I arrived home after Saturday's charter around 2030 after putting the Lady Diane to bed...which I thought was where I was going myself for a long rest. At 2100 the phone rings and my good friend Paul asks what I was doing tomorrow. As much as I wanted to say catching up on some much needed rest, I responded "nothing so whats up". He told me that the tuna had turned on big time on the southern and wanted to know if I could help crew on a short trip on Sunday morning. I figured I can sleep plenty when I'm dead so I made plans to meet him at 0300 the next morning.
We trailered Paul's big Whaler down to Green Harbor and cleared the jetty by 0530 only to find a stiff SE breeze putting a good size chop right on our starboard bow. Tabs down, throttle up and the big heavy whaler plowed through the slop...a little wind wasn't going to stop our quick shot at a tuna. Actually, by the time we reached the grounds the wind let go and except for a light rain it was a perfect day to tuna fish.
We had decided not to troll this day, as time was short, and would simply run and gun, using both spin and jigging rods. We arrived at the grounds and found a good size fleet dragging bars back and forth. No breaking fish were visible so we found some bait balls and dropped our jigs on them. Two pulls and I am tight...but not a tuna. The Trevala rod doubled over and after 5 minutes a nice 20 lb bass came to the surface. Since we were in federal waters we immediately released the fish after a quick photo. Paul then connected on a similar fish as did I. We moved around quite a bit but the tuna were not there yet.
On the radio we got a call from another captain who had hooked up and landed a nice 66" fish on a bar. Unfortunately today we didn't have the time to run to that area but at least we knew the fish were still around. During the next couple hours we heard the radio chatter of numerous fish being taken on the troll but no one was reporting the surface action which is what we were looking for.
On our last drop of the day I came tight on what I thought for a brief moment might be a tuna but soon realize I had tied into a large bass. The Trevala rod performed flawlessly and is great fun to fish with. After a brief 5 minute fight I landed this nice 46" 35lb bass which I happily released after a quick photo.
As we headed for the barn we both remarked what beautiful fish those bass were but how crazy it is that you are disappointed catching 20-30+lb fish after "Tuna Fever" has struck. Unfortunately, I think we both have a terminal case and its only cure is to get back on the water, chase them down and stick a few....Thats just what I plan on doing all next week!
