Hello Grady, I got a tuna!

[luckydude]

So those of you who know me, know that I replaced the hard top with a custom pilot house because I wanted to be able to see. I did that a couple of years ago so I could see tuna.

I've gone on a tuna journey, I put my madmacs in the water a couple of years ago and my stuff came undone like a cheap suit. So I went nuts on knots. I tested all of my knots to 70 pounds. The guy who schooled me on tuna thought I was nuts but I said my shit didn't work, I want it to work. He said he never did more than 35 pounds of drag. I said the pull I put on the knots is sort of a static pressure, I'm slowly leaning back against the knot. The fish is a more dynamic pressure, it might be only 35 pounds but it is head shakes, runs, etc.

So year 1, my shit came apart. Year 2, I fixed my knots. This is year 3 and I got a tuna, a frigging nice tuna. 157 pounds. And it was work to get it in.
You know how wicked tuna pulls their tuna in, one hand on the reel and the other on the line? And they are doing that with 850 pound tuna? They are gods. I tried to do the same thing, my hand on the line, I twisted it to get more grip, when that fish was 150 feet below the boat, it did not want to come up. I tried with my hand on the line and my other hand on the reel, nothing.

My buddy on the boat was trying the same, nothing, we could not move the fish.

So what we did, we had 7 foot swells, we moved the fish up as the swell went up and reeled up as we went into the trough.

It's an hour and 15 minutes fight. I gaffed the tuna, we could not get it in, my buddy put another gaff in it, still no go. I used my gaff, this is a bad idea but I did it, I used it as a lever to raise the fish and then we got it in.

Blah, blah, but I reworked my boat to get tuna and we actually got one, 157 pounds as my first tuna. Go Grady.

 

[luckydude]

So those of you who know me, know that I replaced the hard top with a custom pilot house because I wanted to be able to see. I did that a couple of years ago so I could see tuna.

I've gone on a tuna journey, I put my madmacs in the water a couple of years ago and my stuff came undone like a cheap suit. So I went nuts on knots. I tested all of my knots to 70 pounds. The guy who schooled me on tuna thought I was nuts but I said my shit didn't work, I want it to work. He said he never did more than 35 pounds of drag. I said the pull I put on the knots is sort of a static pressure, I'm slowly leaning back against the knot. The fish is a more dynamic pressure, it might be only 35 pounds but it is head shakes, runs, etc.

So year 1, my shit came apart. Year 2, I fixed my knots. This is year 3 and I got a tuna, a frigging nice tuna. 157 pounds. And it was work to get it in.
You know how wicked tuna pulls their tuna in, one hand on the reel and the other on the line? And they are doing that with 850 pound tuna? They are gods. I tried to do the same thing, my hand on the line, I twisted it to get more grip, when that fish was 150 feet below the boat, it did not want to come up. I tried with my hand on the line and my other hand on the reel, nothing.

My buddy on the boat was trying the same, nothing, we could not move the fish.

So what we did, we had 7 foot swells, we moved the fish up as the swell went up and reeled up as we went into the trough.

It's an hour and 15 minutes fight. I gaffed the tuna, we could not get it in, my buddy put another gaff in it, still no go. I used my gaff, this is a bad idea but I did it, I used it as a lever to raise the fish and then we got it in.

Blah, blah, but I reworked my boat to get tuna and we actually got one, 157 pounds as my first tuna. Go Grady.

I'll get you pictures when I get them off my phone.

I am so stoked we got one. And both of us are Grady 228 owners. That boat is the shit out here, if I could smack Grady in the face, I'd say wtf, why discontinue this popular boat? That's a great boat. Would I like bigger? Of course I would but I've taken my little boat 73 miles offshore, did 160 miles that day. The 228 is probably the most sea worthy 22 foot boat in existence.

 

[DennisG01]

Go Grady.

The boat is just a thing that keeps you above the waterline. It's the thing between one's ears that catches the fish. GO LUCKY!

Hmmmm... that saying doesn't bode well for me... I'm not so good at catching 'em......

 

[Sdfish]

Great wok! Congrats on a milestone fish and memory!

 

[Hookup1]

I'm curious how your rod is setup from line on reel to the hook. Braid backing? mono top shot? windon leader? knots used to connect? snap swivel? leader? connections? lure or bait? Our offshore setups are rigged like fly rods only much heavier.

The boats that long range tuna fish out of SanDiego can teach you a lot too. They fish standup for some really big tuna.

