The Outdoor Line Forum

I just got back from Prince Edward Island last night and all I can say is....WOW

I had heard good reports from friends about PEI, but I really had no idea what I was in for. Heck...Mike Campbell from Lowrance and I didn't really know many of the details of this trip besides that we were fishing with Scott Bruce of Bruce's Tuna Charters and that we needed to get our butts over there.

We put all of our trust in our friend Tommy Zombetaglou, who is the Northeastern US Simrad rep, to put this all together and my gawd did he come thru

Campbell and I took the redeye out of Seattle last Tuesday, which consisted of flights from Seattle to Vancouver, Vancouver to Toronto, and finally Toronto to Charlottetown, PEI. When we landed in Charlottetown a nice lady that worked for the tourism board was kind enough to show us on a map where we were fishing. "North Lake...it's right over here on the east end of Prince Edward Island," she says. Mike and I looked at each other like...O.K....check that detail off the list

Since Tommy Z and Ginsburg weren't coming in until 6:00 p.m. we stashed our bags and headed into town to do the tourist thang for a while. It didn't take us long to find a tank full of lobsters. We checked on bringing some home and it would have been easier to just buy them here, so we opted out. While on PEI we ate tons of lobster though

They are starting to raise halibut on the island too

Mike and I hit three different restaurants in Charlottetown in search of some of the locally famous seafood and every place we went we found something tastey. Crab dip, mussels, clams, mussels, more mussels, and even more mussels.

We finally ended up at the Merchantman Pub and Restaurant, which had a small selection of local brews and some killer grub. After a couple of local brews and a taste test of their pub rum we decided to head back to the airport. Ten pounds heavier but no worse for wear!

When we left I was struck with HORROR
I got Nellie'd

The boys from New Joy-zee finally landed and we drove in the rental car the 45 minutes from Charlottetown to a small town called Souris to check into the Rollo Bay Inn. It was a slightly dated hotel with nice clean rooms and not too expensive. Perfect for fisherman
Before we hit the hay for the night we ran into town for some chow at the Sheltor Harbour. The local mussels would become a nightly snack for us...good stuff

The next morning we grabbed some brekky at the Blue Fin Diner and then drove another 20 minutes over to North Lake and met up with Scott Bruce and his dad Walter. Walter has been a blue fin tuna fisherman and lobsterman for 51 years...nuf sed
They both own 45 foot lobster boats that are ALL deck. Not to worry though, there's also inside seating to get out of the rain, as well as a stand up head. These are killer work boats and provide an ultra stable platform for tuna charters. Both of these guys are nothing short of awesome. They are as professional as they come, courteous, and awfully darned good fisherman

PLUS...both boats were well stocked with food. Can you say LOBSTER SANDWICHES

North Lake is a small harbor with a narrow entrance out to the open water. We would soon find out just how close the tuna are to the harbor entrance

A look at the North Lake harbor entrance

Scott ran about 300 hundred yards before we stopped to pick up some live mackeral. It didn't take long to load up on mack's and off we went to the tuna grounds.

Ten minutes later we stopped on the "tuna grounds". The sounder started beeping immediately and Campbell and I looked at each other like...."Really?"

One minute later we had two huge tuna snacking on baits at the side of the boat and a few minutes after that Scott tossed a mackerel over the side with a 10/0 Mustad circle hook in it and WHAMMO!

Are you fricking kidding me?!!!!!!

Campbell was up first and we all got to see just how strong these fish are. The main line was like a banjo string for crying out loud

30 minutes later Mike peeled off his jacket to cool off and watched as all the line he just picked up evaporated off the spool again. It would be the first of many dog fights we would experience with giant blue fin tuna on Prince Edward Island


To Be Continued.....

Wow pretty damn cool man. I love the huge decks on those boats. Looks like one even had a picnic table. Hurry up and put more pics on! Happy Birthday also bud.

What an amazing trip Brandon

I'm waiting on some photos from Tommy Z and Ginsu. In the meantime I'm cranking on video. Tons and tons of video from this trip.

I'll have some footage up soon of us feeding these monster brue feen tuna

Stay tuned!

Looks like a once in a lifetime trip Robbo. Can't wait to see some fish photos

Half the fun on this trip was feeding these huge blue fin next to the boat. I uploaded a short video yesterday that shows just how close they are. The fish in this video are all between 400 and around 1,000 pounds. Totally awesome

Here's the video link:
http://video.theoutdoorline.com/view_vi ... ategory=mr

Fast forward to dinner after day 2 of our Prince Edward Island blue fin tuna trip
Two nights in a row we met up with Scott and Walter Bruce at this totally awesome little restaurant in Souris called the Breakwater

The restaurant was in a nice little house that overlooked the harbor. Turns out Scott's niece Alicia worked there (the Bruce's are everywhere) and he highly recommended that we eat there. After gorging ourselves on even more great food for the second night in a row Campbell and I are shaking our heads in dismay at how amazing the whole trip has been thus far. "How could this honestly get any better?" we axed each other.

