It is no secret that I love fishing, especially saltwater fishing. I don't begrudge the avid bass angler because I grew up with dreams of that big bucket mouth, but it still amazes me that people who love fishing will invest so much into boats, tackle, and time needed to catch a once in a lifetime ten pound bass instead of heading to the salt that truly leaves you in awe of the power of nature. I am a surf and pier rat, but despite a tendency to get seasick, I wanted to take a shot at getting offshore and tackling something that would test my patience and muscle unlike anything inshore. I found my match with bluefin tuna.
Blue and white marlin are the celebrities of the fishing world, but for pure speed and bulldog power, very little compares to the bluefin tuna. The TV show Wicked Tuna has brought more focus on the fishery in the last couple of years by filming a season from Oregon Inlet. The Outer Banks starts to see bluefin around this time of year, and the bite slows down in mid to late April as focus shifts south to yellowfin and mahi-mahi. Bluefin tuna are heavily regulated. You can only keep one PER BOAT per day between 60 and 73 inches long, and from the moment your gaff hits that fish the rest of your day is catch and release. For those looking for sushi, this may be disappointing, however I have yet to find a day where there wasn't plenty of muscle straining, heart pounding action. While a keeper fish will range from around 100-250 pounds, each boat gets one trophy tag per year. Oregon Inlet boats have kept fish up to 800 pounds in the past couple of years.
I got hooked on bluefin tuna fishing by accident. I got a promotion in 2009 and had some extra money. I found out that I could book a "make up" charter out of Oregon Inlet. Make up charters are a bit of a crap shoot. Basically, you pick a day, and you are charged $280 on your credit card. The marina staff will then look to put you together with other folks to make a full party of 6. You call at 4:00PM the day before your trip to see if you will go. If you do, you have to be at the marina the next morning. If they don't have a group for you, you get your money back. They assign the boat, but every Oregon Inlet boat I have been on is top notch. I got a wild hair and booked a make up trip in April. I found out that I had a group, so I left DC at 9:00PM and drove to Oregon Inlet, where I slept in my car until it was time to report to the boat.
I had been assigned to The Rigged Up. The other folks in the group included another one off from DC, a gentleman who had never caught a fish in the ocean, and a dad and his two sons from Morehead City, NC. We pushed off and headed south. The six of us drew cards for who would get the rod on the first bite. I got lucky and drew the top spot. We then settled in for the hour ride to the gulf stream to the southeast.
After lines in, we had almost an immediate hit. I cranked in a beautiful 37 pound wahoo.
As the day wore on, each of the other anglers landed a very nice yellowfin tuna.
We chatted about the bluefin tuna, but being late in the year I figured that we were going to keep on the yellowfin. The captain had a surprise in mind. Around lunchtime, we started to troll back to the north. Then all hell broke loose.
Around 1:00PM, the captain yelled that we were about to get smacked. Giant bluefin tuna started boiling all around us. Six rods went off at the same time and chaos ensued in the cockpit of the boat. Two of the lines touched and the pressure and friction snapped the lines, but four of us remained hooked up. As you can see by the film of the incident, nothing compares to the power of these fish. I am a big, relatively strong guy, and it completely whipped me.
Watch Bluefin Tuna on the Rigged Up in Sports|View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
*note the video is marked as mature content because the mate cracks the tuna's head with a bat
I ended up landed a 132 pound bluefin tuna.
The other fellows each released similarly sized fish after brutal battles (one guy had to stand up against his fish for the first half of the fight.) After about an hour and a half, we were all finished and heading back to dock.
I have had the opportunity to chase bluefin twice since that trip. Our second trip, I managed an 80 incher (275-325 pounds) that I had to release, but I had the benefit of a harness. In 2011, I got to take my parents, and the three of us worked together to land a 230 pounder, and I released two other fish that were two big to keep, again with the help of a harness. Here is the best photo I took that shows the backbreaking power of these fish.
But, nothing captured the amazement of that first time offshore.
We have a great community here, and I know some of you enjoy fishing. Please let me know if you enjoyed this story, and I will try to share more and perhaps get a group of folks together for some adventure quests. Until next time, tight lines!
Comments
Awesome story, and well told.
Bluefin seem to be coming closer to shore in VB the last few years - I believe they may be hanging with the stripers. My son and I were out trolling for stripers off Cape Henry once - maybe 8 years ago(?) - and hooked something huge. Stripers aren't the meanest of fighters, and this fish, whatever it was, broke off after 10 minutes or so. It was one of those ones that you always think back on for years and wonder what the heck it was.
Not much time passed, maybe a season or two, before I believe we had our answer, or at least a clue as to what that beast was.
