The plan and target were Yellowfin Tuna. Hundreds of pounds of bait chunked and ready. Alas, mother nature would not cooperate. We left Harbour Town Marina in Dania Beach at 8 am and crossed to Bimini in 3-5 foot seas with occasional 6 foot swells. We were on a 32' Cape Horn which performed flawlessly. This is a solid seaworthy boat in this class. Ride and fish ability very comparable to Contender and Seavee. After arriving in Bimini the plan was to head to the Gingerbreads for some snapper and grouper. Plan A was easily accomplished. Unfortunately, the wind picked up even more. The south wind allowed us to ride with the waves toward Lucaya, but not really let us run and gun for birds. We made some stops along the way under frigates and picked up our first mahi, about 15 pounds. We decided to head in and re-group.
Day 2 the wind was angry. A shift to the NW and steady 18-22 knots created 5-8 foot seas. No way to chase tuna on this day. We decided to troll close to Lucaya and deep drop. Deep drop produced some Yellow Eye snapper. Around 5pm the wind started laying down and we figured Sunday morning would be our Tuna Opportunity.
Day 3 we woke up to very little wind finally. Plan was to head west to an area called Tuna City. We purchased the Roffs Report for Saturday which we did not get to use. We saw this target area had good water temps and a high rating as well as being on the way home so we figured it was our best bet. While the winds may have died, the ocean was still a little testy but manageable. We made it to the area in about an hour. The area looked a little fishy but we didn't see much. After some scouting, we noticed a very nice weed line in the distance and made our way. We put a full spread out. Two Bost Lures, the #63 daisy chain and the #20 on the long rigger. We also had some ballyhoo rigged up and added some meat. We deployed our Strike Point dredge which ran flawlessly.
It didn't take long. We had some schoolies raid the spread and then a fat 30 pounder on the ballyhoo. After resetting and trolling maybe 5 minutes, 3 of the 4 lines go off and 2 of the fish were over thirty and the other 15-18 pounds. It was madness and mayhem but we managed to subdue them all. One of them ate the Bost #20 in purple/black color pattern. This was all the fish we needed. I have no doubt had we continued we could have caught many more this size. This line was loaded.
The catch: