Headed out for the annual "Dream Crushers" trip to Venice last Thursday. Timing sucked as that front blew in Friday bringing with it 25 mph winds. No offshore Friday so we got three guides and tried to catch some red fish for the hell of it. My boat caught maybe 25 undersize reds and a few keepers. Other boat only managed a few but the third boat found a hole they were hiding in and put a whuppin on 'em. Redfish for dinner.
Saturday morning arrived with 5 mph S/SW. Perfect. Our boat (Capt Hunter) went out maybe 60 and started looking for tuna...didn't take long! Short little yellow came to the party first. Proceeded to take several smaller yellow fin say 7-8 more. We were drifting with small pieces of bait with the current, three lines out at a time. Me, my buddies Jeff, and Allen were on the reels when they all three went off. We knew right away as these fish were different as line was screaming off the reels. Rodeo was on. The three of us were all over that boat for a good thirty to forty minutes wrestling these three fish. All were landed and each was approximately 85 pounds. Took me a full 30 minutes to recover hoping I wouldn't be next up again! We picked up one more 85 pounder and a few more smaller ones. We were throwing back tuna now as there is no way we could eat that many and it would have been a terrible waste of a fantastic resource.
Other boat stayed within 20 miles I believe fishing rigs. They caught several black fin, five AJ's, and a mess of other fish.
By that evening I was chopping tuna steaks and bagging them along with a ton of AJ for everybody. Buddy Mark was in the kitchen doing nothing but pan searing fresh yellow fin and boys...it doesn't get too much better than that. Now I need more Advil...my upper body and back are killing me!!!LOL.
Saturday morning arrived with 5 mph S/SW. Perfect. Our boat (Capt Hunter) went out maybe 60 and started looking for tuna...didn't take long! Short little yellow came to the party first. Proceeded to take several smaller yellow fin say 7-8 more. We were drifting with small pieces of bait with the current, three lines out at a time. Me, my buddies Jeff, and Allen were on the reels when they all three went off. We knew right away as these fish were different as line was screaming off the reels. Rodeo was on. The three of us were all over that boat for a good thirty to forty minutes wrestling these three fish. All were landed and each was approximately 85 pounds. Took me a full 30 minutes to recover hoping I wouldn't be next up again! We picked up one more 85 pounder and a few more smaller ones. We were throwing back tuna now as there is no way we could eat that many and it would have been a terrible waste of a fantastic resource.
Other boat stayed within 20 miles I believe fishing rigs. They caught several black fin, five AJ's, and a mess of other fish.
By that evening I was chopping tuna steaks and bagging them along with a ton of AJ for everybody. Buddy Mark was in the kitchen doing nothing but pan searing fresh yellow fin and boys...it doesn't get too much better than that. Now I need more Advil...my upper body and back are killing me!!!LOL.
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