North Coast Angler Fishing Report, August 29, 2005

What can I say about this week? Fantastic? Tremendous? Awesome? Well, lets just say it was the best week of small bluefin tuna fishing I have ever had, period! Twenty seven fish in five days. We caught twenty five fish on poppers, one on fly, and one trolling. We had many multiple hookups, and landed several doubles, and a triple. The tuna were all in the 20 to 40lb range, though I did see two pods of fish that were in the hundred pound class. The tuna were primarily feeding on peanut bunker, but in the stomachs of several fish we kept, we also found spike mackerel, and mature herring. On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of seeing Capt. Skip Montello and Capt. Dave Beshara catch their first bluefin tuna ever. Later in the day, Dave also landed a nice fish on his ten weight flyrod. That day, in about six hours we landed nine bluefin, and lost several others. I have been chasing small bluefin for six years, but I have never experienced action like this week. It was amazing to watch the tuna come roaring after our poppers, spraying peanutbunker all the way, and then that smashing surface strike. What a rush! For outfits, I used fifty pound gelspun (power pro) with a topshot of two hundred feet of thirty pound mono on my Shimano 6500 spinning rods, and thirty pound gelspun with a topshot of fifteen pound mono on my Shimano 4500's. The 4500's held up fine, but we did breakoff several fish on the light fifteen pound test. The gelspun/mono connection consisted of a Bimini in the gelspun, connected to the mono with an Albright knot. To the mono I attached a Spro 130lb swivel and three and a half feet of 40 or 50lb fluorocarbon leader. Both the leader and mono were attached to the swivel with Palomar knot. I developed this system for pitching live baits to breaking tuna, and is stealthier than fluorocarbon carbon attached directly to the gel-spun. Finally, I attached a Yozuri Hydro popper with a Lefty no-slip loop knot to the flora carbon. On the poppers, I removed the all the factory hooks, and used only a tail hook consisting of a Gamakatsu 4/0 treble hook. I do not know what tuna action the next few weeks will hold, but I am optimistic. As we searched for breaking tuna, the sounder screen continuously went black as we passed over huge schools of bunker, and we marked tuna everywhere we went. There is still plenty of time left to get out on the water, and there are many adventures still left to be had this season. Next week the kids may be going back to school, but the fishing remains top notch, and should be so well into October. I believe this may be one of they best falls we have ever seen. Don't put those rods away yet, just drop off the kids and head for the water! The week that was Tuna! All the Captains of North Coast Angler hooked these phenomenal fish over last week. We owe our success to Captains Allan and Bob Smith for sharing their knowledge and experience with those of us who are new to the Tuna challenge. Spending time fishing with those guys is super fun and rewarding. Most of the fish were taken aboard Captain Bob Smith’s 28’ Albin, High Flyer. Runin’ and Gunin’ was the name of game. See fish and go! Cast and get slammed!

Captain’s Allan Smith and Skip Montello