Dom/Tom 9/0 frame report- VINAKA !

[BMITCH]

Erik, BEAUTIFUL Allison tunas really we'll done! Thanks for sharing
Bob

[Shark Hunter]

That says a lot about a stock 9/0. 152lb Tuna! I bet if the Hex gear was in there, it would have cut that fight time down. You don't know how good you have it Man! I think I'll call in sick and go catch a Giant Tuna! I could go down to the Ohio and catch a big Shovelhead Maybe.

[floating doc]

Erik, BEAUTIFUL Allison tunas really we'll done! Thanks for sharing
Bob

. I just wish I could call in sick before I have to call in dead.

[DaBigOno]

Nice hook-ups.   Beautiful fishes on your day off

[erikpowell]

Bula Erik,

awesome. An epic evening run. Who made the lure head?  The top skirt is my favorite

Aloha Bryan,  Boy, I'd sure like to know who made that head too.
The lure was given to me by a friend from the Big Island a couple years ago. She said it was made by a friend of hers there and it was a local favorite. The day before we went out I was rooting through a box of unrigged lures and came across the lures Heidi brought me.
That pink one just screamed at me "I'll be the one"... So I rigged it up with 2 meters of 200lb & a generic 7/0 stainless game hook.

Maybe some of our hawaiian friends here can ID it for us. 





Heidi actually gave me two lures... the second was a rounded chrome bullet head about ⅝" around and ¾"long with 3" skirts... brown over pink... weird color to me but she told me not to change it, it was special. I size my hooks by the lure head, Peter Pakula style. (head should fit through the gape of the hook) and that lure got a 5/0 stainless short J.
I think this chrome head could have been a JB head but I'm not sure... I'd really like a few more!

Well the next day of our big tuna hunt, THAT one was the first to go off... on my TLD20 2speed w/65lb powerpro to 100' 50lb topshot.
I was running this one about 40' behind the bigger pink one that day...
Long story short, after almost 2 hrs at 25lbs of drag, somewhere between the 20th-30th death spiral under the boat ( that fish spent almost an hour trying to cut itself off with the motors .. he nicked me on the prop.... and the next in-gaff range spiral, the mono broke about a foot above my swivel...  CRUSHED 

We had plenty of good looks at this one, and with the previous days' catch (and days following) we're confident it was 75-80kg range.
I wish I had hooked this one on my trusty 9/0

We had almost 2 weeks of giants around before cyclone came and blew them back to where they came from.
Many were caught in the 50-80kg range... a bunch of those were just off the reef in 1000m. 80kg was our town record. Suva claimed 90kg.
a local marine biologist friend told us there was an cold water current anomaly welling up from NZ at the time, and it was the closest it has come to Fiji since 91 or 92.....  sigh....

Lesson- above all the other tasty treats we were pulling, this guy went for the funny brown over pink skirt on the little bullet head.
           I was hoping I'd get to use that lure again. 

Thanks a lot for all the high 5's guys!

Dominick, tune up your 9/0 buddy.. you got a winner there.     and a cracker of lure selection to boot! 
              I saw your collection on Daron's thread. All your Cabo lures are perfect for here. You're good to go.

[Dominick]

Dominick, tune up your 9/0 buddy.. you got a winner there.     and a cracker of lure selection to boot! 
              I saw your collection on Daron's thread. All your Cabo lures are perfect for here. You're good to go.

Bula Erik:  The photos you saw was everything I bring down but the photos did not have my Marlin and Tuna lures.  I'll post photos tomorrow.  Dominick