Fished the Annual Rotary Tuna Tournament last month, day one was a slow start up by the Berry Islands, no birds or signs of life so we run down to the North Andros AUTEC buoy and set up some drifts. The weather was unsettled so anticipating the drift direction was clumsy work , then the tide changed so after that we managed a few sets but no hits.
Some birds started working after lunch so we tried cedar plugs, but again nothing so back to drifting, 10 mins later we are hooked up.
My turn next, picked up this summer wahoo on a mono leader, this was the longest 34 lb wahoo I ever saw, he was likely hungry and had lost weight, I would expect a wahoo this big to weigh 10 pounds more in the winter months. There is a pending protest about the wahoo as first prize was given to a 48# fish that did not exist…..
That was it for day one, day 2 we go south to the Fresh Creek buoy and sit there for 4 hours catching nothing so by 1 pm we relocate to the north buoy again and hook up right away
This one ended up breaking off but soon after Rachael is into something much bigger –
This turns out to be the winning Lady Angler fish, 64# Yellow Fin Tuna and tournament record for women.
All in all it was a fun time out on the water dampened by poor tournament management by the officials including a ‘certified’ scale that read waaaay wrong on day one.
Cut to July 21 and another trip to the North AUTEC buoy, lots of action at dusk. Two 40 # Yellow Fin Tuna and I fought a big fish for 45 mins, turned out to be a Dusky shark about 300#. I never had a shark fight that hard before, they normally give up pretty quick.
__________________
Linear Mode
