Rolled out of LC at 0400. Crew of young men named Brian (Bahast), Brian (nothingtolose) and John (Carolinawildman) Crossed paths with my buddy boat Woody Too (Florida BO) around 0800 around the fingers.

We sit down near the 31 fathom finger when Bo saw tuna hitting the surface. Bo and crew had hook ups quick followed by us our baits getting hammered, only one of ours came tight. 40#er in the box.

Heading east we had more hits, but all short strikes, nothing coming tight. Bo gets a double YFT, and also a herd of chicken dolphin to boot. Bo and crew bailed dolphin for a few min and I asked guys if they wanted in on it too, so we pulled baits in and got up near the woody too and caught a few chicken dolphin each. Some of my crew had never bailed dolphin before and really enjoyed picking up a few Mahi.

We got rigs out again after getting the bailer blood off the deck and wam, screaming reel, really screaming, but the rigger did not pop. I grabbed the rod and had one of the Brians bring in the rigger and I tried to pop it out with the rod and snap. Lost one tuna and mini spreader bar. Line had cut into the rigger clip, so it was wrapped on the clip somehow.

We trolled some more with nothing going for about 2 hours then wam. Dons Get Reel freaking blue and white mini bar get hammered. I have it on the long rigger and on the hardtop rocket launcher. Its screaming, and I grab the rod out of the holder and loose my footing and twist my ankle. So now Im testing my ankle and watching the line dissappear of the spool at the same time. Its seems OK, the ankle will work for fishing, but maybe not for running, I get John to come off the throttle a bit. I fight this fish for 30 min, got him up to the boat 4 times. John almost had a gaff shot at a very green and alive fish on the second time near the boat. The 4th time up, he almost got within gaff range and he ran under the boat and hit the prop. I wish we could have gaffed him, then I would know for sure how big he was, but he was as big a tuna as Ive ever seen on a boat. He made off with My only Blue and white Get Reel mini bar. Hopefully Don will make good on that 75% off he gives members of the supporter forum.

No hits the rest of the day. Man I love this fishing thing.

At least you got some meat on the boat. Sounds like you guys had a great time out.

Tom

Eric,

Sorry to hear that man!! Let me tell you something though, these fish this year are brutts. Most aggressive tuna I've seen for this time of year. And these fellas ain't small. You'll get 'em.

Sorry I didn't get back with you Sat night...got back to the dock around 10:00pm.

We second guessed ourselves the rest of the day on how we could have done the big tuna differently. Taking the boat out of gear was a choice we could have made. Not horsing him up to the boat was another. Everytime I got the Fish by the boat it looked like he was going toward the prop, I ran around the transom probably 20 times.

After a 3 hour fight my wife had Sunday morning from 8 am to 11 am, we too are second guessing ourselves on what we could have, should have done differently. Some days you are the bug, and some days you are the windshield. This is why I love this sport...you never know what is going to hit your spread and you have to be ready for anything. There is a certainly a big class of BFT, YFT, and Big Eye out there. Nice job.

Thanks Mike

Too bad that sword forgot that he was supposed to swim either down or out after eating a squid.

Im trying to get lessons learned from this trip. One lesson was that I need to limit my rods being run off the hard top. It was pretty dangerous getting that rod out of the rod holder up there with the drag screaming.

I've been second, third, fourth guessing what we should have, could have done on that fish.....give the boat a little more throttle to get him off the transom and drag him a little to wear him out...or should i have slapped the gaff to him while leaning over the rail in a big way.....the fish looked big enough and green enough to drag my old butt right over board......oh well....we'll get em next time.

Great day on the water....glad I picked up that natural 9" squid daisy chain on a whim....it put a little meat in the box.....

what eric did not tell you was we came around them to snap some pics of him fighting the tuna, and i snagged one of his islanders on my outdrive. no damage to me, but his lure was a different story!

i sure hated see the look on yall's face after you lost that big fish! heart breaker brother ... heart breaker! we ended up with four nice tuna on the day, and a boat full of chickens!

bo

i will post pics later ...

Hey what's an islander or 2 among friends.

What I really want back are those 2 spreader bars those tuna's ran off with.

That bites losing that biggun eric ! Just means you gotta get back out there and find another one. Great reports guys!
DB

From all the reports I've read from the past week - mine included - I'd say them tuners got the best of everyone on this go-round.

Rich

Yeah

Im off to the gym

Last week I lost two big tuna at the fingers for precisely the opposite scenario of taking the boat out of gear ,resulting in major tangles with the lines we had not yet cleared. I'm still looking for that day when every strike hooks up and comes into the boat. Every year I come up with a list of things I'm going to do differently next time. Every year i seem to relearn the same lessons. Tight lines!!!! Bob

Pretty work Eric. A lost fish like that makes the next caught one that much sweeter! And I agree with Don. This is an unusually large and aggressive class of yellowfins this year. What's really gonna be interesting is the fall run when these fish have put on another 20 - 25 pounds and they head back down south. Could be a lot of tuna paper handed out this fall. October could be real interesting off shore.Tight lines and good luck!

