Jigging Giant Bluefin Tuna - On The Water

The writer spells Anthony DeiCicchi halfway by way of the struggle with a 90-inch-class bluefin. Captain Dom Petrarca seems on from the helm. Photograph by Adam Eldridge

It was a curious feeling, dropping a jig to the underside and never being totally sure that I needed a fish to eat it. But there I used to be, tight as a bowstring and already sweating as my 9-ounce slab of metallic plummeted towards the marks that Captain Dom Petrarca had recognized as big bluefin tuna.

Within the early days of August 2022, a herd of 70- to 100-inch bluefin settled into the fishing grounds east of Cape Cod often called the “Regal Sword.” The precise Regal Sword was a 525-foot metal freighter that collided with the Exxon Chester oil tanker on a foggy day in 1979. Whereas the Exxon Chester was in a position to limp again to port with the rescued crew members of each vessels, the Regal Sword sank—shortly, in accordance with reviews—and settled to the underside in 270 toes of water.

Captain Dom Petrarca devotes his whole season to the pursuit of huge bluefin tuna with jigging and spinning deal with, to the exclusion of all different species.

Whereas the shipwreck attracts and holds groundfish, it’s the confluence of currents, a mixing of the chilly and heat waters from either side of Cape Cod, that draws huge faculties of sand eels to those nutrient-rich waters. The sand eels in flip appeal to mackerel, whales, dolphins, groundfish, and all sizes of bluefin tuna. Tuna captains in search of that collision of marine life, use the wreck as a reference level for zeroing in on a chew that may be occurring “north of the Sword,” “west of the Sword,” and so forth.

Whereas I’m new to fishing for large tuna on jigging gear, Petrarca has been bringing light-tackle “knives” to tuna gunfights for the reason that early 2000s. Again in 2010, when many fishermen had been nonetheless determining the best way to rig for and struggle 50- to 60-inch tuna on spinning gear, Petrarca set the bar with a 400-pounder taken on spinning gear and a RonZ.

Apart from the harpooners and spotter-plane pilots, you’d be exhausting pressed to discover a constitution captain who’s spent extra time scanning the Atlantic for bluefin than Petrarca. Within the mid-2000s, following a increase within the numbers of small bluefin tuna, Dom, who had simply begun his constitution enterprise, Coastal Charters Sportfishing, started solely focusing on bluefin tuna with gentle deal with.

GoPro view of bluefin by the boat — This bluefin will get a short have a look at the boat earlier than once more dumping 1 / 4 of the spool. Photograph by Adam Eldridge

As these fish grew and returned to the Southern New England waters yearly, Petrarca discovered multitudes in regards to the behaviors of those fish, comparable to once they feed, the place they’re more likely to transfer after a storm, and the best way to get in place to current one a jig or a plug on gentle deal with. Petrarca says he can inform when the tuna have reached New England as a result of he can scent them on the late-spring southwest winds, and I imagine him.

There’s one thing about bluefin tuna that conjures up such obsession. I consider them as our tuna, the tuna of the chilly and rugged Northeast. Certain, most of the tuna we catch are spawned within the Mediterranean Sea, and winter off North Carolina and factors south, however with the whole Atlantic Ocean at their disposal, it’s our coast they return to season after season.

Whereas most pelagic species choose deep, clear, heat waters, bluefin have extra grit. They don’t thoughts if the water is inexperienced or chilly, or so shallow that their finlets sometimes scrape backside. So long as the consuming is sweet, they’re completely happy to be there.

Fishermen with a broad vary of tuna expertise could declare that pound-for-pound, yellowfin struggle tougher and bigeye style higher, however I’ve by no means seen both of these tunas rampaging on the floor with the seashore in plain view within the background. Additionally they don’t develop to 1,000 kilos or extra.

