Showing posts with label Bigeye Tuna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bigeye Tuna. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Born to be BFC
BFC honorary member and offshore fishing enthusiast Captain Doug Fournier is featured prominently in Yankee Magazine this month, rocking an impressive Mahoney Thumbs Up. Well done Captain Doug! Well done.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
The one that perhaps should have got away...
I think it's safe to say that we have all experienced "The one that got away", or sometimes "The one that shouldn't have got away, but did." In far fewer instances do we encounter "The one that perhaps should have got away, but didn't." I have a tale for you of just that.
It happened sometime in September out at Block Canyon, Fishtails, in what was one of the finer tuna bites of recent blue-water memory. Captain Doug, Gavin and I set-up on the chunk, which was the preferred method for enticing tuna and began our drift. It was not long till we were tight to a yellowfin on the spinning gear and following a spirited battle, by both the fish and angler, we boated the 80 lb tuna. Oh yeah, the leader broke as we sunk the gaff, but this is not where this story ends.
Behind the boat, we had attracted a different class of critter. A twelve inch squid danced in our underwater lights and while he took interest in our boat, we took interest in putting him on a hook and seeing what would eat him. A quick dip of the net and we were in business with our first live bait of the evening.
Following a brief 10 minute soak, our live squid was taken. Line ran out with pace from the Stella spinning reel and the drag was engaged, hook set! "Fish on, or off?", Capt Doug questioned, as the line seemed to limp, then came tight again with some serious vigor. We quickly found ourselves engaged in a straight up and down battle, which is typical with larger tuna. Our setup had a 100 lb leader to 80 lb braid, and on a spinning rod our intention was to play him in gradually, the ole slow and steady wins the race tactic. This is all fine and dandy except this fish had a different plan and began heated runs back from once he came - the deep. I continued to push the drag up as the 300 yd spool was growing thin, "Not long till we can see the knot on this one" I said as I continued to push the drag beyond where I wanted to - expecting to feel a sudden release of pressure as the fish broke something somewhere. However this did not happen - the fish turned and we were able to gain on him.
At about 50 minutes into the struggle, the fish was 30 yards behind the boat on the surface, line nearly straight out, we could make out his profile in the darkness with help from the aft spreader lights. He was backwards and upside down. It appeared the beast was tail wrapped or something, it was difficult to tell. "What the he...." I was cut off mid-sentence as a vicious tail slap righted the fish and it nearly porpoised as it went on it's most impressive run yet. Against serious pressure and a wet deck, I lost my footing and landed hard against the side of the boat. It is the closest I have come to being pulled over in my 5 year canyon career. Now, it was personal.
Another forty-five minutes and this fish had nearly had its fill, once again coming up behind the boat, this time a fair bit closer - 10 yards or so. "Certainly coming in backwards" Gavin remarked, and he was right. A quick gaff in the fish's head and a tail rope before he got any other ideas and over the rail! One snagged Bigeye tuna ~ 170lbs!
It happened sometime in September out at Block Canyon, Fishtails, in what was one of the finer tuna bites of recent blue-water memory. Captain Doug, Gavin and I set-up on the chunk, which was the preferred method for enticing tuna and began our drift. It was not long till we were tight to a yellowfin on the spinning gear and following a spirited battle, by both the fish and angler, we boated the 80 lb tuna. Oh yeah, the leader broke as we sunk the gaff, but this is not where this story ends.
Following a brief 10 minute soak, our live squid was taken. Line ran out with pace from the Stella spinning reel and the drag was engaged, hook set! "Fish on, or off?", Capt Doug questioned, as the line seemed to limp, then came tight again with some serious vigor. We quickly found ourselves engaged in a straight up and down battle, which is typical with larger tuna. Our setup had a 100 lb leader to 80 lb braid, and on a spinning rod our intention was to play him in gradually, the ole slow and steady wins the race tactic. This is all fine and dandy except this fish had a different plan and began heated runs back from once he came - the deep. I continued to push the drag up as the 300 yd spool was growing thin, "Not long till we can see the knot on this one" I said as I continued to push the drag beyond where I wanted to - expecting to feel a sudden release of pressure as the fish broke something somewhere. However this did not happen - the fish turned and we were able to gain on him.
