TOADSTOADSONLY! S.W.A.T BFT Mayhem Massacre with another PB Tuna
Last year I was sitting on the sidelines while all of the private boaters had a chance to land a fish of a lifetime I was scrambling to find a boat so I could have a crack at these BFT. I told myself last year IF these COWS show up again in our zone I am going to do whatever it takes to land one. Two weeks ago I took 3 weekdays off of work the plan was to chase the Bluefin Tuna for 4 consecutive days.
Day 1: I tow my boat to Shelter Island and fished on my buddy Billy Keleman's Parker, we roll up to a kelp paddy and he hooks up instantly to a yellowtail. He kills it in about 10 minutes and his buddy Sammi G has his professional Canon camera on him an was showing us how fishing photos supposed to be taken properly. I had the gitters and couldn't wait for Sammi to finish taking pictures so I cast a sardine out with my Phoenix Bass Rod, a Shimano Talica 10, and 25 lb Seaguar Inviz X. I put the boat in gear and start slow trolling back to the paddy when we saw a huge swirl erupt on my sardine right before my clicker start smoking ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZ....................................!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I pick up my rod the the fish dust 3/4 of my spool with my light line. We all knew this was not a yellowtail and we were kinda chuckling thinking about the massive fish that hit my bass rod. We do the shuffle and Billy does a perfect job backing down on the fish after a 45 minute battle he sticks the pig we put a 2nd gaff in it and hoist it over the rail. Everyone was in disbelief and hardly could believe that I was able to land this TOAD on the light gear.
Day 2:
This is one of the jaw dropping moments in my life I live for.
We buddy boated on this particular day so we could cover more ground. Billy had Ali from the other well known fishing website BD and Sammi. On my rig we had Jerry G, Ben Okazaki, and myself. We busted our butts off all day and ran all over the beautiful pacific at about 3:30 my spidy senses said we need to run to the 181 ridge. About 4 miles from the ridge we started seeing large spots BFT while slow trolling we saw 200 lbers flying 3' in the air full body out of the water. We run up to a couple spots of crashing fish and was unable to make it happen. On our third school I gave the boys the run down lets sneak up on this school SLOWLY turn off the radio, turn off the stereo, I don't want to hear any sound. We slide into the school I whisper to Jerry G to bump the boat forward a bit to get within range. I tell Ben go for it Ben he launches a colt sniper into the puddling 150-300 lb fish I immediately followed it up with my Halco Rooster 195 Popper we gasp in silence. Pop.... Pop....POP..... A TOAD comes full body out of the water 20 yards off my bow and crash on my popper I crank down as fast as I could crank crank crank some more until my line comes tight. Hookup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My rod loads up the fish takes some line and I am still cranking on my 10' Phoenix Abyss Rod paired with a Shimano Trinidad 16 1st gen reel with only 40 lb Stren Magnaflex mono. I start putting the wood to the fish and short pump it to about 30 yards from the boat and yell to Jerry G GET THE GAFF I am going to kill this fish fast shes going to die!!! The pig comes 20 yards from the boat and says "HELL NO" the big girls smokes about 400 yards of line. At this point I am in for the battle of my life AGAIN with the wrong gear. I battle with this beast for 30 minutes when she settles into her death circle, with a single speed reel I know every inch of line counts I crank fraction of a crank at a time using the rail technique inching her to the boat. The death circle getting smaller with every feet of line I gain I look out and yell COLOR Ben gets the 2nd gaff Jerry G standing as backup Four more circles guys I tell the salty crew. Two more circles wait.. Wait.... WAIT..... Go Go GO! Ben sticks the fish in the chest with a great gaff shot. The fish goes ape **** and rips the gaff out this was not my first rodeo and know this stuff happens. The fish sounds 20' under the boat it does up side down death circles I work the beast back to the boat this time Ben makes sure he lands a perfect head shot, Jerry sticks its it with a the second gaff in the head we gasp and count 1..2...3..... they attempt to hoist this behemoth Bluefin on board and was struggling I grab the tail and we hear a thud when she hits the deck. We pause in a moment of silence taken back on the size of this Bluefin and we all yell scream high five and hug it out. We cannot believe what we have just achieved on the light tackle after hearing all the lost 5-10 hour battles in the past year. What was even more amazing was Jerry told us to pop him a beer, he has not drank a beer for 15 years (not because alcoholic reason but by choice) so he, Ben, and I sit there in awe staring at our catch just taken back of what the fish gods has offered us.
Catching a fish of this magnitude is definitely not a one man deal every person on the vessel has their job and it takes a team a well greased crew to land a beast this size. I couldn't land a tuna this size without the help of Jerry G and Ben between clearing the deck and driving the boat the only reason why I landed this fish in less than an 45 min was because we stayed on top of fish and did not give it any room to breath. Pull harder than the beast and you will break its will to live and the tuna will give up. Do not ever let it get cozy in the thermocline or it will sit there and get comfortable and you will be in for a long long battle.
We decided to preserve the fishes meat and bled and gutted the fish Ben and Jerry said you should eat the heart "WHY NOT, I'll AT LEAST TAKE A BITE".
After dressing the fish I spot a bird school about a mile away one of my buddies recently recommended that I purchase a pair of high end stabilizer binoculars and this has increased my chances substantially. With my new Fujinon Stabi bino's looking out into the horizon for a kelp paddy or foamer school is like looking out your kitchen window. They are well worth the $$$.
I was supposed to stay in SD for 2 additional days but opt to head home and get some rest and clean my prized catch. .
Day 3: I skipped fishing Friday and and started the journey on Saturday. Once again we ran about 160 miles and burnt 80 gallons of fuel but the BFT did not want to cooperate on this given day. We found a huge kelp paddy and punked away at yellowtail at the 181 until we got tired of catching them. It was one heck of a week and I was 100% content with how my week went. On the way back from SD I pulled over to get gas in Dana Point when I pulled up we saw a truck with three guys around it in the bed of the truck there was a 200plus lb BFT in it. I went to talk to the guys and they were spear fisherman and said they caught it straight out of Dana at the 289. Talking about dumb luck... I was not planning to fish Sunday becasue I was so beat from the week.
Day 4: We decided to take it easy, my buddy Dave Foster and I decided heck let sleep in and we will leave when we leave. Launched the boat at 2:30 PM got to the 289 around 4ish to see bird schools everywhere I decided to slow troll macs around the schools and whammo my International 16 loaded with 100lb spectra to 130 flouro gets slammed and starts screaming. Dave picks up the rod and tells me to take it for some reason he did not want anything to do with it. He backs the boat down I make short work of this 100lber and kill it in 15 minutes on the right gear.
What an unbelievable week I set a goal to catch some monster BFT and ended up catching 3 over 100lbs.
Stay Tuned for the next report some of you already heard what happened this week, stuff that dreams are made of.
ToadsToadsOnly
Go Big Or Go Home
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