10/4/2023
If this was my last offshore trip I'm okay with that. Talk about going out on a high note. Chris, JP and I wasted no time getting into the tuna. However before we arrived on the tuna grounds we had a tough time finding bait. This seems to be a normal occurrence once October hits. I can't tell you how many times I throw the net. After an hour and a half I was finally satisfied with the bait we had. This time of the year there are a lot of jellyfish around. If you don't get them out of your livewells your bait will die. They end up clogging your drains. We actually stopped 4 times so we could check the drains for jellyfish. Once we arrived we opened the livewells and saw our baits looking pristine. We left the Patch River and headed towards FI Inlet. Despite the outgoing tide the inlet was not bad.
A two hour ride out felt like a blink of an eye.
We only fished two lines. One had a 2/0 circle and the other had a 3/0 circle hook. Both setups had 40lb wind-on leaders.
When you chunk or use live bait here is the best tip I can give you. You need to have someone standing next to the rod at all times. Tuna hit quick and they spit out a bait just as fast. If you aren't ready to push that drag lever up you will miss the bite. I screwed up on this trip, I went to grab my binoculars and sure enough I missed the run off. DON'T LEAVE A ROD UNMANED!!!!
Within 15 minutes we had tuna blowing up around the boat. we ended going 3/5 on YFT and 2/2 on BFT that were both "overs". I felt bad for JP we both hooked up at the same time and I got my 53" over to the boat first so we took it. After about an hour JP got his BFT boatside and it was much bigger than mine but we had to cut it loose because you are only allowed 1 over.
We got there at 6:45 and by 9:30 we were already off to the mahi grounds. We found plenty but nothing of size.
The weather was spectacular. If you enlarge the video that takes place under water it seems as if you are down there along side the Mahi,