after my 7 hr lose I toke my wife and nephew and buddy of mine son to the M&M today and had a blast with them catching big corkers
if i could a should of I dont know If we got the gaff in the big eye if we could have got him in the boat hope to find out one day thou so I got to go back to the big water I would say the fish won this week end

Good job Eric and crew..way to get em in the boat....be carefull getting those rods down off the tower....it's a great place to run them but shaky getting em down...Bob

Eric,

You will be needing more welding rod soon. Those blue and white mini spreader bars are the best!!!!! We got skunked Sunday,, fished down at the hot dog and then up to the 21 finger then home, was the first trip on the new felixthekat, the only thing that didn't work were the clips on the outriggers, couldn't get them to hold, will replace them today with some that will hold. You would think for 75 bucks that the set would have some good clips, oh well the mono worked.

Congrats on a good day.

finally got a chance to download some of the pics from sunday. i got some decent action shots of eric and the roll tide, this one is right before they lost the big-un. really was a fun day!

bo

Nice pics, probably drew a crowd @ the fuel dock! Congrats again
DB

Nice pics Mr. Florida !!!! Going to miss you dude....had a great time...

Great pictures and report. Sorry to hear of the lost big one but it has happened to me more than once --at least you hooked him, that's the main thing.. Not that we are experts, but this approach has helped us when hooked up to a "big un".

1) Keep an experienced person on the the helm and throttles at all times-it is fun to run to back and see what is going on - but it usually then, when bad things happen.

2) We don't stop or run ahead- but both -I bump in and out of gear to hold the fish at about a 30 angle to the back corner of the boat - AWAY from any running gear or engines. Stay on the controls --bad things happen fast.

3) Use wind-on leaders.DO NOT touch that leader, let the rod bring him up. The minute you touch the line with your hand, the fish can feel it go nuts with the change in pressure- right here is where leaders or main lines part.. Wiring up 25 to 50 lb tunas are managelable, but a really good one is very difficult to wire properly and is almost impossible for the wireman to gaff as well. On a real good fish the charter captains come off of the bridge to help gaff.Two man operation for sure, if you are not using wind-on's

4) As soon as the wind-on connection comes out of the water- back off the drag som (below strike), I've lost a couple, with a last lunge by the fish that snaps the main line.This is particularly a problem with inexperienced anglers who are excited and want to see what they caught. Often what they see, is the spreader bar swimming away.

Try to get the gaff shot in the shoulder or just behind the head and get the head up. On a big one if the head gets much down, either the gaff, you, or both are going out of the boat. (I have some personal experience with this event)

No lecture intended. Just some suggestions born of experience.

Maybo some other guys have big fish suggestions. BobDu is a big eye man. How do you get them in the boat, Bob?

Kent

I was ready to search the boat for a certain long yellow fruit after that beast got away.
I've thought it through a hundred times and what if'd and what if'd myself crazy for the past few days. That was a big fish and losing it sucks, but we still had a damn good day.
I'll be enjoying the sashimi and ceviche all week. It was good fishing with yall, here's
the few pictures I got.
bryan

The pic of the tuna is smudged from fish slime on the lens. Sorry for the late reply, comcast has been acting up on us.

Great shots, how much fuel did you burn Bo?
DB

hey eric .... why is tha rod bent in half?

great pictures bryan, can you email them to me? you can get me at bogorham@yahoo.com? It would be most apreciated!

awesome shot of the woody too in full battle armour, and john flipping the mahi over the rail, with tom hooked up on my boat. very cool!

doug - our burn for the day was 137 gallons. i still had 35 in reserve when we made it to the dock. I was figuring the burn was going to be 125, but we ended up running about 1.5 hours more than i was planning. trust me, i was all over the fuel flow meter throughout the day making sure we were in the green!

tell you what though, the autopilot was a god-send. i put a raymarine s1000 on the boat this winter, and have been dialing it in. the stupid thing works fricken great! I was able to run it from the roof of the pilot house when we were scouting for fish trolling. and it made the ride out so much easier. i highly recommend the product!

that was just plain too much fun ... let's do it again!

bo

sure, let me buy more lures

Bummer. Hope your ankle gets better soon!!!! This time make two b/w bars!!!!

I know, I know I know.

I was building another one out of 6 inch bulb squid the night before, but left my crimper on the boat.

Everyone should have a couple of Dons get reel mini bars in dolpin and Blue and white. Ive been out way too many times and had only hits one those mini bars. I have read about many reports of sucess. They rock.

damn ... hope don has the factory fired up. i guess i better get one of those things myself. i did see allot of blue and white squids being pulled around out there!

bo

That picture of me with the bent rod. There is a big YFT with a blue and white shooter mini bar in his mouth on the other end of the line.

See the time of this post...and I ain't fishing...factory is on-line!!!

Great pics fellas!!!

Don

Good to see you are working!!!

I need enough to build 2 more B/W bars.

i want one too don! -bo

Owen I think I have the same taco kit for mine. The clips did not hold, so I tightened them down more and then one did not break free. The mono ate into the plastic, so when I tried to bust it out with the rod, it cut the line.

Lost big tuna #1.