Tuna Dog in Hatteras for More Bluefin!!! 8

By Del Stephens "Tuna Dog".  I'm back out in Hatteras fishing with the boys from Tuna Duck Sportfishing and it's a good thing we planned to stay in Hatteras for a week because the weather has been cold and extremely windy at times. Our blue fin tuna trip started out saturday morning to a wild bar crossing with breaking 10 footers on each side of us but once we got out into open water we ran east 20 miles to find some structure and start the hunt in 55 degree water. We were targeting blue fin tuna but we had a variety of tackle out to entice other species while we searched. Saturday was pretty quite as we only landed a small wahoo and a couple of false albacore.
 
Sunday morning we met at the boat and the conditions had deteriorated overnight so we decided to hold off for a better day.
 
Monday morning we awoke up to a slight breeze and the buoy was only showing 5 ft. seas so we had hopes of running offshore again.
 
Dick Crossley and Bud Hosner had heard the fishing was better to the north up and decided to book a charter out of Oregon Inlet while on their way down to meet us…We decided to stay with our skipper in Hatteras and met on the boat at 6:30am.

Dick and Bud arrive from Oregon Inlet in style.

A short 20 miles ride out over a smooth bar and we were soon deploying the heavy gear. We were fishing about an hour when Dick and Bud showed up after running south 45 miles to where we were working the warmer water. By 1:30pm we wondering if the blue fin tuna were still around as the day was turning out to be just a boat ride. The boys on the other boat had worked 5 miles back up the coast towards Oregon Inlet and about 2:00pm we had a radio call they had found the fish and were hooked up.

Dick Crossley with a nice 190 lb. blue fin tuna.

Dan Rooks, our skipper on the 50 ft. Tuna Duck, yelled down from the flybridge for us to quickly pull the gear and get ready to run. A short 20 minute run to where the boys on the Carolinian were hooked up and we were quickly putting the gear back out in eager anticipation. It was only a matter of a few minutes and we had a boil on the long rigger and our first blue fin tuna was hooked up. The mate grabbed one of the other rods jigging it up and down and number two was soon on the hook. My friend Anthony jumped in the fighting chair and after a 25 minute battle had the 142lb beast up beside the boat. We put two gaffs into the head and pulled it through the back door. A few high fives and his first blue fin was on the deck. Anthony was elated to see the fish on the deck and trembling from the hard fought battle.

Anthony with a nice 142 lb. BFT.

Fish number two broke off soon after the hook up but after getting everything in order we were back to trolling and it wasn't long before we had another double and this time my lovely bride, Weddy, was in the fighting chair. Pulling and tugging, the fish was giving and taking, and she was soon getting warm from the powerful tug of war going on just below the boat. The fish finally succumbed and came along side the boat ready to stick an orange tag in it's back before releasing.

Weddy's caught and tagged fish.

A few more fish were hooked and broke off before I had my chance in the chair.

The pandemonium was non stop for two hours on both boats and our partners on the other boat were in shock by the power of these magnificent fish. They hooked 9 fish and landed 2 while releasing one of them. Dick Crossley landed and kept a 190 pounder after almost a two hour battle and when he made it back to the house he was still shaky 4 hours later. The action for us was very similar hooking 8 fish and landing 3. We tagged and released 2 of them since the regulations only allow one fish per charter boat per day in North Carolina.

The action was intense and reminecent of my trip the year before. The key to this fishery is finding the fish but once you do the action can be incredible.

We arrived back at the dock 2 hours later than normal as our skipper was intent on each of us landing a fish and it was going to be a late night as we had to celebrate back at our beach house.

The weather today is too rough to fish so were resting and taking life easy waiting for our next opportunity to run offshore, we are here for a week and the forecast looks promising for later in the week and into the weekend, so things should get interesting again if yesterday was any indication.

More to follow once we get back on the water..
 
Del