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CCB Tuna again 9/17/07

2K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  BigDave 
#1 ·
Well Bobber and I made plans to fish CCB once again for some SBFT. We left Bob's on Sunday night around 8:00 pm or so. Due to some unforseen misfortunes we didn't make it to Plymouth until around midnight. Got to sleep for a few hours and were on the water by 5:00 am. Headed SE from Plymouth towards SWC looking along the way for the many schools of surface feeding tuna that had been reports in the days previous to our trip. Did not see any along the way. Around 7:00 am. while we were jigging butterflys Bob's friend Joe hooks up with what we figured was a big striped bass. He asks us for the fighting belt and we give him the business about being a wussy and to just land the damn bass. Well he fights this thing for another 15-20 minutes when we finally get an eyeball on the "Bass". Man Bob and I had a good laugh for quite awhile when we saw a 50+" Bluefin Tuna on the other end of Joe's line. Man was that funny. Poor Joe was dying without the belt and we wouldn't give it to him Now we know why he was asking for it, he did keep saying he never had a bass fight this hard before........ Well we put about 110 mi. on the boat and found only a few scattered small schools of surface feeding fish and we could not get within casting distance of them before they would go down. We ended up back at SWC later in the morning and Bob hooked up and landed our second tuna of the day this one went 45" and about 70 lbs. or so. I never hooked a tuna all day although I had the 15 wt. flyrod rigged and ready. So my third trip up this year and I come up empty again which is really disappointing but that is tuna fishing and you got to have some serious patience if you want to fish for these guy's the way that we do. I had a blast again and want to thank Bobber for letting me clean the fish for him and Joe at least I got to touch a couple of tuna.









 
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#3 ·
Juro,
You are right and thank you for trying to make me feel better but it was a fish I have caught many times before and catching it deep jigging and not on the fly was even more disappointing. She was 43-44" pushing 30-35 lbs I would guess, we couldn't find the tape measure so I have to just go on my experience. I got one other bass that was in the mid 30's and that was it for me. Still a fun trip and seeing the whales and tuna is always a huge joy. All the bass were released unharmed as they were in the EEZ and we didn't want bass anyway............:)
 
#6 ·
All the bass were released unharmed as they were in the EEZ and we didn't want bass anyway............
Josko,
I am fully aware of the regs but when you are jigging for tuna and pull up a bass what are you supposed to do???? I think we did what we were supposed to do and that is release the fish unharmed. I appreciate the reminder but frankly I have been doing this awhile and I am fully aware of all the regs associated with my passion.
 
#8 ·
I think the letter of the law requires an in water release. I jigged up a few a couple weeks ago while tuna fishing with my dad and the fish never left the water though we did make the fish wait a little bit for in the water pics. I think technically we were wrong to even do that.
 
#9 ·
Hawkeye,
I believe you are correct but as far as I am concerned a quick pic is not going to hurt anything. If it were middle of the summer and hot I would not remove the fish from the water at all. The other bass was released unharmed at the side of the boat by the way. And to be honest sometimes it isn't feasible to release a fish in water at the side of the boat and I believe the DEP would understand if it were rolling big and I landed and quickly released the fish from the deck for safetys sake, if not oh well I'm not killing fish just catchin and releasin'.
 
#10 ·
Yeah I have zero issue with taking pictures - landing and releasing - just being nit picky about the reg. I actually think it is ridiculous we can't keep these fish in the eez - it's not like its a spawning ground or anything special like that.
 
#12 ·
Mike nice report and pics. Funny story about the guy thinking it was a bass...not quite sure how you could confuse the 2! I had one dump a solid 275-300 yards on me last week on the first run. Stick with it and I'm sure you will get one :smile:

That is a huge bass!
 
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