I'm a little hazy on the particulars, but I believe it was mid afternoon, and it was in December, when we were goofing around trolling for Stripers on a less than stellar day, results-wise. We were within eye shot of The Tower, which is a a well known lighthouse anchored down about 10 miles off Cape Henry. Maybe we were looking to do some catch and release, since we were outside the 3 mile limit - I can't even remember the rules since I moved away - but I do know we were dragging stretch 25's around in (I think) 40 feet of water without a whole lot of luck.
I decided it was time for a change, and popped the boat into neutral, when....Bang! My theory is that the wobbling methodical stretch action changed dramatically when the boat came to a sudden slow down, and caused the lure to look like a wounded bait fish, floating aimlessly to the top. And going further with my theory, any schooling fish that may have been casually looking on, maybe would realize, "hey, I better jump on that before somebody else does".
Well, whatever jumped on it was acting a whole lot like that one that got away that I mentioned earlier, and so tormented were we from that memory, that we were going to land this one come hell or high water. The problem was the gear - again. We were maybe set up to handle a 50 LB Rock, and would have been feeling like champs, if we had found one those. But a Bluefin, which never occurred to us as even a remote possibility, would make mincemeat of our puny gear in short order.
But we had experience on our side. The surprise was not so great this time, and we were not so giddy at putting pressure on the fish. (OK, true confession time out here: it really wasn't a "we" that got giddy. I honestly like to fish mainly to spend time with my son, but I have no idea what I am doing. My son, who is the true fisherman of the family, gave me a bit of much deserved grief about it). Anyway, back to the story...
We quickly realized that our greatest advantage was actually the shallow water depth. That fish could not spool us off heading straight down, and we had a boat that had plenty of speed to chase him. And chase we did - forward, back, round and round , just letting the old boy wear himself out without giving him a shred of a chance to pop that line. Sometimes we would get him close, directly under the boat, and we were doing panicked pirouettes keeping him off the props. I can't even guess how long we were at it, and boats passing by heading home must have thought we were idiots watching the show.
But we got the last laugh. We knew we had something unreal, but our jaws dropped when we landed what turned out to be a 125 pound Bluefin. A memorable day, indeed.
Buddy of mine went out last Monday from Va Beach looking for tuna. They never got the first one, but caught 59 stripers up to 50'', smallest went 32". All outside the limit and illegal to keep, they enjoyed them, to a point, but they were disappointed that they couldn't rustle up the big fish for all of those pesky rock!
Great story, French. Bruisers, those bluefin...on my bucketlist for sure. Wonder what a make up would cost these days?
I have not done a makeup out of Oregon Inlet since the summer of 2011. It looks like the full boat rate is $1855, so they probably would charge around $310 a person. That doesn't include tip (the mate works for tips) and the charge if you get your fish cleaned (which is a must with a makeup so it will be divided up equally.) The fish cleaning usually isn't too bad. I think $40 or $50 is all I paid for the limit of dolphin we got last summer and that covered the whole boat.
Pro tip, GET A FULL NIGHT'S SLEEP the night before. I tend to get seasickness, but I have found that it happens much more often when I don't sleep well the night before. This trip featured 2-3 foot seas and I held up ok. Some of the other trips, well, lets just say that the dinosaurs could hear me calling.
Also, I believe some of the marinas down in Hatteras also do makeup charters, but it is an extra hour of driving and they tend not to be as organized. Those trips are a little cheaper due to the proximity to the Gulf Stream, but my trips down there have been hit or miss. I had two great bluefin trips on an Ocean City boat that wintered at Oden's Dock, but he doesn't winter there any more. I had a great cobia trip on The Little Clam that I will write about when I get some time. But, I did three other trips from Hatteras Inlet on different boats that were all duds. With Oregon Inlet, you know that you will be on a 50 foot boat with a nice cabin and three fighting chairs no matter which boat you end up on. I have been on The Legacy (full booking) and the Rigged Up, Fintastic, and Seaducer (make up trips) and they were all fantastic.
I've been lurking for awhile and never felt the need to comment. More of these posts would be great as a person who loves to hear fishing stories. I have always wanted to go offshore fishing but never had a group and didn't know about make up trips before this post
Offshore fishing may not be for everybody. Expensive, and a roll of the dice. Some days you win, some you lose. While the deep blue hue of the Gulf Stream is something everyone should experience, like all fishing, some days you just take a boat ride. My first experience out of Oregon Inlet was like that. Captain mailed it in, mate didn't earn his tip. One fish caught, 35lb bull dolphin, nice fish, NC citation, but for the other five of us, it wasn't much more than a boat ride. At least there was plenty of beer and a nice AC cooled cabin, but it put me off. I know we could have hooked into a grander blue marlin and I would be living paycheck to paycheck in an old camper off the grid in Dare County somewhere to finance my offshore habit, but, well, it didn't go that way. Captain wasn't a piker, just off his game, or something, that day. French's trip would have fired me up!