That's when Scott chimes in and says that he's going to use up his one tuna tag of the year the next day with us. We can actually harvest a blue fin tuna....seriously???? Campbell and I looked at each other and began busting a gut laughing. Just when we thought it couldn't get any better. Well...check off another box on the list


Each boat in the tuna fleet gets exactly one blue fin tag per year and if they are chartering they have to call in the night before to say they are going to harvest one. By doing this they can ensure that charter boats don't go out and high grade fish until they get a monster. If they don't catch a tuna on the day they call it in...tough luck. There goes your tag

Like the previous two days we stopped short to get bait and then made the big long ten minute run to the tuna highway. This time we stopped in 93 feet of water and "Beeep, beeep, beeep, beeep, beeep!"...the sounder started chirping about a tuna down below the boat.

There was definitely a big one down there but getting it to bite wasn't going to be as easy as the previous two days. This tuna and the others with it didn't want to come up to feed so Scott and Walter rigged up a couple of Coke bottles with rubber bands to float some live mackeral away from the boat. On the down wind side Walter rigged up a kite with an offshore clip and dangled a live mackeral about 100 feet away from the boat off that setup.

30 to 45 minutes went by with nothing and we were all thinking..."Ok, this is more like it."

Then...all heck broke loose on the kite rig. There was a huge splash under the kite like someone had dropped a VW bug into the water and within half a second the huge 130 Penn was howling. Line was smoking off the reel as fast as I've ever seen line peel. This blue fin tuna was hauling ass!


With about 40 yards of line left on the big spool Walter shouts at Scott...."Ya better give'r hell!" Scott dropped the hammer on the Catherine Kate and we roared off in hot pursuit of the big blue fin. 700 yards of line had vanished off the reel in less than 30 seconds. Insane

During the chaos Tommy managed to climb into the fighting chair. He was ready for what would turn out to be a two hour dog fight with a monster blue fin

The battle was typical of all the other ones we had already caught. Gain two inches, lose one...gain two inches, lose one. Then just when you thought you were making progress the blue fin would rip a bunch of line back out again and Tommy would have to start over. 7 or 8 times this fish ripped a bunch of line off the reel and Tommy would painstakingly grind away to get all the line back onto the reel.

After a couple of hours of this the fish came up and Scott whacked it with the harpoon. Then Walter sent a huge gaff hook thru it's mouth and we towed it back to the harbor alive. This way they could ensure that the meat wouldn't bruise and by swimming along behind the boat the tuna could expel any lactic acid from it's body and cool itself down. Just short of the harbor we stopped and cut it's gills to bleed it out. Lots and lots of blood! The P.E.I. tuna fleet is known for how well they treat their fish and they usually get top dollar because of it.

They hoisted it up at the plant and it weighed 672 pounds. Not bad for a mornings work

CBC News was even on hand to interview Scott, as they were going to do a special segment on the tuna fishery on P.E.I..

Some of the Bruce family came down to the dock to see the big catch. Kind of cool to see all the families come down to see the boats when they came in.

Look at the girth on this bad boy

Our tuna had a NMFS tag in it. Turns out the fish was tagged in the Gulf of Mexico. Scott is waiting to get more data on the fish.


The crew on the dock made short work of this tuna. Here they are schwacking off the head with a small chain saw. The video is from a phone so it's sideways, but you get the idea
http://video.theoutdoorline.com/view_vi ... ategory=mr

Here's Scott trying to get an idea of how oily the fish is. That's a key factor in how much money he will get for it.


This tail was built for speed


The mackeral in the live well getting a sneak preview of their next day on the water


To Be Continued

Totally, totally insane. Can't wait to hear all the stories behind the story! Chance of a lifetime for sure. Nice job Capt'n Love.

CM

What an epic trip!
But, if you think you're getting there without me next year.... THINK AGAIN!!!

Unbelievable!!!

Great pics and story! Would love to see those bad boys up close, couldn't imagine hooking into one of those....wait, yes I could!

K2

Here's the latest video installment from our blue fin tuna trip to Prince Edward Island

Hammer Time

http://video.theoutdoorline.com/view_vi ... ategory=mr