunk of change on gas I'm sure but those are some great spoils. Cool to finally see some real quality yellowtail offshore this year.

[vdisney]

As always Tom, your write ups have me on the edge of my seat.  Congrats on a successful session and great pics

[KogaHead]

those are the perfect size for old guys like you

[Tim524]

 Great day for sure, lots of action packed pictures ! What did the YT weigh ?

[Latimeria]

Great day for sure, lots of action packed pictures ! What did the YT weigh ?

20#