Fishing, still slow for most, urged me to take another look offshore. On our way to tsunami buoy, 28 miles out, we had a strike from a spearfish on the stinger. Reaching the buoy, John picked up a small big eye tuna. Josh switched out to some lighter gear for a little more sport with the tuna. The tuna didn't care to play; we missed a couple but they weren't biting.
So back to having a look around, the offshore waters looked decent. Some birds and loose bait roaming the depths looked promising.
Josh was just about finished making lunch when the long corner started screaming. A few seconds later, the long rigger came down, peeling out line. Josh and I didn't think they were yellow-fin by the way the fish were acting. Given that one of them struck a bigger lure, we now thought they could be a pair of big eye tuna.
John got his fish up first: nice healthy 150 pound big eye tuna. Christina's gave us a little more trouble. She fought the second big eye another 10 minutes before it came to leader. Our eyes just about popped out of our head when it came into view. Josh and I secured the fish, and let's just say, Christina has bragging rights at this point! The second fish looked to be close to 200 pounds, a rare and great catch in Hawaii.
Big eye tuna are spotted only a few times per year; they travel in deep water and mainly feed at night. Catching big eye tuna this size doesn't happen too often.
Coming off the rush of our catch, we had another big strike on the long corner. A quick scream from the reel and it was off. No marks on the lure, but from the hole it left, it looked to be a nice blue, or possibly another big eye.
We made it back to port and the pair weighed in at; 153# and 211.5#.
Congratulations John and Christina, your on top the board for the largest big eye tuna of the year! I don't see this catch being topped anytime soon.
Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs
www.kilakilasportfishing.com
No comments:
Post a Comment