5 Brooklyn blokes Sami, Evan, Arkady, Ilya and myself left for North Carolina in search of a cure for cabin fever.
We found it, winter blue fin casting.
I fished with Captain Ned last year and they were hot on the jigs and only one big eye was caught on the surface.
This year however, was a different story altogether. We had 6 blue fins on topwater and 1 on jig.
We left the dock at around 7 and the waves was calling in at 4-7 ft, no problem for the 58ft sportfisherman Sea Breeze.
We left the inlet safe and sound the breaks from the shallows were kind to us.
Sea Breeze went 38-40 miles offshore to the fishing grounds.
We saw gannet circling everywhere and big, I MEAN BIG HAMMERHEADS were EVERYWHERE!
At around 8:30am Captain Ned shouted from the bridge “marking fish at 30ft” we decided to cast instead of jig for them and try to raise them to the surface.
BOOM! Ilya was on! Sadly his orgasm lasted a mere 10 seconds and he was cut off.
We continued the search for them and again we had a called from Ned from the bridge.
Stickbaits started whizzing in the air, BOOM BOOM! Sami aka tuna terrorist and Arkady was on!
Arkady had a loose drag and lost the fish when it went under the boat. Sami’s fish chomp on the Moutokenmaru lure and by this time was winching in his fish on his new Souls rod PS-075P3CS
After a brutal 20mins…the fish was brought in and it measured a whopping 68” in length and 50” in girth and weighed 196.5lb (according to tuna weight calculator) when we weighted the fish at the marina it came out to 175lb without blood, guts and gills.
Another drift and everyone was casting their lures out in the water except Evan, he dropped a sevenseas hooker 1 speed darter jig which was attacked almost instantly.
Armed with his trusty WGJ50H he fought the fish estimated at 175-180lb slow and steady for 40mins before we released it to where it belongs.
Lady luck was smiling at Sami as he had another fish on the next drift, the fish was estimated at 135lb and was release after 7mins.
The next drift was something what I would call amazing fishing! 4 of us was hooked on at the same time, Sami, Ilya, Arkady and yours truly.
The 2 left standing was myself and Ilya, Ilya had his fish in the corner while mine that took the Souls Kanade lure was darting all over and i had to scramble left and right with the Smith Tokara60 to keep up with the fish.
After 25mins of scrambling and going over and under Ilya, my fish was brought up, estimated at 175-180lb and was released safely.
Ilya’s fish that fancied the Yozuri Bull GT popper was up after 45mins of grueling pain with his Zenaq Fokeeto 76-4 and estimated at 180lbs.
George our ever helpful mate had a good time battling with one of those brutes when he had one on.
Arkady who had been quiet all this while was greeted with a nice fish when we were doing our last drift.
With his new tuna rod from Souls and his favorite Tailwalk Gunz lure he fought the fish with ease and made it look so easy. It was estimated at 160lbs before we released the fish safely.
Alright 7 fish on and 7 lost, I know it sucks to lose the other 7 but it was total chaos when you have up to 4 anglers getting hooked at the same time.
Nevertheless every single one of us had at least a fish that will be discuss for the next few sashimi lunches and dinners.
Ok now, the tackle that we were using,
Rods – Souls Performance Studio 16 , Smith Tokara60 and Smith WGJ50H
Reels – Shimano Stella SW’s 18000 – 20000 and FA’s 100000 – 20000
Lures – Orion, Moutokenmaru, Souls Kanade, Souls Brabus, Garyukobo, Tailwalk Gunz and Yozuri GT Bull.
Jigs – Seven Seas hookers.
We would like to thank Captain Ned Ashby of Sea Breeze Charters and helpful mate George on one of the best trips we had for tunas since last summer!
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