All I can say is what a day. The weather was fantastic. It blew a little but the seas never really built. I had a crew of 5 from Spinal Rods and we pointed the bow for the break after a leisurely 6 am. leave time. First stop was just inshore of the rock and the albacore and aj's were there, but they weren't very big. It was a good warm-up for what was to come.
We pushed off farther looking for some bigger fish and came across some marks that looked right. I called blackfin from what I saw on the sounder, but it turned out to be some of the biggest Atlantic Bonita I have ever seen. We caught 4 of them , got bit off a couple times and had some taken by larger fish. Also added a king to the tally.
Moved a bit deeper again and the sonar looked painful. I saw some huge marks mixed in among the normal stuff, and we went to work on large aj's, false albacore, almacos, and some real freight trains. We had a number of false albacore and blue runners that were grabbed by something that I am convinced were giant bluefin. I had one blue runner hooked up when it got smoked and I quickly lost a hundred yards of line before the beast let go. I got the blue runner back to the boat and it was unmarked except for a couple tuna scrapes. That scenerio repeated itself a couple times and the albies that got grabbed all had telltale tuna scrapes on them. We never were able to trade up and get a solid hook in what was eating the albies, but it was exciting for sure.
Made another move and found the mother lode of full grown reef donkeys. It was stupid fishing, and soon enough the crew needed some time off so we went looking for a snowy. Pushed off to 500 ft. and soon enough we had a nice snowy, a few rosie wreckfish, and some lesser aj's and almacos. Mission accomplished.
Ran back in towards the break and went back to work on the aj's and albies again. It was instant hookups each and every drop. We never had any monsters, and only a few broke the 60 lb. mark. But, what we lacked in quality, we made up for in quantity. The sharks started getting pretty thick so we decided to send out a rigged albacore and show a few of them who was boss as well. We fished mostly 200 and 300 gram spinal rods equipped with Stellas, Accurates, Talicas, and Jigging Master reels. The rods worked great and survived unholy abuse, and ridiculous drag settings.
We all enjoyed the beautiful day and called it a bit early due to total body soreness from the non-stop ride on the pain train. Headed back in at 35 kts. to a nice hot bowel of chili, a few beers and a handful of advil. I can't wait to get back out and do it all again.
We pushed off farther looking for some bigger fish and came across some marks that looked right. I called blackfin from what I saw on the sounder, but it turned out to be some of the biggest Atlantic Bonita I have ever seen. We caught 4 of them , got bit off a couple times and had some taken by larger fish. Also added a king to the tally.
Moved a bit deeper again and the sonar looked painful. I saw some huge marks mixed in among the normal stuff, and we went to work on large aj's, false albacore, almacos, and some real freight trains. We had a number of false albacore and blue runners that were grabbed by something that I am convinced were giant bluefin. I had one blue runner hooked up when it got smoked and I quickly lost a hundred yards of line before the beast let go. I got the blue runner back to the boat and it was unmarked except for a couple tuna scrapes. That scenerio repeated itself a couple times and the albies that got grabbed all had telltale tuna scrapes on them. We never were able to trade up and get a solid hook in what was eating the albies, but it was exciting for sure.
Made another move and found the mother lode of full grown reef donkeys. It was stupid fishing, and soon enough the crew needed some time off so we went looking for a snowy. Pushed off to 500 ft. and soon enough we had a nice snowy, a few rosie wreckfish, and some lesser aj's and almacos. Mission accomplished.
Ran back in towards the break and went back to work on the aj's and albies again. It was instant hookups each and every drop. We never had any monsters, and only a few broke the 60 lb. mark. But, what we lacked in quality, we made up for in quantity. The sharks started getting pretty thick so we decided to send out a rigged albacore and show a few of them who was boss as well. We fished mostly 200 and 300 gram spinal rods equipped with Stellas, Accurates, Talicas, and Jigging Master reels. The rods worked great and survived unholy abuse, and ridiculous drag settings.
We all enjoyed the beautiful day and called it a bit early due to total body soreness from the non-stop ride on the pain train. Headed back in at 35 kts. to a nice hot bowel of chili, a few beers and a handful of advil. I can't wait to get back out and do it all again.
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