Tuna Biomass - When Fate Bends You Over (9/19)

[Latimeria]

I got word from the secret circle on some numbers with jumbo bluefin.  This sport boat captain was heading in but said 150-250 pound class fish all over.

Right away my buddy and I packed up and headed out to the numbers looking for the one!

The skyline was beautiful, and the Moon/Venus/Regulus triad was incredible!



Conditions were right and we stopped at an empty paddy here and there but continued to chug our way offshore.



About 10 miles short of our numbers, we stop at a paddy and start hearing what sounded like marbles in a blender.  There was nothing on the paddy, but we did some checks on the motor and then it stopped making the noise.  We decided to just troll and not open it up just in case. 



Well, now the noise tripled in sound and the vibration was Terrible!  Just then we saw 150-200 pound BFT blowing up about 150-200 yards away and we couldn't move over 4 mph....  GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

My buddy said it'll take over 6 hours at 4-5 mph to just possibly get to the inlet, so we trolled at the worst possibly speed for tuna.  It was the slowest ride in ever!



I had the jig stick ready just in case.



After 4 hours of trolling and stopping at occasional paddies, we noticed a slick on the water and a million sitting birds...  Then it happened.  The ocean opened up.  Football field sized foamers were everywhere and only 3 boats within eye shot!  The fish were everywhere between 20-100 pounds!  I couldn't believe it!

The motor was so loud we were undoubtedly scaring everything away and shut down the motor to try to see if we could get some to swim by the boat.  Nope.

I cast the anchovie iron through them a few times, but they were locked into those chovie balls.  You could see them all over the place!

Nothing.  We could only watch and video, but nothing would even get close to us and we still had a long ass ride home.

We started the 4mph troll to see if we could get lucky and changed out our trolling lures to match the hatch, but nothing.

I started chucking the hundreds of kelp centipedes overboard since there was not much to do.





2 hours later and we see a Coast Guard boat running in at us to give us an on the water inspection.  After letting them know our condition, they let us go but were definitely monitoring the progress.



Then about 30 minutes later and the motor's lower unit totally goes out... Done... Finito...

We call Boat US multiple times on the radio for no answer.  We call out for a radio check and no answer.  Does the radio not work now??  I saw a coast guard boat in the distance and tried waving them down, but realized the small inflatable was following us from the other side of the boat and came in to assist.

Boat US didn't respond but the coast guard said they heard us just fine.  They actually called into their cutter to reach Boat US since they didn't answer their hails either.

After finally reaching them, the coast guard hung out for about 20 minutes before taking off.  Good group of people on board and we just drifted and waited to get an ETA on pick up.

I decided I was going to drop a bait down 1000+ feet to get the stretch out of my line and get a tight spool.  If I was going to do that I decided to put a hook on the 2# ball. 

f@ck me....  The ball rolled off the seat in the rocky water and the hook dug well below the barb into my finger.  Only the bone stopped it from going through.  I had about enough of today.  My buddy said I would need a trip to the hospital, but I just ripped the bitch out.  OUCH!  I aligned the big barb to the way it went in, but it still tore stuff in my finger which hurts like hell.

I dropped down the ball and immediately started cranking up to call it the day.  I did have a surprise at the end of my line and didn't even know if I hit bottom or not.




The tow boat finally got there and the slow ride in began.







We ended up being on the water for 16 hours and only under full power for 3 of them.

We finally get the boat on the trailer and spin the prop.  It wobbled like Kogahead heading into a cake shop... toast.

Well, we finally found the biomass with no one on it... what we dreamed of the past few years.  Fate had other plans for us though... 

Until Next time!

[jrodda]

I know that marble motor sound unfortunately. Glad you guys got back okay. That's a huge bummer to miss out on the tuna like that.

And your finger!!!! That sounds horrendous.

[Dark_Knight_9C1]

OH NO! That really sucked.
Well, hopefully what you saw is just a sign of what's coming.
Hang in there.

- Keith

P.S. Are you posting pictures of the Biomass?
I need to see something...

[Latimeria]

Are you posting pictures of the Biomass?
I need to see something...

I only have video, but for some reason haven't been able to get them to work on the forum for some reason. I'll get it figured out.