OTI rods beating up on Bluefin tuna
Capt. Rich Antonino
October 17, 2009
Stellwagen Bank - Saltwater Fishing Report
Holy mackerel, Batman! The tuna cooperated today big time. It was one of the best fishing days of the year. OTI guys came up today from Texas to stretch their wings and beat up their Tuna Sniper rods, Tuna Popping Rods, and Jigging Rods. The bluefin tuna that we have up here are just the fish to test these rods upon!
Capt. Dom Petrarca put together the three boats for their crew and we left the pier at first light; a three-some tuna chasing armada. It was cold. The high for the day was barely 45. We had a great crew on my boat; experienced tuna fishermen Fred and Dan, and newbie Andy. Andy was new to fishing...his biggest fish was a 12" bass.
Andy didn't take offense to "I think you'll start out by jigging, today." "Yes, fishing 101 is supposed to be easy, so jigging is a good start." Well, on his 5th or so drop, Andy got slammed by a tuna. Not unexpectedly, he wasn't ready for what would happen next. Fish 1, Andy 0. We had Wild World of Animals out there today. I mean, we found breaking fish for miles, but they were moving fast and they were spread out. I was able to get ahead of them and just blind cast as they approached. Long story short, everyone hooked up and lost fish before we landed our first fish. I even took some casts and hooked up on two consecutive casts, but lost them both. With Fred on the bow using my 7 1/2' OTI Popping Rod, he hooked into a very big fish. He stopped it quickly, 10 minutes later it was a tug of war. Then all hell broke loose. We had no fewer than 6 70+ inch fish busting within 10' of the boat. I saw Dan drooling. "Dan, drop your Accurate baitcaster on the OTI jigging rod. You can stop a fish with that--I can't move the boat to help you out; you're on your own if you hook up!" He didn't hook up, but I had to let him try. They were too big and too close...
Dan finally hooked up with a fish that we landed....Our first "under" of the year, a true 46" fish. It was nice to pack it in ice early in the day. It was our 6th hookup, but only our first landed fish. Oh well. We followed that school of fish for miles as it was moving fast. Then it became time to run around and find the fish again...It took a few hours, but we found some whales, some nice marks, loads of bluefish, and then...I was dropping a jig and I hooked a bluefish on Dan's jigging rod. I gave it to Andy---his biggest fish of his life! Meanwhile, I took Andy's rod and dropped a jig...Slam! That's no bluefish as line evaporated off of the reel. Dan took over, but a bluefish got in the way of the line and busted us off. Bummer. Not long after that, Andy got nailed again as he was lifting his jig out of the water. Incredible! Another lost fish.
Reminiscent of last year, I tried another spot. I marked tons of bluefish. As expected, the jigs got blues, but Dan had his lure slammed by a big tuna 15' from the boat. Off to the races. Lines in. We're on.
Well...Dan lasted 80 minutes and then Fred took over. It was getting late, the winds were picking up, we had Dom and Billy's boats watching us, and we wanted this fish and to get home ahead of the winds....I took over, palmed the reel a bit, a bit, and a bit more. I was able to get the fish close so that Fred could take over again. I proceeded to handline the fish up the last 30'...Dan, ready with the harpoon, nailed it good. In one cheek and out the shoulder! Awesome, 67" long and fat. Quickly bled, gutted, beheaded, and tailed...it fit inside of the chair, packed in ice, and soaked in a slurry. Chilled quickly.
Thanks again to OTI for a great trip. You'll be hearing a lot from these guys and this tackle company. They make awesome tuna rods, lures, and line. The colored line is great--every 25' is a new color...you always know how far out the fish is!
I have a shared charter this Thursday for tuna if you're interested.
See you out there, Capt. Rich Antonino, 508-269-1882 508-269-1882 and BlackRoseFish on Twitter. Follow me on Twitter for updates and shared charter info.
Target Species:
bluefin tuna
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