How many trips did it take before you landed your first 100# tuna?

[Jim Fujitani]

I was fortunate to graduate from Humboldt State and become a member of the Fishin' Lumberjacks (HFLJ), decades later.  Most of my fishing out of SD is done on closed charter HFLJ trips.  Due to restrictions at home, I do not go on trips longer than 7 days, and out of respect for my wife's wishes, I will not touch foreign soil unless it is an emergency.

I got my first BFT (est. 40 pounds) on my first multi-day trip (a 3-day on the First String) out of SD.  Three years and three trips later, we had moved up to a 6-day trip on Norm Kagawa's Shogun, with Bruce Smith at the wheel.  I came close to a 3 digit YFT; 91 pounds on a Tiburon-framed 113H jackpot at Isla Guadalupe.  I later boated an 81 pound YFT (would have been third place in the jackpot, but we didn't award multiple winners).  There was a 3 digit YFT boated, but that fish required so much crew help (wrapped the prop, etc), that it was DQ'd.

The following year, on a 5-day aboard the Shogun (Isla Guadalupe was closed), I won the JP with a 49+ pound spawned out YT on a dropper loop off Isla Cedros.  I didn't know that some fishers go their entire lives and not catch a YT bigger than 30#.

I missed a trip (and a year), and we switched over to the Royal Star, starting out on a 4-day.  Amongst all the albacore, YT, and a few BFT, I boated a 72# Opah on an Accurate B2-870 (another JP).

It was not until my 14th multi-day trip (in 13 years) that I boated my first (and second) 3 digit fish.  On a Royal Star 7-day to Isla Guadalupe, I boated my first 3 digit fish, a 124# YFT, won another JP, on a Tiburon-framed TLD20-2 speed.  That was a heck of a trip, with many 3 digit YFT.  I boated YFT on 80# leader, using a 10/0 Mustad 7691-DT Southern Tuna hook with 7-inch live sardines, just to see if it would work.

Regretfully, I've only been able to go one multi-day trip since.  And that trip was not memorable, even the JP was not awarded.

[Keta]

Lets here some stories of other species over the hundred pound mark

We did not keep them and never counted them but when I lived in SE Alaska we released a lot of halibut over 100#, some well over.

[Bryan Young]

No tuna over 100# yet.  My first trip out on a boat when I was 16 was with my granduncle and that was my first 40# Wahoo and 300# pacific blue marlin.

Its hard to go back after that.  hahaha

[Hardy Boy]

On my first trip on the Fraser for White sturgeon I got two over 200 lbs (8 plus feet) in one day. My guide buddy said many go for years with nothing that big ....................... luck of the draw. Other species over 100 lb: halibut, sailfish, striped marlin and numerous more white sturgeon.


Cheers:


Todd

[pjstevko]

My fish over a 100# are BFT, tarpon, silky shark, and goliath grouper! I hooked a marlin over the mark but it broke off about 15ft from the boat....

[xjchad]

The only fish I've caught over 100 lbs. are sevengill sharks and bat rays.
But I only fish from the shore, so my odds are not quite as good 

[sabaman1]

My fish over a 100# are BFT, tarpon, silky shark, and goliath grouper! I hooked a marlin over the mark but it broke off about 15ft from the boat....


Pj, what was the outfit you used to slay that bluefin?

[conchydong]

Fish over 100. Blue Marlin both in Florida and East Cape Mexico over 100lbs. Striped Marlin on Q 105 released in water but probably around or above the century mark. Swordfish and Jewfish (Goliath Grouper) well over 100lbs. Sawfish and too many sharks to count over 100lbs. Some unknown  and unlanded fish that may have gone over as I believe we hooked a giant Tuna. We were deep dropping with a electric reel and we couldn't stop it with relatively heavy gear. Although quite uncommon, giant Bluefin do occasionally migrate on the western side of the Gulfstream near the Florida coastline on there way back from the Gulf of Mexico breeding grounds to the NE, Canada and beyond.

I have also caught lots of bottom that would be in the zillions of pounds.

[wascallywabit]

186 lb. Bigeye tuna in Hudson Canyon off Jersey coast. Caught on the troll, stand up in 1996. Most other BF and YF between 50-70 lbs.

Ed