The big part is knowing when to go, but getting 6 people to commit to a date when that much money is at stake makes it tough. That is why the makeup trip option was attractive. I didn't depend on finding 5 like minded folks and I could wait to book until the last minute so I would know that the bite is solid and the weather is good.
My bluefin trips have all been awesome, but my trips in the blue marlin/gaffer dolphin window (late April-May) have seen less action. Late June/first week of July have been locks for 300-500lbs of yellowfin and/or limits of bailer dolphin.
Thanks for the tips. I will definitely have to look into that. It definitely is hard to find 5 other people that are willing to spend the money and will be there at the same time.
I definitely agree with you on it being a roll of the dice and whether you have a good day out there. I'm looking to branch out from what I'm used to which is trolling for blues and spanish mackerel in salt water and bass fishing in near by ponds.
Very nice. I don't think enough people realize that the deep sea fishing out of Oregon Inlet or Hatteras is world class and people travel a long way for that fishing, and it's only an 8-9 hour drive from Roanoke. Reel in your first massive tuna and those bass and catfish will never be the same rush
Great story French. Keep them coming. My brother in law goes out of Oregon Inlet quite a bit since he is in Suffolk and loves it. I have been wanting to get down there myself. I had planned to go out with friends while I was in college when we went to Avon for Spring Break one year, but the day we scheduled the weather was too bad.
I have gone out a few times from the Myrtle Beach area and it hasn't been all that great honestly. Gone out of Islamorada twice in the same day (one a night trip).
My best experience was going out of Destin, Fla. with a family friend who owned a boat down there for King Mackerel.
Very good story, French. I love trout fishing and bass fishing, but I agree- there is nothing like reeling in a truly powerful tuna or marlin to get a feel for mother nature's power.
Great - now I have the sudden urge to go and book a trip.
Thanks for the great write up and the pictures, that is a really nice wahoo. I would enjoy reading more fishing reports in the future.
Some of you may want to enter my resort's fishing photo contest. It's all based on votes. Winner gets a 3 day/2 night stay + half day fishing trip. Follow the link http://bit.ly/16mMnCN
it'd be cool to see a hokie win.
My family has always vacationed at Emerald Isle and we have always surf fished and fished on Bogue Inlet Pier and fished the pier at what used to be the Sheraton but I believe it is a Double Oaks now. We have gone out on the Capt Stacy a few times as well. I highly recommend them as a no frills bottom fishing trip in the gulf and you will catch fish. I'm dying to get back down there in may. French I have to agree I love chasing striper, catfish, and New River smallies but nothing compares to fishing in the salt. Night fishing on the surf at night time for sharks will get your blood pumping like nothing else.
Awesome!! Offshore is the bomb! Done lots in Central FL and the Keys. Well done sir!
For me it's not about catching the ten pound largemouth. It's figuring out, what they're eating, where, and what times that drives me to be a bass fisherman. Nothing wrong with 10 pounders though.
As my old pappy used to say, "There's no accounting for taste.". I think for most fishermen, whatever they can get at and afford to chase, they will enjoy doing it. But most of us also never lose the dream of bigger fish, bigger water, bigger adventure, and as stated above, world class offshore fishing is not that far away, nor prohibitively expensive.
While I chased more than my fair share of New River smallmouth, it was the walleye in the system that really caught my fancy. More than once I cursed a smallmouth many would call a trophy because it wasn't the six pound walleye I was after. Heard more than one smallmouth devotee curse the musky that hit that spinnerbait, jig or jerkbait for the same reason. Like my buddy last week cursing the 40+ lb stripers getting in the way of the tuna.
Fishin', don't ya love it?
Thanks for sharing French! Really enjoyed. I've only been deep sea fishing in the Gulf, outside of Tampa . But I have a great affection for all marine life. Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed the photos and video!
Just found this awesome video shot on the Tuna Fever out of Oregon Inlet last April of the fleet fishing a school of bluefin tuna that are feeding on a school of nice sized bluefish. This is some awesome footage where the boats not only catch fish trolling, but then snag a live bluefish and throw it out right beside the boat and the tuna smack it right as it hits the water.
Have mercy! He snagged that bluefish with the gaff for goodness sake. Bet that mate slept well that night. To use an overused word...awesome! Thanks for posting it.