Tuna Tales

Had the opportunity to join a few friends on a "light tackle" tuna trip off the coast of cape cod this morning.  We left the dock around 4:45am and were soon greeted by a stunning sunrise.

We made it to the fishing grounds soon after and were immediately surrounded by breaching humpback whales.  The still mornings silence was interrupted by spouting blow holes and tail slaps from all around us.  We marked tuna on the sonar and started making casts with large spinning gear rigged with near-surface plugs.  We had several tuna follow our baits, but no takers right away.  

The number of whales in the area was nothing short of incredible, at any point throughout the morning we had one or several pods in eyesight.  Some as close as 50 feet from the boat.

Finally we got a tuna to play ball! Capt. Dom hooked it on a jig below the boat and the battle began.  He passed the rod to George who dealt with several blistering runs and got the fish below the boat before he threw in the towel and handed the rod off to Tom.  They say these fish will test your tackle, One run under the boat by the fish while the rod was at just too high of an angle and it exploded, as if landing a 100+lb fish wasn't hard enough!

Tom's arms couldn't handle it anymore and he passed the rod to Jim, who brought the fish home, short rod and all!

The bluefin tuna was just legal size to keep, Tuna between 60" and I believe 72" need to be released, Ours was just under the 60" mark and Capt. Dom estimated it to weigh around 130-150 lbs. A truly impressive creature (and a delicious one at that) Tuna sashimi on the gunwale of the boat during a lull in the action. Soy sauce and wasabi are kept aboard for such reasons.

In addition to the tuna we caught and released several striped bass in the 20-40lb range. All caught incidentally on the same plugs we fished for tuna.  According to regulations the bass can't be kept farther than 3 miles from shore and aren't to be removed from the water more so than necessary to safely remove the hooks.  Tom and Capt. Dom unhooking a bass in that weight range.

With good reason, several whale watch boats out of cape cod were using the same area.  Here are some customers getting what they paid for!

It was a great day on the water.  Lots of great sights and a cooler full of tuna! Thanks Capt. Dom, Jim, George and Tom for making it a fun day on the water!


The End