NJ Tuna

[RWilson2526]

Went out for tuna a few weeks ago with a guy I know through work. We left Barnegat Light inlet about 5:30 am and went to the area called the Atlantic Princess. The Atlantic Princess is a wreck but it is surrounded by a general area that holds alot of life supposedly. About 42 miles out from the inlet.

Was on my friends 275 Albin with a single diesel so it was a good 2 hour trip out . Set up to troll. This was my first experience trolling and all I can say is damn its alot of work. Of course it wasnt much work for me because I didnt have a clue what to do so I manned the helm while the other two guys put out the spread.

Being that it was a Monday there was only maybe 5 boats out in a few square mile area. The word on the radio was to look for the Cow Nose Rays....sure enough after not to long we spotted the big brown buggers sailing just under the water and withing seconds things were flying.

Then it was clear the lines, reel in the fish, set the spread out again, find the rays and do it all over again....did I say it was alot of work?

All in all we think we hooked about 10 tuna. All in about 30-35 lbs range I would say. All Bluefin, I unfortunately lost the biggest fish of the day not close enough to the boat to see how big it was but it fought considerably harder than the rest.

The pictures suck because we were having too much fun to take any but I managed to snap a few at the very end.

 

[Destroyer]

Man, it's been a while since I went Tuna fishing. That brings back a lot of memories RW.. Thanks for sharing them

 

[lumberslinger178]

very nice looks like a good day..

 

[Blue_Runner]

Those buggers put up a tussel don't they? I've never hooked a BFT but assuming they fight as much or more than a YFT - ya'll should have been nice and sore the next day. Are those keepers or release?

Seas look a little lumpy, how was the ride? Did ya'll use the outriggers?

Nice report!

 

[RWilson2526]

Blue, the limit on BFT is one per boat 27" to 59" fishing recreationally while charters can keep one under and over 47" I think. While Yellowfin is 3 per man. The ones we were catching were keepers but alas we only got to keep one. We still got a couple nice meals a piece between the 3 of us. When I took that picture things had laid down pretty good. It was definitely a wet ride on the way out in the AM but wasnt horrible on the troll.

We had a full spread out there.... green squid spreader bars on the starboard side, rainbow spreader bars on port side (no hits on the rainbow) Islanders with ballyhoo on each outrigger and one down the middle and a cedar plug off the transom on each side right in the wash. Actually got about half the hits on the cedar plugs, couple on the ballyhoo and 2 or 3 on the green squid. It was awesome to watch them come in and hit. Like I said the second you saw a ray under the surface it was a matter of seconds before it was game on....

Only made the mistake once but slowed down a little too much on a turn and got jumped by some BIG *** blue fish which pretty much hit everything out there.

The fights were pretty amazing for the size fish, I couldnt imagine hooking into 100# + fish and what it would take to get them in. Looking forward to doing it again. Got invited out last weekend again but the weather didnt cooperate and supposedly the bite has slowed a little around here since those couple of weeks.