FishnGrega

As some of you may know, I went out on a chartered BFT trip with an old fishing friend of mine. Doug recently has moved back to his home state of New Jersey and has longingly missed the fishing experiences we all sometimes take for granted around here. If it wasn't for Doug I would have never experienced this trip of a lifetime.

We launched out of Green Harbor at 0400 heading to the infamous grounds of big bluefin tuna. I really didn't know what to expect, or how to attack these giant beasts. But I did know one thing which was; I was going to catch something big on my friend's plugs. I knew that George (aka Mason's dad) would love the fact that I caught something on his own work, and I wanted to give him a photo of his plug in the mouth of a giant BFT. Well that was all about to happen.

As we got closer to the hunting grounds we spotted a pod of breaking BFT in the distance. I personally was in awe seeing these 200 300 maybe even 800lb fish leaping out of the water. There was fish for miles! It was insane how many pods of fish would pop up. My stomach was doing back flips with all of this excitement. I quickly attached a blue over white spook and started casting into the boiling mix of fish. Pod after pod with no hook ups I was getting a little frustrated, but not giving up hope an still having a crap load of fun.

After a couple hours and a few missed fish from the captain and Doug. Magic happened.... WHAM!!!! I WAS ON BABY!!!! WACK WACK WACK WACK WACK I sent those hooks home and I was hooked up for sure! I've caught blue fin before but nothing like this. She was pulling drag off my VS275 (with the drag pretty much locked down) off like nothing was going to change her direction. She wanted to run and there was no changing her mind anytime soon. After I fought with her for about 20-30 min I had to pass up the rod to Doug so I could catch my breath stretch out my arms and back. He gave it hell for about another 5-10 min till I could get back in the saddle and land this monster.

After what seemed like forever and 10lbs lighter from all the sweat I lost fighting this fish. She was doing circles at the boat till she was finally gaffed and tail wrapped. After a few photos of her in the water it was time to get her aboard. With a gaffe in hand the captain and I gave it the old 3 count and she was finally in the boat. Beat down and excited all in one I couldn't believe what just happened nor fathom the fact that I just caught this huge fish. After a quick measurement and a guesstimated weight of 200+lbs we were off in search of another boiling pod.

Doug finally got his chance hooking up for good this time and what would be the last fish of the day. He gave her hell for a while till he passed the rod over to the other guy we were chartering the boat with so he could feel the wrath of a big BFT. After his weak performance and some humorous harrassment from myself and the Captain, Doug was finally able to the his fish next to the boat. After a couple hero pics next to the boat the Captain had her revived so she could fight another fight some other time, as Doug laid sprawled out on the stern of the boat in exhaustion.

This experience was something that I will never forget, and will one day live again if not this year then hopefully the next.