We went out on one of our science trips this past weekend. Our target was young of the year bluefin tuna. These critters were born in the Gulf of Mexico during the oil spill. Seems like they survived just fine. We were scheduled to take some scientists back after them next week but we found plenty and caught all they wanted this weekend. I guess we will have to go back after billfish next week instead. While catching the bluefin, we caught a lot of blackfin, false albacore, skipjack, and bullet tuna. We only caught 2 dolphin. We had a couple of wahoo on but did not boat either. After we had caught all of the bluefin, we just stayed out there. We heard the boats catching billfish around 50 fathoms. The day before, a boat had released 45 whites out past the 1000 fathom curve. We ran over fish to get out there to find a small fleet of boats picking some fish to finish their day. One had a Allison tuna. Some boats had double digit bills but the bite was not what it was the day before. We spent the night with about 5 other boats. All of those little tuna critters we had caught (other than the bluefin) make some good baits. We did not see any swords but some large blue sharks showed up. We hooked up with six of those during the night. The largest was about 10-feet long. At first light, we got on the troll and went 2 for about 10 on billfish. We caught a white and a roundscale spearfish. That is the 4th of these we have caught this summer. They definately fight a lot harder than whites. All 4 have whacked the boat when we got them in close. This one broke the tip of its bill on the boat. The weather turned nasty and driving up top was getting cold and wet so we left the fish and made the 100 nm ride back to Virginia Beach.
Dr. Ken Neill, III
IGFA Representative
www.igfa.org
www.pswsfa.com
www.vbsf-hookedup.net/healthygrin/
