riptide
09-14-2006, 05:47 PM
Today was a recon day for Saturdays tourney. The game was bass. Well long story short we lost the game. JJ and I ran all over creation looking for just the right bass and instead found acres of jumbo bluefish, miles of halfbeaks and a sick tuna feed.
Since we ALWAYS come prepared I hada pair of tuna rods on the boat should the need arrise while hunting bass. Around 1100 the feed went into overdrive and we had blues, beaks and bluefin all around the boat. I was trying a new idea out on the tuna. I tossed rigged ballyhoo into the halfbeak annialation and twice the tuna turned on a dime to hammer my hoo. However, it would seem they need a drop back because on both strikes the fish only got the tail end of the hoo, leaving me with a scuffed up hoo and no tuna. The other issue with this methode is the hoos don't cast as well as a plug, they give you flyrod range with a spinning rod. I will say though the tuna were very willing to eat them. A little refining and this may pan out.
While I was screwing around with my new idea, JJ was on the bow tossing a blue/white Salty's Slammer. While it didn't take long before JJ was popping the cherry on my new Penn 950SSM. The Tuna were all over the Salty Slammer knocking it clear out of the water and chasing it right to the boat. After a few casts JJ hung one of the fish with a vendetta against the Salty Slammer and it was off to the races. JJ put the screws to the fish testing my new reel under battle conditions. After 5-7 minutes I gaffed the fish (a nice head shot :brow ) and JJ had dinner for the whole dorm!
http://riptidecharters.com/JJbaytunaopti.JPG
Finally around 1230 we pulled the plug and left the fish eating. I have the flu and this weather isn't helping me any so a short day was the way to go.
Final tally 1 nice bluefin landed, 2 close calls on hoo, a ton of bruiser bluefish and no bass (which was the reason we went out in the first place) Overall a nice day of fishing even though we didn't get our primary quarry. THe water was reasonably calm and the fish were all over.
Final tally
Since we ALWAYS come prepared I hada pair of tuna rods on the boat should the need arrise while hunting bass. Around 1100 the feed went into overdrive and we had blues, beaks and bluefin all around the boat. I was trying a new idea out on the tuna. I tossed rigged ballyhoo into the halfbeak annialation and twice the tuna turned on a dime to hammer my hoo. However, it would seem they need a drop back because on both strikes the fish only got the tail end of the hoo, leaving me with a scuffed up hoo and no tuna. The other issue with this methode is the hoos don't cast as well as a plug, they give you flyrod range with a spinning rod. I will say though the tuna were very willing to eat them. A little refining and this may pan out.
While I was screwing around with my new idea, JJ was on the bow tossing a blue/white Salty's Slammer. While it didn't take long before JJ was popping the cherry on my new Penn 950SSM. The Tuna were all over the Salty Slammer knocking it clear out of the water and chasing it right to the boat. After a few casts JJ hung one of the fish with a vendetta against the Salty Slammer and it was off to the races. JJ put the screws to the fish testing my new reel under battle conditions. After 5-7 minutes I gaffed the fish (a nice head shot :brow ) and JJ had dinner for the whole dorm!
http://riptidecharters.com/JJbaytunaopti.JPG
Finally around 1230 we pulled the plug and left the fish eating. I have the flu and this weather isn't helping me any so a short day was the way to go.
Final tally 1 nice bluefin landed, 2 close calls on hoo, a ton of bruiser bluefish and no bass (which was the reason we went out in the first place) Overall a nice day of fishing even though we didn't get our primary quarry. THe water was reasonably calm and the fish were all over.
Final tally