At about 50 minutes into the struggle, the fish was 30 yards behind the boat on the surface, line nearly straight out, we could make out his profile in the darkness with help from the aft spreader lights. He was backwards and upside down. It appeared the beast was tail wrapped or something, it was difficult to tell. "What the he...." I was cut off mid-sentence as a vicious tail slap righted the fish and it nearly porpoised as it went on it's most impressive run yet. Against serious pressure and a wet deck, I lost my footing and landed hard against the side of the boat. It is the closest I have come to being pulled over in my 5 year canyon career. Now, it was personal.
Another forty-five minutes and this fish had nearly had its fill, once again coming up behind the boat, this time a fair bit closer - 10 yards or so. "Certainly coming in backwards" Gavin remarked, and he was right. A quick gaff in the fish's head and a tail rope before he got any other ideas and over the rail! One snagged Bigeye tuna ~ 170lbs!
How that half an inch of skin held this fish, we will never know, nor will he!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Monday, September 17, 2012
And another one bites the dust...
Since I began bluewater fishing in 2008 it has been a series of ups and downs. This year certainly had more of the latter than the former with bad weather and generally bad fishing. But on the last few trips things have really picked up on the old OI, with much more consistent action and lots of meat in the ice box.
Over the years we've had our share of successes, with just about every big game fish available in the Northeast gracing the OI at one time or another. The staples of yellowfin and mahi are frequent visitors to the fishbox. And lately there's been a strong surgence of our nightime billfish the sword.
And who could forget the 700 lb blue marlin in Veatches canyon in 2010. I certainly won't ever forget that fish.
Even the elusive wahoo has made an appearance at the OI once or twice. Mmm he is tasty.
White marlin? Definate check....
Bigeyes? You bet. Who could forget the double bigeye hookup in West Atlantis that made Clark Winchell and his First Mate Sleaveless Tee famous
Mako sharks? There have been a couple. Bluefin? God too many. Skipjacks? You better believe it!
But one species has continued to elude me. Odly enough, they aren't stereotypically all the difficult to catch. The Longfin Albacore. The Penguin. The Chicken of the Sea. Why have I never been able to put an albie on the deck? No idea. They are elusive. Or something like that.
Well Albie, today I cross you off the list. The penguin has landed. A few of his other buddies made it to the cooler as well.
The yellowfin tuna (and four more of his bretheren)
The Wahoo (Of the four we hooked, he was the only one who failed to saw through the leader.)
And there you are Mr. Penguin, with your soft chunk white albacome meat. It took a while for us to finally meet, but you're welcome on board my boat any time.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Let's Roll
Try as I might, I could not get this video to upload on the site. Please check it out on Youtube. Also note that the soundtrack is provided by Bates' own Jgromma.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HktgXOOgaw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HktgXOOgaw
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Friday, July 18, 2008
Edge-Water
"The Edge." It refers to the edge of the continental shelf, an area highly revered amonst New England offshore fisherman. At The Edge, the gulf stream water, cobalt blue and 75 plus degrees, smacks into the greener inshore waters greating defined breaks i temperture and water clarity. Tropical gamefish such as yellowfin tuna, albacore, bigeye, and blue and white marlin patrol the edge, feeding on squid, skipjack and frigate mackeral. With the bermuda high pressure system providing calm waters through the week, it was time to for the edgewater to live up to its namesake. Canyon time baby.
Based on recent intel, the plan was to run to Fish Tails Canyon to fish a 75 to 80 degree temp break. Our buddy boat for the trip would be the Tuna Nut out of Great Pond, a 33 Hydrasports Center Console. Captain Alan from Chatham would come and would provide safety equipment including an epirb and a life raft. The boat was readied with close to 300 pounds of ice, multiple rods, ballyhoo, chunk bait, squid baits for swords, spinning rods, and basically anything one would need to tangle with gamefish of the tropics. We left the mouth of waquoit bay at 150PM for the run southwest past gay head and to the Tails.
