NDR: Tuna video

Craig F

Craig F

Well-known member
Just wanted to share a fun trip I had recently offshore here in NJ. We did pretty well on the tuna and had some incredible life offshore with thousands of dolphins and large finback whales.

The seasons are changing and I just put a fresh coat of paint on the Fricke box so it won't be long now!

https://vimeo.com/75032599

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Looks like a great trip....one of these days i'll get offshore for some tuuuuuuuna.....really neat on the dolphins and whales too....was that your boat or were you on a charter?

Dani
 
Thanks everyone. We certainly had some tuna steaks to go around in the neighborhood.

Dani this was on my neighbor's boat. He duck hunts as well. We were around 100 miles off, I don't usually go quite that far on my own boat but I did have some decent trips earlier in the summer closer in.

This was a trip my dad and I had on our boat in late August:

http://youtu.be/lH68obtdAYQ
 
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100 miles offshore....wow....how long does it take you to get that far out?

Were you guys trolling?
 
Yes we were trolling, 9 rods at once and we did have five on at one point. Generally you troll during the day for tuna and drift or anchor overnight and bait fish. We just did a day trip so we strictly trolled. The other video I posted we were drifting sardines for bluefin tuna in the daytime.

That boat cruises at around 30 knots so it took us a little over three hours to get home, getting out was over four hours as it was dark and we run much slower in the dark. Little faster than my sneakbox!
 
Nice bunch of tuners Craig. Mid-day eye, wow! Nothin like a cockpit bloodbath. Although they're the "little guys" the longfins are my favorites for excitement, three guys in the boat and did I see four rods go off? Pandemonium!
 
Nice bunch of tuners Craig. Mid-day eye, wow! Nothin like a cockpit bloodbath. Although they're the "little guys" the longfins are my favorites for excitement, three guys in the boat and did I see four rods go off? Pandemonium!
Click to expand...

Thanks SJ. Nothing like having a little chaos in the cockpit. Funny story on the bigeye, 12 noon, very strange. Five rods went down, one broke off due to a bad rigger clip. We kept moving the bigeye rod around from rod holder to rod holder as it wasn't going anywhere and we just thought it was another longfin... got the three longfin in the boat and then the bigeye woke up... 45 min later we stuck it.
 
The eye was with the albacore? Haven't seen that before, they like the same water but I never hooked both at the same time. Can't say I've caught too many eyes, but your description of the 45 minute fight brings back memories. The last few years I had an offshore boat (ten years ago) I never fought a fish. I run the boat and stick 'em. It can be pretty entertaining watching a BIG 20-something guy fight a large tuna for the first time, and try to do it all with his arms. Proof that grown men do cry and ask for help. Good (or fortuitous) call on using the rod holders.

Interesting you mentioned he woke up, he looked pretty well done at boatside after 45 minutes-certainly not green.

As mentioned the albies are my favorite, fight hard but don't tear you a second butthole and they're chicken of the sea. Love the white meat easy-over on the grill.

Hell of a nice trip you had, thanks for the photos and video. Every offshore trip is an adventure.
 
We had that bigeye to color relatively quickly but it was still very green, had it at deep color for at least 25 minutes or so then it gave up. Not the best gaffing job by me but we got it in the boat.

We were in the Hudson, east side. Slow canyon season this year if you weren't way east or way south.
 
I just watched your second video (for some reason work doesn't allow access to youtube....go figger).....anyway looks like a great day of fishing. Do you ever keep any of the sharks?

Someday I will catch my first shark. I take folk fishing and they catch sharks....even my gramma has caught a shark....but not me.....eventually I'll catch one....

3 hours to get in....hmmmmmm that's a ways out....what's the roughest seas you'll go out in?
 
And what kind of sharks were you catching? I couldn't figure those out....
 
The first two sharks in that video are brown sharks, inedible I believe. The last one you can't see as well but that was a hammerhead. Makos and smaller thresher sharks are very good eating and that's about the only species you'd want to keep. Other than tuna I am mostly catch and release.

As for weather I don't go out unless the forecast is really good, light winds, small seas. I have no desire to get my butt kicked and in a smaller boat you have to know your limitations.
 
nice bigeye,
brown sharks are pretty good eating, yet are now protected and you can't keep them.

hammerheads are not great eating, only ever tried one. release all of them now.
 
Nice fish. Thanks for sharing. This has been a good year for the Bigeyes!

If you aren't already into it, you may want to try canning some of it. Popping a jar of your last bigeye or bluefin on a slow day in the duck blind can sure bring back fond memories.
 
Awesome video! I am kicking myself for never having gone fishing in the deep blue after living in NJ for 13 yrs! At least someone is getting to do it!

Anthony
 
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