Decided to try for Stripers on Saturday since the reports were unbelievable from the day before and head offshore for bluefins on Sunday. After having to turn back to correct a problem with the power steering, we got everything straight and headed out. Stop over some marks on the bottom, and just as I’m setting the third rod, the first two bow up! Mojo rig comes unglued but the stretch 30 is holding strong and really sucking out some line. It didn’t take long to rule out that it wasn’t a rockfish, and an hour later we had a 150 class bluefin coming to the boat, 30 pound test! Fought him on a tld25 and luckily we were in shallow water. With LESS than a foot to go before gaff range, he shakes his head and breaks off! We were really in disbelief that we had fought a perfect fight and lost him this way. My buddy that fought it has been chasing giants all winter in MHC and wasn’t lucky enough to catch one, so I think he was happy to have gotten one that close! And after hearing of a couple other bluefin breakoffs near us, I put the next stretch on an 80wide
-fool me once shame on you, fool me twice….
Ended up catching 5 smalls stripers and a couple sharks before calling it a day.
Sunday we left the docks early and pointed her to the 300. Get the first line in the water and 20 feet later we are hooked up, I wish every day started like that! Fought it for over an hour as we had some issues with a recently rebuilt 80w and could not get the drag we needed to. We all started to get impatient because fish are being caught everywhere, but we took our time and put this one in the boat, 161 pounds/65". We were 6 miles away from the fleet when it ended and by the time we got reset, the smokin morning bite was over. Trolled around for the rest of the day without another lick. Some boats caught them pretty good, we weren’t one of them today. Called it a day early and headed back to the dock happy to have gotten one!
Saturday Bluefin on a tld25
Oregon inlet 2/20- INSHORE Bluefin
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