New Jersey Bluefin tunas offer the ultimate challenge to many and to catch one on top water, one will have to be blessed with “a lot of luck”, skills and determination. Fortunate enough I know that I am fishing with one of the best Captain in New Jersey and was confident that he will put me on the right feed. He has done it in the past and I know that he is capable of doing it again this year!
During this same period last year I had the opportunity to land a nice fish on topwater with Adam and I am hoping today to set the pace of last year that was my attitude while I was driving from Princeton to Barnegat Inlet at 4:00AM.
We launched at 5:30AM and made it to the fishing ground at the right time, just when the sun was peeking out from the horizon. It took a while before we started seeing tuna rolling and crashing lazily all over the place and by the time we reached them…they went down under. We couldn’t get a good shot at them in the beginning but as the day progressed, things started to get better and better until we got into a nice feed with diving gannets and birds diving all over the place.
I made a cast to come up tight with a blue fish, we were a little disappointed when we notice that they were mixed in with the Bluefin tuna, it was pretty frustrating when we saw the blues and we all know how hard it is to score in New Jersey.
The Tunas started crashing again and this time, I saw bait flying out of the water, for a second I thought they were Anchovies or half beaks, is it possible? We all know that most of the times these fish are gorging themselves with sand eels but hey! Anything is possible!
Once I saw what kind of bait (FISH) were present, I switched right away to my trusted Moutoukenmaru Minopenmaru which was lucky enough to have the same profile as the bait.
A nice pod just busted not far away from us and in a split of a second they disappeared,
I made a cast to that same spot and saw my lure getting inhaled almost immediately,
I set the hook twice to secure it on the Race Point 200, got it to gaff within 4 minutes and Santa presented me with a nice fat 58 inch on the deck!
My day is made and now and I can rest, after a frustrating day we finally got the job done!!
I can’t thank Captain Adam enough for the incredible opportunity (we got blown out at least 2 times!) he gave me to get the job done again this year!!
Thank you Captain!!
Enjoy the pictures :)
Tight lines
Sami
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