Can you say TUNA!!! 12/29, 12/30,12/31

[timbo615]

My uncle is a long time local who moved to Tenn. Whenever he comes in town i make sure i have plenty of time to take him out. This past week Thursday-Saturday looked to be the best days.
12/29- Took another person out with us, his son-in-law, never really been offshore before
We ran out to the pride in hopes of playing around with some ajs. We get there and the ajs are all over. Uncle throws out a soft plastic and gets hooked up. He saw that it wasnt a aj as it was really silver. We think it a bonita some no big deal. He then gets it close and sees this

About a 20 lb blackfin AWESOME.....i have never seen one caught so it was really cool being caught on my boat. My uncle had also never seen one so it was his first. Pretty cool feeling.
We fished the pride for a couple more hours and saw some more tuna but never got another one.
We did get some ajs. Some on topwater and some on pins on the bottom. Here is the biggest of the ajs


We moved to the pipe in about 85ft of water hoping to get some mangos and red grouper. We got a ton of rudder and lesser ajs. We had a hard time getting bait down. We managed to get some nice mangos 18" and 20" and a keeper red grouper. Of course we got many of the big gags everyone is talking about.





12/30- We tried to go back out to the pride but it was way to rough. We stopped at the pipe but got nothing really going. Went in closer and ended up with a nice king. Only his second king. Caught lots of shorts but nothing to write about


12-31- This was the best weather day. We had another newbie on the boat, my wife's dad. With flatt seas we headed out to the pride but only stayed for a short time as it was full of boats. We ended up with 4 ajs before we left. All freelined baits. We headed to another wreck that i had only been to once. This wreck was in 100ft and we got more ajs. We then went to the pipe again to try and get dinner. We had action but not the kind we wanted. Short reds, gags, and small scamps. No mangos but we only fished in for a little while as i had dinner plans to get back for.

Overall it was again a great time with my uncle. He will be back in march and we plan to do it again.

[sagory]

That's awesome!! 3 days in a row!! Very nice fish

[ozona79]

great report. I thought there would be tuna out there. We didn't see any up north where we fished.

[sandman12]

that tuna is BA! I have heard of them being cuaght at 7-mile out here, crazy.

[Ish]

Great report and fish !

[timbo615]

Why did you think the tuna would be here? I was under the impression as I had spoke to a couple people and they said there was only one tuna run a year and it was near april with the kings. This was the fish I was going to try and get this year. I told my uncle he messed up my plans. Of course I was joking as that was a welcome surprise. 2011 I went after ajs 2012 I want tuna. I figured I would try for a different fish each year. This will be my second year with the boat so I am on a good start.

[jj lynn]

Very nice report..

[crossbones]

why would you think they wouldn't be there? bft are around year round. there is no 'run'. bft's might be a little more or a little less prevalent due to water conditions and or bait but they are here year round. you are much more likely to come across them in water 120' and deeper but they will inhabit big structure in shallower water because there is plenty of food.

good job, glad you had fun, now go get some more!

[Germ]

BFT is pretty damn awesome

[johnD]

sweet !!