Pink Metallic Sardine that used to catch the 340lb Bluefin by Robin.
We went on a bluefin tuna fishing trip aboard the “On Time” with Capt. Jim. It was a beautiful day with very calm seas and minimal winds. The day started out with my son, Robin, jigging too close to the bottom and hooking a couple of dogfish. At approximately 9 AM, Robin called out that he had something hooked. At first, he stated that he didn’t think it was a tuna because it was coming up easily. After about 15 turns on his reel, the fish charged out about 100 yards. At this point, everyone on the boat yelled that it was a big tuna. My son and I took turns fighting this fish. We landed it in approximately 25 minutes, due to the line wrapping around the tunas tail and rendering it useless for the last leg of the fight. As soon as the fish breached the surface, I yelled for the gaff and we were able to harpoon it and bring it into the boat. The bluefin tuna was an absolute beauty, measuring an impressive 79 inches and weighing approx 340 lbs. This tuna was caught on a pink Metallic Sardine jig. My record for biggest tuna on a jig has been 77 inches up until now. My son has beaten this record by 2 inches and I am very proud of him. Congratulations Robin!!
After landing the first tuna, we continued to jig and we also put some bait fishing rigs in the water. At approx 10 AM, another tuna hit one of the bait fishing rods. This was a classic tuna fight. We would take back about 10 feet of line and fish would charge out about 10 yards. We continue this for about an hour and a half. Afterwards, we were finally able to bring it to the surface where Jim harpooned it. We all sighed in relief after this long and hard fight, but then danger!!! The harpoon slipped out of the flesh of the tuna and the fish went back down to about 60 feet. I stopped it and reeled it back in. Luckily, it wasn’t putting much of a fight this time around. I brought it back up easily and Jim harpooned it again and this time it was a firm hold. This bluefin tuna turned out to be another big one, measuring 74 inches.
Overall, it was a great trip and some records were topped as well. We couldn’t ask for anything better. Great weather and lots of fish!! We all came home with smiles on our faces. I guess this trip makes up for all the times we came home empty handed.
