MSYellowfin

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">First pic is pre storm, second pic is mid storm. Last pic is of tray of circle hooked rigged baits.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Fished the MBGFC Limited Tournament again this year. After studying Hilton?s and Terrafin we decided on fishing to an area 10 miles east, south east of the nipple. Left out around 3:30 AM and had a nice smooth ride out under autopilot. Had lines in dirty water and scattered weeds by 6:00 AM. Due to new laws and rules we had all our ballyhoo rigged with 8/0 circle hooks. Around 8:00 we had a billfish explode on the flat Moldcraft Wide range and miss but he dropped back and hit a naked hoo and circle hook. Billfish on! The fish makes a 3 min run and hook pulls out! We had set all the drags to 6lbs based on all I had read regarding circle hooks. Well we are miffed, but feeling good that we hooked a bill by 8 am. Well at 9 AM we get a bill that knocks down the starboard rigger Islander Hoo combo, but he misses then falls back to a spreader bar with ballyhoo that had a Berkely Gulp trailer with the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Berkley</st1lace></st1:City> installed hook. OK, now another bill on, fish greyhouding south and well hooked. We look port side and see another billfish on the surface chasing an Islander hoo. Two billfish!! We leave boat in gear while we drop back to the port bill while the spreader bar bill is dumping a 50 W like there is no tomorrow. Video camera out, start taping the chaos. Port bill never really gets hooked so now we settle in to fight the well hooked bill. 5 minutes later fricken hook straightens out!!!!!!!! And we lose fish!! Geeez what is happening!!!!! Around 1pm bill pops up on starboard Islander hoo and knocks it silly and makes a 10 second run with it, but never really gets hooked!!!! Horrible day for percentages for the Green E! 0 for 4!<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">For what it is worth, based on advice from others i.e. (Marlin Mag, etc..) we were running drags as light as possible with full strike set at 6lbs. When possible we let fish take bait for 5-8 seconds before moving up drag. Had Islanders rigged with hook about 1? in front of lure. Maybe it just was not our day, but man to raise 4 bills and not land a singe one!!<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">To top it off, one heck of a wind laden front hit us around 5pm while we were 48 miles SE of the pass. Slowly making 13 knot squat we made it back in some of the worst weather that I have ever been in for that long of a time. It took us around 3 hours to clear the pass. I have owned my boat (Contender 25) for 5 years and have never had conditions so rough and confused that just about every wave caused the props to slip and cavitate causing us to have to slow even further. My sister had a few choice new nicknames for the boat after this experience! We heard a boat named Crazy Bitch last year, well she now calls theGreen E Crazy Bastard!! Listening to the radio we heard numerous calls to Coast Guard for assistance. Even heard one lengthy dialoge between the CG and a 26 Regulator that was taken on water and not making headway south of OB.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">All and all quite an adventure. I will try and post a few pics later.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">MScontender

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MSyellowfin
2008 54C Viking "Jacquelyn"
2010 36 Yellowfin "Forgiven"
2010 24 Hurricane Deck Boat
2001 Contender 25 (sold)

Tuna Man

0-4:banghead:banghead:banghead what a shame, and to top it off your return trip. At least you were able to make it back all safe and sound.clap

whatcon

Damn, what a day. What else can you say other than "Glad you are all back safely".

PELAGIC PIRATE

Dang circle hooks:banghead (i only use them for chunking)

Nice report , as 4 bills raised in one day is quite a feat.

All blue marlin in the spread or whites ?

DISANTO

Good job raising 4 billfish. We haven't even seen one for a long while.

As for the circle hooks....most articles you read will be for sailfishing/white marlin. They tend to use very light wire small hooks. (The light wire penetrates easier in the sails jaw.) They are also usually live baiting or kite fishing.

That being said....most of the 8/0 light wire hooks are useless for blue marlin. You needto use at least a medium guage and preferrably a heavy guage. We use the 10/0 in-line lazer sharps.I am surprised though that the hook straightened with only 6lbs drag??

Anyways...at least you saw some billfish! Nice job. We were fishing there last week in good water. From the sounds of it, the blue water disappeared. At least there were stillsome nicefish there.

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Corpsman

Dang the luck. Cant wait for the pics. Glad everyone made it home safe.

curtpcol

Four bill fish in one day sounds like they were hungry . Not real sure about the circle hooks right now been hearing a lot of misses and hooks being pulled .

T-Cat was telling me just howrough it was not much rain but the wind was howling.

Glad all made it back in safely

MSYellowfin

Disanto: You are right on the drag and I mispoke. The reel with the spreader bar was a TLD50 that I use to pull the spreader bar and the drag was higher than 6lbs. Not actually sure what it was as I do not normally pull a lure attched to the spreader, I normally run a separate rod and reel with a bait rigt behind the spreader so I can pull in the spreader if needed. As an after thought I stuck a hooked Berkley Powerbait on the end, which in hindsight was a no no.

As to whether they were whites or blues, I think the first was a blue and the others were whites? Hard to tell with all the adrenline going though.

MScontender

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MSyellowfin
2008 54C Viking "Jacquelyn"
2010 36 Yellowfin "Forgiven"
2010 24 Hurricane Deck Boat
2001 Contender 25 (sold)

Xiphius

I hear you, we had 50 miles of hookinnorth windand confused seas. Chip Haffner was with us (Lil Kahuna) and we tried hailing you throughout the day. We ending fishing east (10-15 miles) of the spur. We didn't break anything just had a slow go of it. Made it the scales with 20 minutes to spare...