# One Shot 6/7, 6/9



## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

Saturday I took my brother and one of my best friends from back in GA fishing. We pointed it South in search of the color change Hilton's was showing NE of the spur. We found the line at about 8am and worked it all day. Had a nice wahoo in the boat by 830 and shortly after had another hoo demolish a brand new black bart plunger but miss the hook. The lure he did not miss and will have to have a new skirt after it's first time out. Anyways, back to trolling and we work down a beautiful line with a good current push. We see some tuna going nuts off the line a little ways so we head that direction. Do several circles with no takers so we move in for a closer look at what is in the middle of the frenzy. We see that it is a dead whale shark with other sharks feeding on it and yellowfin everywhere. As we are idling looking at this fish our short flat gets slammed and starts melting the 50. We have the fish on for 10 minutes or so and he comes unbuttoned. We ease back over to the whale shark and this time our port rigger gets hammered and this fish is taking line effortlessly. My brother gets harnessed up and we proceed to battle for the next hour and a half. Unfortunately we ended up pulling the hook right under the boat, heart breaking to lose a big tuna like that. We trolled around for a bit longer but started running low on ice so we headed back up the hill.

Today I went back to the same area from Saturday. This time was not productive. The nicely formed lines were busted up and the best water I saw all day was a blended blue/green. Plenty of bait but no action. Started to head back in this afternoon and came up on an area with several football sized grass patches with a lot of birds working the area in 600'. See some tuna up on top so we caught a couple hardtails off the grass and moved towards the tuna. As soon as we pull up I get a live bait right in the middle of the tuna and it gets eaten immediately. Fight the fish for 20 minutes and hook pulls. UGHHHH! That's how it goes I guess. Headed back in with the skunk on my back today.

For you seasoned tuna guys, is there any reason that causes these hooks to pull? First hook was a J hook on a bally, second hook was a circle hook on the live bait. Both hooked solid and fought, only for the hook to pull. Very frustrating and any advice would be appreciated.


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## JD7.62 (Feb 13, 2008)

Man one of these days Im going to get out there!


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## JoeZ (Sep 30, 2007)

Saw y'all heading out Saturday while we were launching boats for the snapper tournament. 

Fine job, man. Tuna just do that from what I can tell.


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## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

JoeZ said:


> Saw y'all heading out Saturday while we were launching boats for the snapper tournament.
> 
> Fine job, man. Tuna just do that from what I can tell.


I had planned to fish the tournament but just couldn't pass up trolling that rip!


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## SoCal619 (Nov 18, 2011)

That's a nice wahoo dude! I'm drooling looking at that fish, can't wait to head that way soon.


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## Cap'n Davey (Mar 26, 2014)

Peeps, you did far better than most. Nice Hoo!!!!


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## Kim (Aug 5, 2008)

Many hook "pulls" after fighting the fish for a while are caused by giving a little slack in the line and the hook falling out of the fishes torn mouth. You will see more statements about pulled hooks on fish that were hooked trolling and fought for a while than you will see for poppers, chunking or live baiting. Look for it when you watch videos that people post and you will be surprised at how often you see it and it's the same thing for broken rods and high sticking or too much drag. I plead guilty to all of the above at one time or another! Dang almost forgot, nice fish and a great job putting them in the box!


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## Tobiwan (Apr 27, 2012)

Damn sounds like you found the action, just got unlucky. 

I'm sure you'll get'em next time.


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## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

Kim said:


> Many hook "pulls" after fighting the fish for a while are caused by giving a little slack in the line and the hook falling out of the fishes torn mouth. You will see more statements about pulled hooks on fish that were hooked trolling and fought for a while than you will see for poppers, chunking or live baiting. Look for it when you watch videos that people post and you will be surprised at how often you see it and it's the same thing for broken rods and high sticking or too much drag. I plead guilty to all of the above at one time or another! Dang almost forgot, nice fish and a great job putting them in the box!


Yea no slack happened on either fish. Both popped under steady pressure. We were putting the wood to em so maybe I need to back off the drag a bit


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

sniperpeeps said:


> Yea no slack happened on either fish. Both popped under steady pressure. We were putting the wood to em so maybe I need to back off the drag a bit


I would say no to backing off the drag. Just a bad hookup, hook not in solid place. Sammy from Salty Water Tackle lands 400# Blue Fins in 20 to 40 minutes. In order to do that you have to pour the coals to them. Just keep at it and you will win some and lose some. That my friend is what keeps us going back for more abuse.


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## Wetback (Jun 10, 2014)

keep giving the bluefin hell one will be on ice one of these days!


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## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

lobsterman said:


> I would say no to backing off the drag. Just a bad hookup, hook not in solid place. Sammy from Salty Water Tackle lands 400# Blue Fins in 20 to 40 minutes. In order to do that you have to pour the coals to them. Just keep at it and you will win some and lose some. That my friend is what keeps us going back for more abuse.


That was what we did. Could have played music on the mono it was so tight. Guess it was just bad luck. Either way I think that fish cured my brother of big game fishing it beat him up pretty good.


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