Big Eye & Yellowfin Tuna At The Canyon, August 2016

It just can’t get any better, success after success and the ball keeps on rolling!
from Giant Yellowfin tuna to Bluefin tuna to finally an Eye Ball on the jig what a year and were not done yet, I can’t really ask for more and I am so humble and delighted as I wasn’t expecting any big prize on this trip…

Andy called me up and invited me and Paul to fish onboard with him in the Canyon.

We met at 1:15AM and by 1:45AM we started heading towards the Canyon. Made it at first light under beautiful calm condition with life all around us, from Pilot whales to Hammerhead shark to bait, the place was alive!

It didn’t take too long before we began marking fish and it was Bret’s jig that got hammerhead first. That fish was close to 80lb and came in to boat side in less than 2 minutes only to realize that it was hooked when the gaff stuck deep inside its shoulder.

We were on board at the first drift! Andy decided to set up a chunk slick while Paul and I dedicated our time to jig and pop. I jigged to cover the deeper water and Paul casted to cover the top part. We were seeing descent yellowfin tuna coming to the slick but they were keyed in to the chunk and no matter what Paul casted to them they did not take it.

Andy got tight on a live bait and ended up landing a good 70lb fish. I dropped my jig to 300 feet and I got bite at 200 feet. I was using the Hot’s drift tune glow in the dark jig matched with a CB One prototype jigging rod, had the fish to boat side and felt relieved to land my first fish of the day.

All of a sudden the mark became bigger and deeper, Andy shouted it was a big eye mark but they were deep. However, the current was to our favor and basically we had no current. I dropped the Hot’s drift tune to 350 feet and in about 300 feet I got tight, from the hit I knew it was big. The fish charged me right away going deeper with a lot of head shaking but all of sudden went all the way up to the surface. We chased it a bit and got it to the boat side to suddenly realize how big it was! While everybody was shouting it was a big Eye, Andy and Bret sank 2 gaff into it while we were all on cloud nine. I just could not believe it especially when you least expect it; I was so happy for the surprise and so happy for the success on finally landing a big eye on the jig.

We ended up with 7 Yellowfin tuna and 1 Big eye of which 4 fish of the total on the jig and the rest on the chuck and live bait. By 12:00PM our cooler was full and there was no need for more so we decided to call it off to head home on a calm sea. I’ve seen so many boat got tight and I was so happy to be part of a great day with good company. Thank you for the invite Andy! That Onslow bay boat is a killing machine and I shall see you in the Cape soon buddy…

Tackle Used:
Rod: Race Point 100, El Maestro 74XH Prototype, CB On prototype jigging rod
Reel: Shimano Stella SWB 20K,14K,8K
Lures: Bertox, Siren, Amegari
Jigs: Hot’s drift tune (Saltywater Tackle Special Color), Shimano flat side
Leader: Seaguar Manyu Fluorocarbon Leader 150lb  

  Tight lines
    Sami