From the corner of the vineyard, the run to the Tails is 87 miles and even at our 36 mph cruise it felt painfully long. We arrived at 515 and deployed our spread of ballyhoo behind islanders and small spreader bars. A call to the Tuna Nut was positive. They had boated a white marlin. Unfortunately they hadn't seen much in the way of tuna. We worked our way southwest along the canyon edge and into deeper water. From a distance, we saw a few yellowfin bust and vectored the boat in teir direction.
The yellowfin and the bluefin are far different creatured as far as feeding paterns are concerned. The bluefin feeds much like a dolphin. Schools of bluefin will keep baitpiled up and individula fish will take turns feeding. With yellowfins, feeding is a free for all. They absolutely pile onto a spread and as a result multiple hookups are quite common. Savy canyon fisherman keep the boat in gear following the intial round of hookups so that other fish have an opportunity to take the baits. We were trolling nine lines when we passed by the first school. 8 lines got hit, five stayed down. It was complete chaos and our crew of three could only do so much to handle the agressive and powerful yellofin. We were able to bring 3 to the boat between 25 and 60 pounds. A good start to the trip.
We vectored Tuna Nut to the south and he also got into the action. These flurrys of hookups were repeated for us three times that evening and we ended the night with a good clutch of yellowfin tuna in the fish box. Small yellowfin were released while tuna over 40 pounds were kept.
The decision was made to move north towards the head of the canyon and drift south through the mouth of the canyon overnight fishing for swords. We continued to troll north along the western canyon wall. It was just about complete darkness when the outrigger clips snapped and three rods in the spread went down. My initial thought was Bigeye, the monster tuna of the canyons that feeds only at dusk and dawn. As one of the tiagras continued to dump 400 yards of line, my suspicions were confirmed. We had at least one bigeye on the line.
The bigeye is a nocturnal tuna that feeds on squid. As the squid head up to the surface during the evening the bigeyes head up in pursuit. It is for this reason that bigeyes are most vulnerable to anglers at dusk.
One rod came unbuttoned so we were down to two fish. I fought my fish to the boat where my father gaffed it. This would turn out to be the largest yellowfin of the trip, a nice fat beast of 85 plus pounds. Unfortunately No picture would be taken that night as out attention turned to the other fish that was still taking line. We backed down on the fish, put the boat in nuetural and began to gain line back. Alan fought the fish from the rod hold and after about a half an hour, we were back onto the monfilament. The fish then sounded and the next fifteen minutes went by with little line gained. After 45 minutes of back and forth, suddenly slack. The hook had pulled. We were dissapointed but still thrilled that we had the opportunity to battle this creature. As Billy Joel says in "The Downeaster Alexa"- "There are giants out there in the canyons..."
We settled in for the night drift. Two sword baits were deployed at roughly 200 and 300 feet down respectively. I chunked for a little while before giving up to enjoy the stillness of a canyon night. The sword baits were hit twice by inquisitive fish but not solid hookup came from either event. I ate a sandwich and read a copy of Big Game Fishing the Magazine while my dad and Alan slept. The night proved uneventful.
The morning troll took us back towards our yellowfin from the previous night and again these fish did not dissapoint. We boated another 6 fish before I elected to try something a little different. I rigged a ballyhoo onto my spinning rod and ran this bait off the flat line. Sure enough, it wasn't long before I was tight to a feisty yellowfin on the spinning gear. Unfortunately two crossed lines would end the fight early, but there was no lack of yellowfin action on this morning.
By about 730, we decided it might be appropriate to switch gears. We headed north to the highflier field just off the edge and onto the continental shelf. There we teased up mahi mahi using small baits and boatted several for the grill. I decided that since I happened to have a fly rod on board, I might as well hook one up on the long pole. The happy mahi were very agreeable to a fly rod presentation.
So in summary, a great intial canyon trip with 15 yellowfin landed, twice as many hooked, boat loads of mahi and a bigeye animal that was so close and yet so far. Now, I'm off to clean the boat...
Based on recent intel, the plan was to run to Fish Tails Canyon to fish a 75 to 80 degree temp break. Our buddy boat for the trip would be the Tuna Nut out of Great Pond, a 33 Hydrasports Center Console. Captain Alan from Chatham would come and would provide safety equipment including an epirb and a life raft. The boat was readied with close to 300 pounds of ice, multiple rods, ballyhoo, chunk bait, squid baits for swords, spinning rods, and basically anything one would need to tangle with gamefish of the tropics. We left the mouth of waquoit bay at 150PM for the run southwest past gay head and to the Tails.
