Well, I installed a new fuel pump in the Boma and was hoping that would fix my bogging out problem after a few hours out there. Steve had a ride on his buddy's nice Parker and I just needed some quiet and solo time to get my head right. My plan was to run to the kelp, pick up bait and shoot offshore looking for paddies and trolling.
Everything went to plan and I loaded up with about 2+ dozen Spanish and headed offshore. The bulk of the fish have been off Oceanside, but I was planning on finding my own fish. The motor ran good, but I was still a few hours away with the motor running to see if it was the solution or not.
NO BIRDS
NO PADDIES (I stopped on a 3' stringer for nada)
NO MARINE MAMMALS
...for the next 2.5 hours.
Then a saw a big hooked fin swimming at the surface. As I got closer, I saw it was a Hammerhead, so I was like WTF and cast at it. All of my rods had trolling gear hooked up, so I grabbed my 25# stick and lobbed a Spanish out.
In about 15 seconds I was hooked up!
I was d!cking around trying to take pics of the bendo and reeling in my trollers that I let sink out. He fought for about 15 minutes and took me around the boat 3 or 4 times when I started getting close. My plan was just to cut the line after a quick pic, but when he popped out from under the boat it was a 35# class Yellowfin Tuna! Holy Crap!!! I dropped the camera and tried uncorking the gaff while trying to get it out of it's spot. I was not prepared to see a big ass YFT and I cant' believe I was d!cking around with it the way I was. As he was on his last circle to the gaff, I got 4 inches from his ass when the hook popped out! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! He was stunned and I almost free gaffed him, but he got his bearing and was gone...
Instead of sulking I hooked up another and cast it out. Lose one...Rig One...
I looked at the screen and I saw a bunch of marks!!! WTF?!? This screen shot was seconds after I had about 40 tuna under the boat. I couldn't get me camera working from dropping it.
Just then my rod goes bendo and I'm on again! I had to maneuver the boat a lot because he was kicking my ass on the 25#! I was about 20 minutes into the fight when a sport boat sees me bent over and literally stopped right on my ass. I have the pic of them, but I figured I would fish their chum slick and they would have no beef to say a f@cking word about it. I was just over 30 minutes when I finally got a swing on the gaff to this beast of a Bluefin!
I look up and birds are everywhere and fish are busting water all around me! I threw him in the cooler and attached the bungees and rigged my 40# outfit. Next cast and BAM! On again!!!!! I wish I had the 40 for that Bluefin as I was whooped, but didn't want to stop!
10-12 minutes later and I get (what I thought at first) was a Yellowfin Tuna! This one was only 24# and quite smaller than the one I lost.
I then looked up to witness one of the coolest things I've ever seen on the water. My guess is purely speculative as I have no way to judge fish this big, but what looked to be 100-150 pound Bluefin started crashing on bait and looked like Fiats falling in the water when they landed! I was frozen in awe!
I ran the boat over as my finder when blank and the sporty saw it also so started to make a move. Just then my boat motor went sluggish and I couldn't recoup. This was a hard decision as I had my cooler stuffed and a LONG SLOW ride back to the ramp in pretty nasty swells as well as the wind was picking up, so I called it quits and trolled back to the docks. It took me 2 hours to get back, but what a great feeling to finally get back to the ramp safe and sound.
Got home to a lot of work in front of me, but what a cool sight. My wife could not believe I caught them on my boat after I couldn't even catch them that big on my buddies offshore boat! LOL
I put a new battery in my digital scale and went for the weight. My digi scale must be going out or something as the new battery said it was dead and would only show for 15 seconds before automatically turning off. In that short time, I got 24# on the (70% sure Big Eye) and 47.2# on the Bluefin! I need to get a new scale as I had to call my wife out and read off the numbers since I was having trouble holding it.
As I was cleaning the tuna, I checked the bellies. The Bluefin was PLUGGED!!! With Tuna Crab and nothing else!
The "Yellowfin" was plugged with finbaits! This Spanish wasn't my mackerel as It was partially digested, but it was loaded!
Just then I notices something weird. The liver looked diseased or striped on one side. I thought the thing might be going into liver failure or something, but tossed it in the bin as I was wrecked from the day and still had to cook dinner. As I was thinking about the fish, I thought maybe that was a Big Eye instead of a Yellowfin? I went back into the garbage bag and tried to take pics of the liver, but my back was killing me from being bent over so the pics didn't come out too well.
So the fin was extra long down the body past the anal fin almost and I saw weird stripes on one side of the liver. I'm not 100% sure since I have never seen a Big Eye liver before, but I feel better than 70% confident it is a small one! I'm thinking I might have a new species on top of that which would make 3 tuna species on the Boma!
I need to take the week off as my back is really hurting today and I do not want to go through another surgery if I could help it.
Until next Tuna Tide!