 

[Legend]

Congratulations , once you experience a tuna your life changes forever !t is habit forming

 

[Iced-D]

Hearty congrats! Loved reading your story.

 

[Sea Shift]

Nice job on the first biggun! I know how it is to battle these norcal blues. Nothing like fitting one on a socal boat with a rail. My only suggestion is to get a Harpoon too. Its heartbreak when they surface 6 feet out and you have to. let them circle back down under the boat because the gaff isnt long enough. Congrats

 

[mkslug]

Looks like we might have these bad boys here for a while this year. My buddy got 3 at the fingers last week also. Looks like we have to wait a while for the next window with all this wind offshore. Good job Lucky.

 

[SeanC]

Don’t fight fish up and down. If the fish is directly below the boat, drive away from them. You will lose line but you will plane them up to the surface. You may have to do this a number of times to get the fish to the boat. I always have the boat in gear motoring slowly forward. It is easier to control the fish by leading to the boat than it is when the boat is stationary.

 

[luckydude]

Ok, here come the pics. Sorry for the delay, I'm dealing with my German Shepard having cancer, it's a yoyo, some days I think I need to put him down, then he perks up and there is no way I'm putting him down then.

 

[luckydude]

I appreciate all of the advice, I'll absorb it and think. All that said, as much as it is a big deal to get a bluefin, what I really want is albacore. Bluefin is sort of the steak of fish, I'm not a big steak guy so I eat less of that. The sushi blocks will get eaten.

But I want albacore, big albacore. The peanuts suck because I like to do that sear on the outside and have mostly sushi on the inside, you need those 25 - 30 pounders for that. And I've geared up for that. I'm ready, I have the outriggers and know how to use them from my friends boat, he mostly doesn't think highly of me but when we are albacore fishing, he shoes the other people away and and says "Let Larry do it, he knows how". Because it is a little complicated to set up things on the outriggers and for whatever reason, I just see it, when it is wrong it looks wrong to me.

Here is hoping I come back to you with an albacore story.

 

[luckydude]

I'm curious how your rod is setup from line on reel to the hook. Braid backing? mono top shot? windon leader? knots used to connect? snap swivel? leader? connections? lure or bait? Our offshore setups are rigged like fly rods only much heavier.

The boats that long range tuna fish out of SanDiego can teach you a lot too. They fish standup for some really big tuna.

My tuna gear is Penn VISX 30s on Seeker 2x4 for fly lining and Penn VISX 50s on Okuma PCH-TRS-something, rated for 80-150, for mad macs.
The fly line reels have 700 yards of 80# hollow core with 50 yards of 60 and 80 pound fluoro topshot.
The madmac reels have 700 yards of 100# hollow core with 50 yards of 130# mono topshot.
Hollow core to topshot is knotted with a 5 foot length in the hollow core with a 2.5 inch serve with a risotto finish, same as an FG.
I used Springer knots for the terminal knot. I leave a 5/8-3/4" tag because the springer slides a little with heavy pressure, the springer that caught the fish was down to a 1/8" tag, so it moved. If I was better at tieing Palomar, I'd use that, but 9 times out of 10 when I tie that the mono strands cross over each other and you don't want that, they cut each other off. In my testing, with a properly tied Palomar, I've never had that knot move or break. I mark the tag with a sharpie so I can see if it moves.

For Albacore, I went with 2x Penn VISX 20s on Shimano Tallus rods for the rapalas, 4x Penn VISX 16s on Okuma PCH rods for the clones.

Why VISX? They were the first decent tuna reels I bought and once I had a pair, I just kept going because I want as much "sameness" as I can get. Especially for the albacore, I'm a fan of Bob Franko's approach to albacore fishing, he was all about efficiency as the albacore bite is bursty, you have to get them while you can. I think the sameness idea doesn't hold water for the granny gear on the 16s, I think it has a different way to switch into that than the 20, 30, 50 sizes. But I don't anticipate needing the granny gear on the 16s, the bigeye, if they come, will come on the 20s and that works just like the bluefin gear.

I know some people look down on the VISX line as they are heavy, for me, that's not an issue, I fight bluefin in the rod holder. The albacore reels are small enough that it is no problem fighting fish standing up. If I get bigeye, that will be in the rod holder as well.

I came to the VISX line from Penn Fathoms, I originally set up for albacore with Fathoms, and they would be fine for albacore. They are not up to bluefin or bigeye and we get bigeye as by catch up in Fort Bragg, so I bit the bullet and geared up. To the tune of about $14K for ten rods, reels, braid. Tuna isn't cheap but better expensive and in the boat than the heartbreak of watching it swim away after a fight (I'm sure I'll experience that some day but the less of that the better).

