August 27th, 2018
On Friday Gina and I went out with Craig and his son Justin. To sum it up we went the wrong way. The fish were to the west and we were to the east. We had 3 knock downs and a Joe Shute that was cut off by a toothy critter.
On Sunday it was just me and Gina. We found fish around the Virginia wreck. 6 miles short of the wreck we found plenty of birds, whales and bait. However we couldn't find any tuna. We picked up and ran to a dragger that was about 2-3 miles south of the wreck. As you can see from the screen shots, we found the tuna. It didn't take long before the way back Joe Shute got hit. I cleared lines as Gina got into her belt and harness. I always tell everyone that gets strapped into the harness "if the reel locks up or the line wraps around the tip and you think you may be pulled in, drop to your knees." I have seen several fishing shows where someone on the show gets pulled over. To add an extra layer of protection Gina also gets a safety line attached to her. Well long story short, I turn my back and the next thing I know Gina is being dragged on the floor. I quickly unhooked her and fought the fish. She was physically ok but she was mentally pissed. I could tell that she was mad that I didn't let her finish the fight. Oh boy, I'm rarely in the dog house so I need to make this up to her. It wouldn't take long as one of our wide tracker bars gets slammed. The fish didn't have a chance. Gina did a great job and as you can see we went home with a matching pair of bluefin tuna. They both weighed about 50-55 pounds each. We also picked up a few mahi. As you can see from some of the photos it was really nice out. As soon as we caught Gina's fish we packed up very quickly. The forecast was spot on. Here comes the wind. The last 20 miles home were in some choppy conditions with winds blowing 15-20kts with gust up to 30. Despite getting our butts kicked coming home we had big grins on our faces.
One last thing..Gina did a great job behind the wheel when I was fighting the fish. That was her first time working the wheel with a pinwheeling tuna.
