Fly Fishing Forum banner

BFT Curse finally lifted

2K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  FishHawk 
#1 ·



Well I went for my 4th trip this year up to CCB to hunt Bluefin Tuna. My goal was to get one on the flyrod. Met my buddy Jared at the Plymouth ramp at O'Dark thirty and we were off. Headed east towards the SWC @ Stellwagen and started actually inshore more towards Peaked Hill. To sum up the day SLOW! We chased small groups of tuna most of the day that numbered 1-6 fish and they were not really interested in eating just frolicking and porpoising on the surface. Could not get anywhere near them with the flyrods. So around 3:00 pm. we started heading in towards Race Pt. and back to the ramp when I spot a nice flock of birds and CRASHING tuna beneath them. Jared eases me up on them and at 75 ft. I shoot a Yozuri Hydro Popper in mackerel color right into the middle of the melee. I didn't twitch it twice and I am tight then slack..... but before I could start to move the popper again another fish comes and explodes on it. I set the hook 2-3 times to make sure I had a good hookset and then the battle begins. This fish was pretty impressive and gave me all it was worth. Damn near broke me........... I was using one of Bobbers heavy spin outfits with 20-40 lb. rod and Quantum Cabo 70 with a gazillion yards of 30 lb. braid. The fish never went more than 75 yds. but when I got it close to the boat it said sayonara and headed for the bottom 150 ft. away. This went on for 45 min. back and forth tug of war between man and beast. Man eventually prevailed and we sunk the gaff into a beautiful 52" fish that I am guessing was near the 90 lb. mark or better. It was a struggle to lift this thing for the pic and I have never had any trouble before so he was a biggun. I split the fish with Jared and brought home 30 lbs. of unreal tuna meat that will not last long. I see Tuna Tar Tar in my immediate future and grilled tuna steaks for dinner tomorrow night with a nice dijon/rosemary glaze.

P.S. I used the flyrod for the first 3/4 of the day and we never were able to get close enough to any fish for a legit shot with the fly although we did make the effort 100 times. So I finally put the 15 wt. away and picked up the Spin Rod to give me a reasonable shot at reaching/Hooking one of these beasts and it paid off BIG! We also were in contact with Sean McD for most of the day he was experiencing the same thing as us picky fish and non-eaters. They arrived at the ramp just after us and i believe they came up empty....Sean please correct me if I am wrong on that as I am a bit fuzzy after 13 hours on the water with only 3 hours of sleep...........................................:0
 
See less See more
1
#4 ·
Mike,

Congrats on a beautiful fish. You are correct in that we came up empty over two days. Very frustrating to see so many fish but no organized feeds to lay a fly into. We had less than 10 shots over two days with the fly and none were what I would call money shots where you are surprised if you don't hook up. Most were more of the hope and a prayer variety. In hindsight we probably should have gone to spin to save the day but as the wind continued to build so did the bite and we hoped to hook one on fly before the long ride back. Oh, well. That's Tuna on the fly for you.

Sean
 
#5 ·
Sean,
I think had I had the flyrod ready to go I would have had no problem hooking one of the fish in that pod. But after hours and hours of coming up empty and not having any legit shots at them I had put the rod up for the day as we were heading in anyway. When I spotted the pod I ran to the bow grabbing the rigged and ready spinner and fired away crossing my fingers we could lift the curse. Wouldn't you know the fish just jumped all over the popper like nobody's business. I got Jared into another pod right after that, 20 ft. shot right off the bow and he snagged some weeds on the fly while stripping line out to cast. Fish were gone before he could reload.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top