My first Tuna experience

1barberg · 07-20-2008, 03:12 PM

I've been watching the dogs long enouth to know you are wanting some information & a story from the new guy, so here goes. Until last year we mainly fished for bottom fish and a few salmon. My boat is a 20' Bolton W/offshore bracket & a 30 gal. fuel tank. It has a 150 hp. Yahama & a 8 hp. Yahama, high thrust, kicker. I have seperate tanks for the kicker with an adapter to plug into the main tank. As far as electronics it has a Furno radar, Garmin plotter, a bottomline Gps/depthsounder, a VHF radio.
And now for the story. We came in from a day of bottomfishing in Charleston, & had to wait for two hours at the cleaning station. Some California boys made the trip to fish for tuna. They were cleaning boatloads of tuna, virtually boatloads. While waiting for our turn at the cleaning station we started asking questions & they gave lots of information, and a couple of tuna lures. They told us to follow them out in the morning if we wanted. We wanted, we were stoked & ready. First mistake, I had forgot to ask them when they were leaving. We arrived at the dock at daylight and they were already gone. OK no problem, they had given us a terra fin map showing where they started yesterday. The water and bar were flat so off we go. When we arrived at the destination. No one in sight. Again not a problem as we were full of confidence, & they had given us instructions on how fast to troll, how far back to troll the lures, we were SET. We trolled for about 5hrs. in and out of the blue water to the green. All of us were having a great time & seeing things we hadn't seen before. The only rodholders I had were Cabela's and made of plastic. I had been told to set my drags very light and use a tether cord on my rods. This being done we thought we were ready for fish,Wrong. When we got a hit pandamonium broke out. Willie grabbed the rod everyone else was hollering out instructions. The excitement was unreal. Now Willie thinks of himself as a macho man but by the time he got that tuna stopped it must have been 900yds. out. The reel was a 6/0 penn spooled with 50lb. tuffline & it was 1/2 spooled. 5min. into the fight he told me his arms are cramping slow the boat down. I had forgotten we were still traveling 8mph. After slowing the boat he started making headway. When the fish got close I grabbed the gaff not realizing he hadn't let the drag off. When I reached to gaff the fish it went spiraling straight down. It picked his feet off the deck and had I not grabbed his belt he would have went swimming. Now that is excitment we are hooked. At the end of the day we had a 35lb tuna, a great time, and an experience of a lifetime. I don't know if you remember your first tuna but I will always remember mine.

Eaglecap · 07-20-2008, 03:18 PM

Welcome to ifish. good story.

StickFish · 07-20-2008, 04:03 PM

great first story - can't wait to hear chapter 2

snaggedup · 07-20-2008, 04:17 PM

Hope you can afford your new addiction????

Welcome

Weather or Knot · 07-20-2008, 07:46 PM

I will always remember my first TUNA! THanks for sharing the story of yours. Now that your hooked you better start buttering up to your bank manager!

Welcome Aboard

Brandon

ron m · 07-20-2008, 07:50 PM

Welcome aboard! Nice story of the CA guys sharing and you and your crew learning! pass it along the first chance ya get!!
ron m

Mello-Yello · 07-20-2008, 07:57 PM

That was a great story! I know all too well the feeling of confidence when you have flat seas and a pretty good idea what you're doing. (Stew? You out there?)

Welcome!

M-Y

Kabuki Joe · 07-20-2008, 09:04 PM

...excellent story, thanks for sharing...

Kabuki Joe

PapaHog · 07-20-2008, 09:52 PM

Great story and Welcome to ifish.

The Duck · 07-20-2008, 10:09 PM

Welome and hope we all get to expierience that feeling of tuna on again soon. Great story.

LQQKASTAR · 07-20-2008, 10:28 PM

Welcome aboard and a great story

1barberg · 07-20-2008, 10:40 PM

Thanks for the welcome

john1018 · 07-28-2008, 08:31 AM

nice story gene glad to see you made and survived.

SecondSeason · 07-28-2008, 09:05 AM

hooked and yes i remember my first tuna

greenbuttskunk · 07-28-2008, 09:08 AM

I have yet to get out for tuna this year. But trust me, tuna will die in august aboard Wy's Guy! This is a true fact.

Get the tuna fever and it really makes you a sick man.
Have fun and congrats!
GBS

Teton · 07-28-2008, 12:52 PM

Great story! Thanks for taking us with you.

I still remember my first tuna. It was a peanut on a nasty day out of Depoe.

Welcome to the dark side, and to Ifish. May your future be filled with many, many more.