They left for Korea last night and I finally can find time to relax.
But it doesn't last long as two Korean jigging/popping fishermen are coming tonight to fish bluefin in Cape Cod with me.
We fished bluefin for three days on Oct 11, 12 and 15. I feel they were extremely lucky to fish bluefin three days in a week at this time of the year in Cape Cod.
Oct.11
I picked Shin and cameraman, Lee up at JFK airport, NY at 10:00 pm and drove directly to Green Harbor, MA.
We had a double header on poppers around Peaked Hill Bar area early in the morning. Shin fought his first ever bluefin on a popper and I let Korean fisherman from Argentina a blueifn I hooked up with Dorado Slider floating. Both were in 120 - 130 lbs range and were landed within 10 minutes.
I was using new Jigging Master 8'6" Moster popping rod. I watched closely while the guy from Argentina fought the fish. The rod remined me of long 8'6" original Gloomis rods before Shinamo purchsed the company. thin and stiff, strong, sensitivity and crispy feeling.
Capt. Dom watched the rod action, he was impressed and asked me what kind of rod it is, not realizing it is new JM popping rod.
I think JM did pretty job to develop the popping rod.
In the afternoon, Yong hooked up a nice bluefin and Shin fought the fish for 30 minutes. We saw the fish twice on the surface and it was about 300 lbs big tuna. Though shin fought over 30 minutes, the fish was not ready to settle down for death circles. 8* But unfortunately the fish pulled the hook.
My camera was malfunctioning during the trip. I used Capt Dom's camera and I'll post pictures when I can upload pictures from his camera.
Oct 12
It was calm which is rare in Oct, but we rarely saw any surface action all day. We saw a few tuna jumping and they disappeared as we approached. As soon as we left the area, I saw Capt Chip's boat ran toward the spot we left and Chip radiod us that Adrian hooked a nice bluefin on a popper(I found later he used a Heru lure.
We came back and decided to film their fight.
Oct 15
After fishing bluefin on Oct 11 and 12, I decided to guide them in Panama as weather didn't look good for a while in Cape Cod and NC.
But I found a small window in Cape Cod on Thursday (10-15) before leaving for Panama on Friday. But I couldn't find a boat on Thursday. Fortunately Roger was willing to take us out on his 22' Boston Whaler out of Pamet Harbor, just south of Provincetown, Cape Cod.
Pamet Harbor is a cozy, beautiful harbor and it is short run to the fishing ground.
When we got there, tuna were jumping all over the places.
Shin got a bluefin with Tailwalk Gunz first.
Shin used a prototype Korean popping rod. It looked the rod is rated to 30 - 40 lbs, but Shin said it has dead lifting power of 100 lbs. 8@ he said new carbon developed by new technologies was used for the rod. After I watched him fighting a 53 - 55 inches bluefin with the rod, I asked whether they could add more backbone on the rod and he said any action and any backbone rod are possible by adding other material over carbon.
After we caught and released the fish, the surface action became quiet. We went to the fleet in NE corner. Lots of whales were there, but we didn't have many tuna marks there. We came back to Peaked Hill Bar area and decided to jig while drifting. I didn't take long until I got a hit on my Sevenseas Hooker jig. I normally use glow color daytime, but I used simple grey color of Hooker jig for experimentation and it worked.
I let Shin fight the fish and he was in awe how strong a bluefin is.
He caught 200 lbs dogtooth tuna in Northern Mariana off Saipan and 52 kg (116 lbs)GT in Komodo Island, Indonesia and he didn't have any problem to land them in short time, but he had hard time to fight with 170 - 180 lbs bluefin.
The rod he fought was heaviest jigging prototype rod which they made for me for big tuna. The rod lifted over 400 lbs object !!!
I can sense the new types of carbon will revolutionize rod making processes soon.
I put OTI 10/0 assist hook at the tail of the Hooker jig for experimentation. I feel assist hook at the tail of a jig can give better presentation than hook on top of a jig when using short jigs. Jigging Master PE5 filled with Vairvas Avani Big One PE6 was used.
Thanks Roger for the arrangement of your boat for the trip. Shin was so fascinated with bluefin fishing that he vowed to come back again next year.
I have no doubt the fishing shows will be a big hit in Korea.
I don't think anyone fought a nice bluefin on jig/popper in Cape Cod, a marlin in Panama and a big AJ on jigs in NC in a week like Shin did.
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