Tuna 2023
- Thread starter SilverFly
- Start date
I wonder if a Gamakatsu ewg hook in 2/0 or 3/0 would work? Not the heaviest of wire, though.
A bit off topic again but the bigeye fishery has taken off out of Fort Bragg (NorCal). I had a buddy fish out of there this past Saturday and they hooked three trolling the standard tuna jigs in a regular spread (lost all three). They did not come prepared to battle 150-200 pound fish. The fish checker told them she had checked 14 so far that day. Here's a pic of a 250 lb bigeye from last weekend.
Wow. I know large Bluefin aren't exactly new to NorCal waters, but are these monster Bigeye a new "thing" there? And any more yellowfin like the one last year, or was that a mis-identified Bigeye? Inquiring minds want to know!
Denwor54
Life of the Party
Not sure if I’m familiar with that hook but the key is the bend at the eye of the hook. I tied three on one hook and something nice size rocked me so it was donated to the fish gods. Take a pic of the hook your referring to I may have to pic some up.
Worm, Extra Wide Gap (EWG) - Gamakatsu USA Fishing Hooks
Gamakatsu's most popular and versatile hook, the legendary EWG worm hook is the gold standard in high performance wide gap hook designs.
gamakatsu.com
I’m with you I thought they were big eyes myself tell I read other wise.
Denwor54
Life of the Party
Those are the hooks that I tied mine on they probably would be fine on smaller albacore with a ten weight but on bigger set ups they might be a challenge. Just my 2 centsWorm, Extra Wide Gap (EWG) - Gamakatsu USA Fishing Hooks
Gamakatsu's most popular and versatile hook, the legendary EWG worm hook is the gold standard in high performance wide gap hook designs.
I caught a couple of 10-15lb peanuts on one a couple of years ago (2 clousers on a hook) out of Garibaldi, but I agree that a hot or big fish might bend it out. Haven't thrown them more than that one trip as I fell in love with nayat & tube baitfish for tuna—far more fun to cast, fish, and seem more successful (though it’s hard to do controlled studies of that last one).
CanoeGuy
Steelhead
Maybe one of these would be strong enough. I have used the 2/0 for bass flies and the wire diameter is smaller than a 2/0 Bluewater for sure - edited to include pics of flies tied on 2/0 PR378 and 2/0 Bluewater. I will never be able to understand how hook manufacturers decide what 2/0 means for different hook styles.
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Yes - the monster bigeye are a new thing. I’ve not heard of any yellowfin landed so far this season and the fish last year was confirmed as a yellowfin. Up to 2022, there were only a handful of bigeye records north of Point Conception in South/Central California. There’s a NOAA scientist collecting tissue samples from the exotics (bigeye, dorado, yellowfin, skipjack, striped marlin). He's sending them to Scripps in La Jolla to do a stable isotope analysis to determine which area of the Pacific the fish are coming from. Every large body of water has it's own signature ratio of isotopes, different from the California Current System, so they should be able to get a good idea.
This is very cool.
I had to brush up on my Pacific tuna ID. Ya never know...
Here's a report from Humboldt Tuna Club posted this am - he also fished out of Fort Bragg. His description is similar to many others that I read from this past weekend. I think these fish will (or maybe already have) work their way up the coast:
This report is a bit late, but we came home with 44 mixed grade albies. We fished mostly 13-24N and 18-28W over 2 days. We caught the most fish around 20/28.
Just like a lot of other boats this weekend, we lost a 100# BET, or possibly YFT (it had lots of yellow) right at the boat. It fought pretty hard for a solid 20 minutes, so we weren't surprised to see it pull the hook. At the end of the day on Sunday at 18/24, we hooked something +200lbs. This thing almost spooled the 50W with ~45lbs of drag before it gave me a chance to recover any line. We fought it for 1.5hrs only to lose it when the knot on the topshot failed. So bummed. Still had a great time, though!
Both large fish hit cedar plugs on the wayback line. The early fish on a purple plug and the later fish on a Mexican flag plug.
This report is a bit late, but we came home with 44 mixed grade albies. We fished mostly 13-24N and 18-28W over 2 days. We caught the most fish around 20/28.
Just like a lot of other boats this weekend, we lost a 100# BET, or possibly YFT (it had lots of yellow) right at the boat. It fought pretty hard for a solid 20 minutes, so we weren't surprised to see it pull the hook. At the end of the day on Sunday at 18/24, we hooked something +200lbs. This thing almost spooled the 50W with ~45lbs of drag before it gave me a chance to recover any line. We fought it for 1.5hrs only to lose it when the knot on the topshot failed. So bummed. Still had a great time, though!
Both large fish hit cedar plugs on the wayback line. The early fish on a purple plug and the later fish on a Mexican flag plug.
Reading this dredged up memory of the old exotic discussion on WFF. File this under blind squirrel finding a nut (or just a nut getting lucky) but I never really thought Bigeye would materialize in numbers anywhere near the PNW. Will be interesting to see if they continue North...
Old WFF post Feb 2016
The only part of me that wants to hook that is the part that likes food
Yeah, I'm on the fence but leaning towards just wanting to experience that first run before breaking it off. Hours of torture not so much
RCF
Life of the Party
The tug is the drug...
Feel the same way about a giant tarpon/anything else that weighs more than about 100 pounds... on fly gear, you might eventually catch that fish, but it won't feel much like you "won" LOL.
But man, do I want to know what it feels like to come tight to something like that on a fly line... talk about a TUG!
You say that like it wouldn’t be amazing and totally worth it.