Thursday, June 6, 2013

Bluefin Tuna Madness Out Of The Outer Banks Part II

I have to admit that I enjoyed every bit of the last trip to Oregon Inlet; beside the good action I was lucky enough to watch Igor finishing the job by himself.
Igor for sure gained my respect and every person on board the Sea Breeze,
I guess after all the time he spend watching and observing he learned the technique and he excelled himself, a true fighter was born in my eyes,
On March 22nd we went 3 out of 5 all on topwater,
I had decided to give the Race Point 300 the work out she deserve for this class of fish and environment, Igor on the other side was casting with the Race Point 250 matched with the Moutoukenmaru when a huge fish came in and hit him like a train he set the hook and the fight was on, after a 50 minutes and under a heavy drag Igor manage to land a respectfully 82 ½ fish estimated around 270lb, I guess it was a Moutoukenmaru day,

Captain Ned shouted from the bridge that he is marking fish,
We both casted and after a Couple of twitch I saw myself setting the hook, I fought the fish and landed a 71 inch fish under 12 minutes, the Race Point 300 put up some nice heat on the fish and I was able to landed fast, first mate George had asked me earlier if it is possible when we catch a fish to donate it to the church, so the fish went for a good cause and I hope that everybody enjoyed it 

The ciaos continues with some good open bites and we come tight and loose the fish due to hook pulling but I still end up getting another fish on the Moutoukenmaru, and the Race Point 250, the fish measured 77 inches, we called the day off and headed home satisfied and happy.

March 23 we went 3 out of 7,
I decided to take a break in the beginning of the day as I wanted to focus on the camera to try to take some footage with strikes, so I promised myself that I won’t cast till I see Igor land his first fish of the day, I designated myself to be the photographer of the day but not for too long, 
Igor was fascinate by the Power of the Race Point 300, so he ask me to use it and after couple of cast he feel in love with it,
He looked at me and said this is belong to me now, I want to buy it, he wanted to buy it on the spot, 
I was delighted to hear those words and it actually gave me so much pleasure,
His trust in our products is priceless to me and I know we are heading in the right direction and there is a light at the end of the tunnel,
With all the hard work and labor it will pay off one day for sure,
Paul and I put endless hours behind the computer at the shop, on the water and for the development of rods and there is only the 2 of us that run the whole show, by the end of the day I have all the confidence in the world that we will only keep on growing, slowly but surely.
So Igor grab the Race Point 300 matched with his Carpenter Gamma 160H and boom,
Fish on, this time he decided to switch to his MC Works belt and wanted to go free style all the way, a lot of courage and big respect for just taking this initial step,
Igor fought his hefty fish and brought it to boat side in less then 25 minutes, his drag was at 38lb, the fish measured 72 inch and estimated over 200lb, it was a beautiful clean fight and my hats goes up to you my friends, you are a true champion!
I then decided to put the CB One prototype rod to the test matched it with the Zorro and the new Stella, boom fish on,
I asked Igor to cast and sure enough he came in tight, Igor’s fish was a hefty one and I can see we are in trouble, 
The fish dumped his line in a split of a second while we are struggling to tie the drag the time was running out and the expected happen; the spool was emptied before we had a chance to touch the drag!
Fascinated by the power of what struck us is the right world. 

I landed my fish under 20 minutes and it measured 77 inches estimated around 230lb to 240lb, very happy with the performance of the rod but I think it lack a bit the lifting power for this class of fish, I know Sano-san from CB One was testing a heavier model 2 weeks ago but I got the lighter version from him to test, the rod is one piece and it is light and has a nice action.
My mission was accomplished and I no longer wanted to cast, I caught all the fishes I want it on the tackle that I need to test, my mission had come to an end and I accomplished my task, I stepped out of the game to watch first mate George getting beaten by a non stoppable fish, his line disappeared in the abyss with a monster, speechless was the expression on his face! 
Igor does it again, he is tight but this time the fish took his lure 30 feet away from a trolling boat leaving the anglers on the trolling boat with a shock on their faces,
What a strike, the fish went airborne and headed to the direction of the trolling boat peeling line like crazy, in about 15 feet from the trolling boat she decided to take a dive,
It was a brutal fight that lasted over 2 hours, I was surprised to see how Igor manage to hold on for the entire fight, an amazing battle took place that put all of us in a respectful mood,
it was a pleasure to see Igor the guy who started Tuna fishing last year achieve and get to that level, after all the hassle he end up loosing the fish 30 feet away from the boat when the leader departed, another reason why we have to be aggressive to land those fish fast, the longer it takes the more it adds up to the fishes advantage to gain it is freedom, things goes wrong and it is always to the fishes favor.
As usual Igor reserved his 7 days for March 2014.
Next stop is Southern Oman 


Tackle used:
Rod: Race Point 250 & Race Point 300, CB One prototype Rod
Reel: Shimano Stella 2013 STL18000SWBHG, Shimano Stella SW 18000 
Lures: CB One Zorro 240, Moutoukenmaru, Siren, Carpenter Gamma 160H
Line: Power Pro Hollow 130lb, Sunline PE Jigger 8HG PE8, 
Leader: Saltywater Tackle System Leader
Hook: Shout Kudako 9/0

Tight lines
Sami