And I like the VISX reels, they are built like a tank. My buddy you see in the picture holding the tuna on the deck, he has 3 kids he has to put through college so he is scrounging around on Facebook market place and craigslist for deals. His tuna reels are older and when he was working mine, he was all "holy smokes, are these reels smooth". So perhaps a good choice.

If I didn't care about money, they would all be Shimano Tallicas but those are 2x the price of the Penns. If I were to do it all over again, I'd probably get Tiagras, if you watch Bad Company, that dude is a billionaire, he can buy anything he wants, and he runs Tiagras. Shrug. The VISX line are good reels, they are good enough I'm not out gunned, problem solved I think.

 

[luckydude]

Congratulations , once you experience a tuna your life changes forever !t is habit forming

Indeed. It's weird, this is not my first bluefin, just the first in my boat. I've put around a half dozen on the deck in my friend's boat.
The weirdness is sometimes you process the fact that you got a tuna in the moment, but more often it is later that it sinks in, in the moment it's sort of surreal like you are watching a movie or something.

I had a non fisherman ask me the difference between bluefin and albacore and here is my version of that:

Bluefin, if you process in the moment, is truly like a religious experience, it's like you found Jesus. I mean that sincerely with no disrespect intended towards religion, Jesus, or anything. It moves you in a pretty profound way. Jens and I put one in the boat a few years ago and it was the first time we operated completely like a team, he has a Canyon 271 with twin 300s and he is OCD about that boat, nobody runs it but him. But when he was on the fish, I just went to the helm and ran the boat to keep the line at a 45 degree angle off the corner. So it was away from the prop but also if it ran towards us, which it did, I could slam the boat in gear and take up the slack. It worked well but wasn't easy because Jens had green line that I couldn't see well against the water, I'm a fan of white or orange or yellow, something you can see.

When we gaffed that fish and got it in the boat, I got the highest compliment Jens will give "Larry, that was smooth". And I processed it in the moment and it truly moved me, it was after that fish I bit the bullet and got the proper gear.

Albacore is a different thing. When you get quads or better, it's all this action and excitement. Albacore is like you are back in college, you stumbled on a block party in the off campus rentals, the music is going, the beer is flowing, and you just ran into the friendliest and friskiest girls you've ever met. That's albacore, it's just a big fun party.

 

[luckydude]

Don’t fight fish up and down. If the fish is directly below the boat, drive away from them. You will lose line but you will plane them up to the surface. You may have to do this a number of times to get the fish to the boat. I always have the boat in gear motoring slowly forward. It is easier to control the fish by leading to the boat than it is when the boat is stationary.

Sean, agreed. In general, I keep the boat in gear on pretty much anything bigger than rock fish. Salmon, halibut, tuna, all in gear. It helps that I have auto pilot so I don't have to be at the helm. For bluefin, I turn the auto pilot off because we are frequently turning to move the line away from the prop. But it's always in gear. We slow down from the 12 knot trolling speed to about 3 knots. Enough, not too much. And with bluefin, one guy at the helm watching, the other guy fighting the fish, and we switch off, it's a team sport for sure.

 

[enfish]

Congrats on that fish! Fish of a lifetime from your own boat! I have a bunch of buddies in Santa Cruz who come down every year for a 2.5 day trip out of San Diego to catch big bluefin. Of course this year on our trip, the BFT we got were all smaller. They all went home and took their own boats out to get the bigger models. But I would love the albacore to show back up down here. It's been 17 years since I caught one on my boat!

One of my buddies' photos got featured in the Santa Cruz Sentinel!

Larger bluefin schools headed here? | Fish Rap

For months now, we’ve been reporting the exciting catches of awesome giant bluefin tuna from Central Coast and Monterey Bay waters.

www.santacruzsentinel.com

 

[Hookup1]

I’m swamped right now with personal stuff but will give you best practices for tournament level fishing in Cape May. Setup is similar but I’m not familiar with the knots you are using.

Bad Company blueprints all its reels with Cal Sheets in SanDiego. Cal does both Penn and Shimano reels. Cal does a lot of work for the long range tuna guys as well. If you are world record line class fishing you need all this otherwise simpler is ok.

Tournament boat I fish on uses Shimano reels with heavier drag cams and hollow core braid backing with mono top shots to windon. I use Penn 16VSX reels with 80lb hollow core braid backing with mono top shots to windon for my standup tuna and offshore rods.

