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Had one last try before what looks like a stormy weekend followed by going back to work next week. Found them slow today, with little interest in poppers so switched to a Duo Rough Trail Malice 130 lure. Had one take it but miss the single hook on the back but then hooked up a short while later. Popped it off at the side so not the best of pictures…

Sadly, maybe my last opportunity for a while… its been a fun Easter break.

Set out nice and early this morning, at a time most normal people are finishing off their nights dreams, but was faced a nightmare of a horrendous, lumpy sea ahead of me which kept speeds down to 6 knots & below. At one point I honestly thought of turning around, jumpimg in the car and driving South for a day on the Ebro…

Kept going but with a sea literally alive with waves found it hard to see fish like I had over the past week. White caps & seagulls looked all the same – just white markers on a sea of blue – but I kept looking.

Boat fuel is expensive and boats aren´t exactly the most frugal of vehicles so in the interests of maximising my fish/litre ratio have always hung a lure out the back whilst mooching around like this, trolling, looking for life & fish activity. Today, a tiny, little Bertox Natural Sardine…

Thought very little of it & expected exactly the same from it and as I saw gulls ahead of me started to gradually reel it in. Thats when I hooked up first, something seeing it far more interesting than me and snatching it just metres from the boat..!

Wasn´t a big fish, perhaps just 18-20kg but was a handful on quite light gear like this, a Saltiga 8000 with 50lb braid & 40lb leader. With just a single hook there was no need to bring onboard so I released it boatside.

Immediately after, and with Tuna Gods obviously looking down on me, could see dancing gulls no more than 100yds away so slowly approached, this time with the “big rod” ready.

Launched a popper close by the shoal which led to 4-5 big Tuna visibly pursuing it. First one lunged at it clearing the water completely but missed it whilst the second totally nailed it. On again after only 5 mins – luck of the gods…!

Put some serious heat on this one and it was in the boat in 20-25mins…

And todays hero of the day, again a Tackle House Feed 135mm, this time in total white, a colour I really like as it´s pretending to be nothing special…

Two in one day… 🙂

If its blowing…

Left the harbour very early again yesterday, as dawn broke.

Was fortunate to have a really calm sea ahead of me and quickly stumbled on a shoal of fish maybe 4nm out from Sitges, splashes in the water and Seagulls dancing above them the obvious markers of what lay below.

Crept up slowly so as not to spook them then the second cast was all it took to connect but this was immediately tougher than last weeks fish. Looking back at the Go-Pro we connected at 08:09…

Finally, at 09:46….

All on the same lucky lure as I used last week – Tackle House Feed 135mm Popper – this one now retired from active duty..!

Some collated Go-Pro footage, from the hook-up to just before the Go-Pro battery ran out, not that we were anywhere finished by then…

It is no coincidence that the last two Tuna I hooked up came at 07:30 and 08.09 – I think these fish are like many others and after a night of darkness feed heavily as dawn breaks.

They may also be less sensitive to our lines at this time which show more as the sun rises because I later made many other casts, right into similar breaking shoals, all without interest.

Once my arms recover I can test that theory again…

They actually started to arrive 2/3 weeks ago.

I tried for them from the off but no matter what lures I first flung at them, starting with small lures like these Bertox Natural Sardine soft plastic lures, Jackfin Pelagus & various metals, then moving up to Dual Adagios & Duo Pressbaits they just weren´t interested…

I had a go at sneaking out early in the morning, trying to catch them before breakfast – theirs and mine – but that didn´t work either…

I had pretty high hopes yesterday though as the sea was like glass, Tuna were breaking the surface everywhere but big lures, small lures, every design you could ever think off, all launched right into the feeding melee… again, damn, simply no interest…

Tried again this morning but it wasn´t ideal conditions. Far from it actually with a cold 20 knot wind pushing down from the North, but as Capt. Ralph once said, “if its blowing, we´re going”

Left Sitges at sunrise and was upon a shoal at just 2nm from the harbour but same as… simply no interest in anything I cast at them.

Mooched out a little bit further and after a few casts to several other busts, yet again without interest, spotted a flock of gulls moving North. Quick. Undoubtedly there were Tuna beneath then but these weren´t shoaling and pushing up small baitfish, they were behaving differently, they were moving.

I raced to catch up with them, eventually drawing parallel then launched a popper -Tackle House Feed 135 – just ahead of what I anticipated to be the head of the shoal.

It had barely touched the water when it was smashed by a Tuna going airbourne, taking it completely out of the water. We´re on..!

Adrenaline immediately kicks in and initially there´s a million and one things going on in your mind… am I still tight to the fish, is my drag set right, wheres the Go-Pro, wheres my camera, I must get a picture, I still need to wind in the other rod I stupidly left trolling, it´s going under the boat, the engine is still on, how long will this last, my line is near the propellors, I need to physically hang on somewhere because it´s rough and I´m either falling down or over-board. Unnecessary mental badness slowly proliferates too, shit – the Go-Pro won´t turn on, where´s the landing net, damn – a tackle box fell off the bait well and now there´s lures all over the floor, I´m gonna lose it…

Beyond the chaos and excitement you eventually find yourself in this zone where nothing matters – only that fish on the end of your line. Your line too… right now thats maybe 100m out, stretched out so tight you´ll hear it whistling in the wind, only fractions of a millimetre thick and all thats standing between glory & devastating disappoinment. If there´s ever a time to doubt the integrity of your knots and your tackle it´s here and now.

Furthermore, the simple aspect of Time works very differently when you are hooked up to fish like this – 5 minutes might seem like an hour, an hour might seem like 5 minutes… I couldn´t hazard a guess as to how long the fight/agony/wonder/hope lasted…

And so, eventually… When it came to the boat it was the similar class size of fish we usually see, 60-70lbs. I couldn´t lift it onboard – it´s size and the waves not helping – so released it boatside. I really wish it well and would like to think that some day, sometime in the future – when it´s bigger, and I´m wiser – we´ll dance again once more…

#roughseas, #nobait, #luresonly, #onyourown

Had a great day at sea yesterday with perfect weather and plenty of fish. One of the first up was the nice, round small Bluefin you see above

Then by lots of fortune, miles offshore, I found a tree…

Was full of life below it and I had several Wreckfish, a new species for me…

Bit best of all 6 really nice Dorado caught spinning a small baitfish lookalike casting lure…

Here are a couple…

I eventually moved on but before coming  home took a final drive past and sure enough the rod closest arched over for the biggest of the day…

Had a long day out in the sun today and it was great just to see these small Blue-Fin Tuna smashing into baitfish, flying out of the water, going totally airborne and cartwheeling through the sky.

They are the same age fish we caught earlier in the summer – but when they were much smaller – this is how fast they pack on the pounds and mature.

Underwater they seem to be almost made of metal…