I was not really rigged up for tuna but I did have a medium action Trophy Lure Co. Striper plugging rod rigged out with 20 # test line on an old but good Penn reel on board. I had been field testing this rod, mostly throwing plugs at blues all year. I did have my school tuna plugs in the boat as well so what the heck; it was a tranquil day with a light westerly breeze.
When I finally motored down to Thatcher Island, I found several flocks of Shearwaters bobbing along the surface with some long thin looking bait fish (half beaks) concentrating between the birds. I rigged out my rod with a 30 lb Gamma fluorocarbon bite tip and tied on a Wounded Peanut Bunker plug (from Ocean Saltwater Lures) that I had tried the year before and found that if you skipped, dropped and twitched it the right way that it was a lethal tuna plug.
I decided to hang out with the birds and see if anything developed. It wasn’t long before I saw the bait-ball come up and hide under my boat. Shortly thereafter the first school tuna came within 75 feet of the boat and moving right at me.
The first cast into the skyrocketing footballs resulted in an immediate hookup and 30 minutes or so later I boated a 42 inch, 50 lb bluefin. I revived and released my first tuna of the season! I moved back to my bird friends and the entire scenario repeated itself about 20 minutes later with the same result. Two shots two fish; that's pretty good luck!! The rod and line held and the lure lived up to the previous year’s performance.
Back to the birds; never argue with success and, guess what? You guessed it, about a half hour later another larger school of bigger fish came up through the bait-ball and I hooked up again. This time I knew it was a keeper class fish as I literally saw the fish leap out of the water and take my plug on the surface on his way back into the water. I fought that bad boy for 1 hr and 48 minutes. I walked around my boat more than 50 times before I decided that this tuna was large enough to measure and I got it close enough to the boat and gaffed it. It measured at 51.5 inches to the inside curve and weighed in at 64.5 lbs.
The next likely opportunity would present itself the next day. The plan was in motion. I decided, given the relative average size of the fish I’d seen, that I would line out my new reel with some good backing and 25 lb mono. I also figured that it might be a good idea to re-spool the old Penn as well. I headed up to Surfland and had Kay Moulton do the honors.
I paired the new and yet unused Cabelas Salt Striker SS80 reel to yet another Trophy Lure Co. rod, a 7' heavy action "offshore" rod. This rod has backbone to spare and I figured it would be just right for the school bluefin.
Dave and I left the dock at 7:30 the next morning and ran directly from the Merrimack to Thatcher. We arrived at 8:30 and found the water to be a little snottier than we had anticipated. There were no shearwaters sitting on the water and only a few various other bird types in the air. The visibility for spotting far-off fish was not good but fish that would come up within a couple of hundred yards or so would be noticeable. We slowly motored about tracking towards the few birds seen here and there. A small burst of fish came up and Dave cast his popper into the mix and hooked up. The fish turn towards Dave and dropped the lure. The next hour proved to be void of fish, birds, bait or anything else that might be perceived as “fishy”. Dave opted for a bottle of water and I decided to take the new rod out and string it up just to see how well it would cast the relatively small plugs we routinely use.
I tied on the Wounded Peanut Bunker and made a moderate cast .While retrieving the plug just sub surface I thought that I felt a “bump”. I told that to Dave and he said maybe a bluefish nipped it. I made another cast to see just how far I could throw the plug and on the second turn of the reel handle the line snapped up tight and line was humming off the reel in a big way. Dave put his water down and started the motor up and the chase was on. After regaining most of the line from the initial run the fight now became a vertical event. After 20 minutes into it and having drifted with the wind and current a mile or so the fight path took us over a gill net set. Not knowing exactly how far the nets are off the bottom and the depth of the fish I really started to put the” wood” to the fish and regained another 100 feet of line. At this juncture the fish started rising in the water column and we saw the first “color”. Dave and I looked at each other and said” this is a big fish”. Ten minutes later our perception was confirmed and the fish was next to the boat. Dave gaffed the fish perfectly in the head and both of us dragged it over the side into the back of the Aquasport. The ordeal was over; at least that part of it. The fish measured at 58 inches and was later weighed at just over 100 lbs.
After a sandwich and a breather we looked for more fish for another couple of hours but found none .The wind was picking up and we headed for home. What were the odds of casting in the middle of nothing and hooking up and landing a fish that size on that gear? The answer of course is unbelievably lucky odds. The fish was delicious and worth the almost 5 hours of messy work to process it.
Several days later I took a friend of mine out who is a very good giant bluefin fisherman who wanted to try sport fishing with light tackle for the ‘babies” as he puts it. To make a long story short we saw 2 small bursts of fish and Paul “Shad” Richard took his first baby on 20 lb test on a surface plug. By the way for a guy that has taken many tuna up to 800 lbs he was impressed with the fight and experience on light gear.