From the corner of the vineyard, the run to the Tails is 87 miles and even at our 36 mph cruise it felt painfully long. We arrived at 515 and deployed our spread of ballyhoo behind islanders and small spreader bars. A call to the Tuna Nut was positive. They had boated a white marlin. Unfortunately they hadn't seen much in the way of tuna. We worked our way southwest along the canyon edge and into deeper water. From a distance, we saw a few yellowfin bust and vectored the boat in teir direction.
The yellowfin and the bluefin are far different creatured as far as feeding paterns are concerned. The bluefin feeds much like a dolphin. Schools of bluefin will keep baitpiled up and individula fish will take turns feeding. With yellowfins, feeding is a free for all. They absolutely pile onto a spread and as a result multiple hookups are quite common. Savy canyon fisherman keep the boat in gear following the intial round of hookups so that other fish have an opportunity to take the baits. We were trolling nine lines when we passed by the first school. 8 lines got hit, five stayed down. It was complete chaos and our crew of three could only do so much to handle the agressive and powerful yellofin. We were able to bring 3 to the boat between 25 and 60 pounds. A good start to the trip.
We vectored Tuna Nut to the south and he also got into the action. These flurrys of hookups were repeated for us three times that evening and we ended the night with a good clutch of yellowfin tuna in the fish box. Small yellowfin were released while tuna over 40 pounds were kept.
The decision was made to move north towards the head of the canyon and drift south through the mouth of the canyon overnight fishing for swords. We continued to troll north along the western canyon wall. It was just about complete darkness when the outrigger clips snapped and three rods in the spread went down. My initial thought was Bigeye, the monster tuna of the canyons that feeds only at dusk and dawn. As one of the tiagras continued to dump 400 yards of line, my suspicions were confirmed. We had at least one bigeye on the line.
The bigeye is a nocturnal tuna that feeds on squid. As the squid head up to the surface during the evening the bigeyes head up in pursuit. It is for this reason that bigeyes are most vulnerable to anglers at dusk.
One rod came unbuttoned so we were down to two fish. I fought my fish to the boat where my father gaffed it. This would turn out to be the largest yellowfin of the trip, a nice fat beast of 85 plus pounds. Unfortunately No picture would be taken that night as out attention turned to the other fish that was still taking line. We backed down on the fish, put the boat in nuetural and began to gain line back. Alan fought the fish from the rod hold and after about a half an hour, we were back onto the monfilament. The fish then sounded and the next fifteen minutes went by with little line gained. After 45 minutes of back and forth, suddenly slack. The hook had pulled. We were dissapointed but still thrilled that we had the opportunity to battle this creature. As Billy Joel says in "The Downeaster Alexa"- "There are giants out there in the canyons..."
We settled in for the night drift. Two sword baits were deployed at roughly 200 and 300 feet down respectively. I chunked for a little while before giving up to enjoy the stillness of a canyon night. The sword baits were hit twice by inquisitive fish but not solid hookup came from either event. I ate a sandwich and read a copy of Big Game Fishing the Magazine while my dad and Alan slept. The night proved uneventful.
The morning troll took us back towards our yellowfin from the previous night and again these fish did not dissapoint. We boated another 6 fish before I elected to try something a little different. I rigged a ballyhoo onto my spinning rod and ran this bait off the flat line. Sure enough, it wasn't long before I was tight to a feisty yellowfin on the spinning gear. Unfortunately two crossed lines would end the fight early, but there was no lack of yellowfin action on this morning.
By about 730, we decided it might be appropriate to switch gears. We headed north to the highflier field just off the edge and onto the continental shelf. There we teased up mahi mahi using small baits and boatted several for the grill. I decided that since I happened to have a fly rod on board, I might as well hook one up on the long pole. The happy mahi were very agreeable to a fly rod presentation.
So in summary, a great intial canyon trip with 15 yellowfin landed, twice as many hooked, boat loads of mahi and a bigeye animal that was so close and yet so far. Now, I'm off to clean the boat...
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