We use Basil Papas for a lot of our rigging. www.bhptackle.com Typical setup is hollow braid backing (spliced loop), 100 yard top shot (spliced loop both ends), heavy wind-on leader (spliced loop) to crimped swivel and short trace leader to hook.

This is for 80lb class or better for blue marlin setup. We are not Wicked tuna fishing so our setup is not geared that way but rigging is similar. For white marlin or small tuna 30lb setup eliminates splices and uses back-to-back nail/tube knots. This knot works really well with braid.

Everyone thinks braid “cuts” the mono. Not true. Braid is slippery. Bench testing on my own you can watch it pull out.

For 30lb class stuff we “tie” but for heavy tournament rigging we buy top shots and wind-on’s. For your albacore the 30lb “tied” setup is good enough. Back-to-back nail knots work well for braid splice. Below is my 60lb PowerPro braid kite line with spacer bead spliced in. I also use same knots for 50lb PowerPro to 30lb Suffix HighViz top shot. If I fish a window leader on 30lb I do short 2' Bimini and Albright the 50/60 fluro leader. All knots are dabed with Bob Smith Industries Insta-Flex flexible cyanoacrylate.

 

[luckydude]

Everyone thinks braid “cuts” the mono. Not true. Braid is slippery. Bench testing on my own you can watch it pull out.

And everyone is correct. There is a popular knot, the RP knot, that is you fold the mono over. go through the mono loop with the braid, wind around the two mono down towards the tag, wind up towards the loop and go through the loop again. Easy to tie, looks nice, a lot of tuna caught on this knot. Except if you do that with 130 pound mono and 80 pound braid, the braid cuts the mono somewhere around 40 pounds of pressure.

I've demonstrated that it cuts the mono multiple times.

I think the reason you think it doesn't is you don't put that much pressure on the knot.

It's not just braid, my bench testing shows mono cutting mono. It's all a matter of how much pressure, things start to go sideways at around 35-40 pounds. It's all fine less than that.

 

[Hookup1]

And everyone is correct. There is a popular knot, the RP knot, that is you fold the mono over. go through the mono loop with the braid, wind around the two mono down towards the tag, wind up towards the loop and go through the loop again. Easy to tie, looks nice, a lot of tuna caught on this knot. Except if you do that with 130 pound mono and 80 pound braid, the braid cuts the mono somewhere around 40 pounds of pressure.

I've demonstrated that it cuts the mono multiple times.

I think the reason you think it doesn't is you don't put that much pressure on the knot.

It's not just braid, my bench testing shows mono cutting mono. It's all a matter of how much pressure, things start to go sideways at around 35-40 pounds. It's all fine less than that.

AI: The RP knot (Royal Polaris knot) is a very strong and reliable connection, retaining an estimated 80% to 90% of line strength when properly tied, though it is slightly less strong than an FG knot.

Royal Polaris are the long range guys out of SanDiego. They know their stuff. You should be getting better results than 40lbs. The RP knot is basically an Albright knot where the mono loop at the top of the knot will be the weak link. If the mono moves inside the twisted braid knot the load is not being distributed to the knot and the load shifts to the bend in the mono. I would expect it to break there every time (where the braid comes into the knot and where the tag end exits.

I would try three things:
1) Use fluorocarbon leader if you are not using it now. It's much harder than regular monofilament.
2) Wet it down well when tightening and help the knot slide together. Then tighten really well.
3.) A little dab of the flexible cyanoacrylate.

One of the guys I tournament fish with is a big tuna fisherman. Bigeye and bluefin in our Northern canyons. Swears by FG knot to connect braid to mono.

I don't use either the RP or FG.

 

[luckydude]

I would try three things:
1) Use fluorocarbon leader if you are not using it now. It's much harder than regular monofilament.
2) Wet it down well when tightening and help the knot slide together. Then tighten really well.
3.) A little dab of the flexible cyanoacrylate.

One of the guys I tournament fish with is a big tuna fisherman. Bigeye and bluefin in our Northern canyons. Swears by FG knot to connect braid to mono.

I don't use either the RP or FG.

I just use the FG knot. And I test all my gear to 70 pounds of pressure. The FG knot, when properly cinched down, is a great knot, much stronger than the RP knot.

Don't get me wrong, the RP knot is a fine knot for salmon, halibut, rockfish, lings, all of your smaller fish. And it's easy to tie on a boat. When I'm tieing at home, it's always the FG.