Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

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Frogfish101
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Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by Frogfish101 »

Decided to take advantage of an open weather window and hot bite and booked a trip with good friend and capt Chip Baker for bluefin out of Hatteras Inlet. Chris and I drove up from Durham Wednesday night and got to Village Harbor Marina around 10 PM. Glenn joined us around 10:30, and we passed the time in the hotel room swapping stories until Chip and his dad Bizz pulled up with the boat around midnight. We all hit the sack to get some rest for the next day.

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We shoved off around 6:45, and after some precarious navigating through Hatteras inlet, we were in the open and made the 20 mile run to where the tuna have been spotted. We pulled up short of the main fleet and started to search, waiting for the Furuno to light up! At the same time, Chip took the Synit PE8 rigged with a Daiwa Dorado slider and tossed it out there to troll behind the boat. We all poked fun at him for trying to bring the fish up with a single lure...but not 30 seconds have passed and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! We all were stunned. Chip handed the rod to Glenn so that he could position the boat as the fish was taking line fast. after a 250 yd run, Glenn finally turned the fish and started to bring it in. After gaining about 150 yds back, the fish took off on another run, and the mainline parted. What a shame, it was a really nice fish...

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We went back to searching, but had trouble marking anything including bait. We dropped but nothing...not even albies or AJs. We wove through the boats trolling looking for marks, but yet again nothing. We then made the decision to try and get away from the main fleet a bit, and try and find some bottom structure that would be funneling bait. we found what we were looking for about a mile away from the main fleet.

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1st drop chris nailed the largest seabass I have ever seen. Second drop glenn nailed a fat albie. 3rd drop ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Chris hooked up. We knew right away it was a bluefin. After doing a great job fighting his first tuna on jigging gear, Chris brought a solid 90lb fish to the boat, which we stuck with a gaff. We will be having Sashimi tonight!

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Video of chris fighting his bluefin!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... 5667189873

5 minutes later I cam tight on a solid hit on a torsa40 and synit 450g rod. The fish proceeded to kick my ass over the next 20 minutes, and under 30+ lbs of drag was a stalemate. For every foot of line i took the fish took back 8". When I finally thought I had the fish broke and coming up it would take another run and sound deep. After 25 minutes on the right-handed conventional, my arms and back were burning and I had to pass the rod off. Chip proceeded to fight the fish for 5 minutes, and I took the rod back. The fish was doing circles now and finally ours. After another 10 minutes of slowly gaining line on the circle and running around the boat, We placed a lip gaff in it (after several botched attempts). We measured it at 71.5"...oh so close to 72"! But we released her safely. Glenn, who has caught many tuna this size, said it was the fattest he's ever seen, and every bit of 220lbs

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Video of the release:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 5673990043

Now this is was one of those days where, albeit the awesome action, the fish just won more battles. We got into a group of monster-class fish that destroyed us. We found some topwater action mixed in with jigs, so we were having consistent bites both on jigs and poppers. Glenn had a monster fish every bit of 80" blow up a popper 30 ft from the boat, only to have the hook pull a minute after. We all still have the image of that beast flying out of the water with Glenns popper in its mouth etched into our minds. I will never forget that. Glenn also got spooled TWICE today...something that has never happened to him before...and this is with the Stella initially set to 25+ lbs of drag.

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Because of the bigger fish, we set the drags tighter, but this led to pulled hooks. It was just one of those days...We did win a few battles, with Chris safely releasing a 150# and Glenn releasing a 110# fish.

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In the end, we went 4-15 overall. although the fish won most of the battles, it was a great day on the water with great friends. Already planning my next trip up there! I'm out...time to take another tylenol
"Our lives are defined by the sum of our ventures into the unknown."
-Juro Mukai

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killula
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by killula »

Wow what a trip 4-15 sounds like alot of excitement throughout the day. Good call on moving away from the pack and finding the fish. Im hoping to get out there soon.

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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by Miamipescador »

Nice pics.
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Frogfish101
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by Frogfish101 »

Yeah final tally was
me 1-3
Chris 2-4
Glenn 1-7
Chip 0-1

Frustrating, but we had fun
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by PhishingPhanatic »

Great report and pics.
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by fixed80 »

very nice report and pics. how do you stop the tuna with those light rods and what on earth is that new style of rods where the eyes turn to the bottom. is there an advantage or something.

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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by killula »

Those light rods have crazy amount of backbone. I own a short 5'6 500G and its tiny and light but feels like a broomstick. Honestly id have to give it a rating of a xxx 100-130 type bend. Its too much for me most times to use jigs less than 10oz. My next jig sticks will be 250G.

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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by Frogfish101 »

fixed80 wrote: how do you stop the tuna with those light rods and what on earth is that new style of rods where the eyes turn to the bottom. is there an advantage or something.
These rods are some of the most advanced rods being produced today...they have been tested and tweaked for years so that the action would be perfect. These rods have the balls to stop big fish in their tracks, yet be forgiving and light.

The spiral wrapped rods are the only way to wrap conventional boat rods IMO. Spiral wrapping gives you more sensitivity, and drastically reduces the torque on a rod when the guides are placed on top.
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by Frogfish101 »

the rods we used were:

Jigging rods:
Synit Venom 550g
Synit Venom 450g
Synit Tuna Pro 250g
Mogi Valley Hill Explorer

Popping rods:
Saltywater RacePoint Special
Synit PE8
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by plotalot »

Those are light spinning rods in regards to overall weight. Those guides are those new Fuji K frames, more than likely titanium with big $, state of the art ceramic inserts. Wrap on those guides on a heavy as in power, light as in weight, graphite blank and you get a light appearing rod.
The rod with the guides twisting to the bottom is a spiral wrapped rod or what some call acid wrapped. It basically does two things. First it keeps the line off of the rod...always. Next it eliminates any twist in the rod, so whoever is fighting the fish, doesn't have to hold it in a death grip. You can hold the rod much easier if you're not fighting torque from two different planes perpendicular from each other.
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bolo
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by bolo »

Great report. You were out of your element using the conventional. :mrgreen: Good job.
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by Frogfish101 »

bolo wrote:Great report. You were out of your element using the conventional. :mrgreen: Good job.
Yeah I wish I hooked that big fish on my Stella and Synit 550...would of been different ballgame! I was cut off by a wahoo though and just grabbed the nearest rod and dropped cause we were marking thick...
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by Frogfish101 »

rob762 wrote:Great report - enjoy the sashimi
Already finished all the toro. Enjoying some maguro tonight
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by fixed80 »

this new nice of rods are interesting. still not something i want though but just interesting and very different. i would like those jigging rods but it just feels different holding something
so light that can take down a tuna over a 100lbs. any body know what the price range is for one of those.

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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by Frogfish101 »

fixed80 wrote:this new nice of rods are interesting. still not something i want though but just interesting and very different. i would like those jigging rods but it just feels different holding something
so light that can take down a tuna over a 100lbs. any body know what the price range is for one of those.
The price range can vary from $250 to well over $1000. My Synits cost about $550 each
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by fixed80 »

oh hell thats too much for me. i guess i will just stick with the cheapo's. :mrgreen:

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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by killula »

Arent the racepoint blanks even more expensive then the synits?

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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by rshields »

Great Report and Pics-Thanks

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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by Frogfish101 »

killula wrote:Arent the racepoint blanks even more expensive then the synits?
The Racepoint blanks are about 250
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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by killula »

Really? wow, from what I hear very good quality too

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Re: Hatteras Bluefin 2/24

Post by Frogfish101 »

They are the best rods for tuna over 200 IMO
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