7/7-7/8 tuna jack report.

[LuckyStrike]

well boys it was the decision to make saturday afternoon after checking a 630 am warm water shot we decided the water that was up north in the spencer and lindy had blown out and we were S.O.L. but we decided elsewise, hey if were gotta run 100miles to get to it, why not run 100 plus to the south.. thats exactly what we did we departed cape may inlet/canyon club around 3pm and hit the tip of the norfolk 15 minutes before dark.. i threw a quick spread in to see if we could get something before we had no light left. i could barely see my inside rigger but enough to see a volkswagon leap on out of the water to grab unto my spreader bar and we were locked down and loaded for the first fish of the night, which at first with the boat in gear was causing slack... i was on the other side of the cockpit and quickly ran over to tighten up on it.. it must have been charging the boat because it immediatley took off like a shot with 25 lbs of drag on the fish and 80lb line he nearly spooled the accurate 50w we quickly bumped up to 35lbs of full drag and it was a fight for an hr with 3 anglers on the fish over 6 or 7 100yd runs + by the time we got color it was well after dark i had thrown the chunking light up in the tower so we could see what was doing below, thru hull lights were on and i saw my first glance of color... all i saw was the pure mass of the fish below.. finally grabbed the middle strand of the spreader bar and the fish didnt give me any tussle on the wire.. he was spentt.. threw a quick gaff in his head and another and 3 guys drug him over the transom of the 35 classic, after 28 years of jack willets offshore fishing he had his first bigeye tuna laying on the deck and one tired crew. the chunk at night was uneventful at 4 am i had a hit on a sardine about 35 ft down where the screen was litup, i quickly cranked down hard and inbeded the circle in the corner of his mouth 5 minutes later a 60yellowfin hit the deck, morning troll produced one more yellowfin and a mahi, then we started trolling in as far as we could do conserve fuel.. well we made it in to OC sunset marina fuel up and headed for cape may.. i wish the 35 classic had 100more gallons of fuel or so..
fish went 228 on the scales

[backman]

ahhh

I haven't seen one of those in 3 years.

Nothing like a canyon sumo wrestler at dusk....

Question - what is the 35's real range, assuming you want to come back w/ 10% of your fuel as a reserve? 250-300 nmiles?

[Petty Cash]

Congratulations. Great picture. Can't wait till I get one. How did you keep that fish cold. Did it fit in the bag or fish box?

[LuckyStrike]

thanks guys, well it was 112 to the norfolk, and didnt log on too much in the actual canyon hit the fish right away when we got on the tip and ide say itd be around 250 round trip.. but there is not something exactly right with her, we run the 35 carolina in the slip next to tuna jacks and it seems like we get much better fuel economy. it could be a weight issue im not sure, exact same engines with the 3126b. it has gottin alittle bit better but not perfect yet. were too busy bustin after the fish to find out right now, maybe in the off-season.

i dont know why we didnt put it in the canyon bag... we put the fish in the biggest SST cooler ive ever seen and its tail stuck out about a foot.. we piled the thing with all kinds of ice and laid the canyon bag over top of the cooler for insulation, once again im not sure why.. haha. ive now been to every canyon from ny-va. besides block and hydro.all in the 35 battlewagon.

[backman]

Eyeballs and coolers

back when I used to catch 65"+ bigeye ;( we would take photo op's on the deck; then gut and head the fish and lop off the tail. This left you with a managable bomb that would fit into a 128 quart cooler packed into ice. With that much meat you want to get the core of the fish chilled ASAP: epecially on an overnight.

I've caught 2 at dawn over the years and headed/gutted them and put them in a brine solution in one of the fish boxes for the ride home. Its amazing how much ice that huge warm body can melt bringing the body core down from red hot.

What was in its belly? Most of the bigeye I have caught over the years have huge squid in them as oppoed to the litle stuff you find inyellowfin or albacore.

[LuckyStrike]

backman its stomach included a few 10-11inch squid... we didnt find any of those in our lights at night, but he found them somewhere... if we were to get another bigeye im sure we would head/tail and gut the fish and pack him well.. but this being our first eyeball especially jacks after all these years he wanted to keep the fish intact.. and get a weight on it.. maybe the biggest bigeye out of our marina ever.. yet to know, but for as long as we can remember.. we stuck a plastic bag in where we made the backwards c behind his pec and jammed a picece of ice inside of the bag to help maybe circulate some coldness thru the fish, im not sure if this helped but the fish was very cold even the next day.. had some meat last night and it had to be the best tuna steaks ive ever had; no lie.

[spoolsout]

Congrats, that's an awesome catch...

[JohnD]

tuna report

Wow! Congratulations.
we went close in Sunday and put a 7 year-old neighbor on some very small dolphins and kings. His smile was a big as your fish... I think that counts too.
johnd