A bluefin tuna is taken into account a “big” at 81 inches. Just a bit over a decade in the past, any tuna of that measurement caught on spinning deal with was newsworthy. In the present day, with big tuna round in spectacular numbers, and deal with and rigging as much as the duty, touchdown them on gentle deal with has grow to be not solely attainable however comparatively frequent. Main the best way has been Petrarca, who, after breaking the 400-pound light-tackle benchmark in 2010, blasted previous the 500-pound mark in 2014 with a 101-inch, 597-pounder that, in his personal phrases, felt like a “runaway bus” on the tip of the road.

Sort out for Jigging Big Tuna

The Rod: Jigging World Ghost Hunter C450A brief, stout rod just like the 5’6” Jigging World Ghost Hunter has sufficient tip motion to deliver jigs to life and sufficient spine to place the warmth on an enormous bluefin.

The Reel: Shimano Ocea Jigger 4000HGThe excessive line capability and heavy drag of the Shimano Ocea Jigger 4000HG give anglers an opportunity to place the breaks on huge bluefin.

The Line: Tuf Line’s Information’s Alternative

Hole-core braided line like Tuf Line’s Information’s Alternative gives seamless, 100% connections between braided foremost line and wind-on leaders, for optimum power when placing the boots to an enormous bluefin.

The Jig: RonZ 10″ Huge Sport HD

The lifelike wiggle of RonZ will get bites from tuna of all sizes, and the heavy-duty swivel eye and swing hook preserve huge fish pinned whereas holding as much as heavy strain.

The Heavy Steel: Level Jude Deep Pressure Jig

The Level Jude Deep Pressure Jigs may look rudimentary, however they sink shortly to get in entrance of deep-feeding fish quick, and their flutter and flash have been confirmed to idiot super-sized bluefin.

The “Hatch-Matching” Steel: Shimano Shimmerfall Jig

The Shimano Shimmerfall Jig is designed to sink quick, making it very best in deep water. Its tapered edges make it come to life with correct motion utilizing little effort, and it’s profile is a detailed match to the sand eel, a dietary staple for the bluefin off Cape Cod.

In the meantime, I hoped that the marks on the display had been about one-sixth that measurement as my jig touched backside and I started a handy guide a rough retrieve, pumping the rod in rhythm with every flip of the reel deal with. Nevertheless, in a juxtaposition of most fishing eventualities, the massive fish outnumbered the extra fascinating (a minimum of recreationally) small ones on the Sword final summer time. Two-hundred and thirty toes down, one thing punched my jig, however failed to seek out the hook. The identical occurred to Petrarca. Anthony DeiCicchi, who’d been quietly jigging on the opposite aspect of the boat, grunted and introduced by way of gritted tooth, “Tight!”

If the 2022 tuna season taught me something, it’s that whereas small tuna feeding on the floor will be pull-your-hair-out choosy, huge fish feeding on the underside are way more eclectic of their tastes. Smaller bluefin could specialize their diets, specializing in sand eels or halfbeaks (Atlantic sauries) or butterfish to the exclusion of different baitfish, however big tuna, with a lot bigger engines to gas, are generalists. Due to this fact, when Petrarca rigged the rods for our journey with large-profile Level Jude Deep Pressure jigs, he wasn’t fearful about matching the Sword’s sand eel “hatch;” as a substitute, he centered on getting jigs in entrance of fish shortly.

Dom helped design the Deep Pressure jig with the late Joe Martins of Level Jude Lures. Together with the RonZ, it’s one of many lures he by no means leaves the dock with out. The Deep Pressure is available in 4 sizes, all formed to missile by way of the present to achieve any marks on the fishfinder earlier than they swim out of vary. The jigs are tapered chrome slabs which have a strip of reflective tape on either side. In comparison with different tuna metals, which have scale patterns, 3D eyes, and lifelike baitfish-matching colours, the Deep Pressure seems rudimentary—however to not tuna. Petrarca credit the jig’s flutter and flash because the angler lifts the rod for grabbing the eye of close by bluefin. As soon as it’s performed that, the 13/0 Help hook on its 3-inch leash locks right into a tuna’s latch.

DeiCicchi tells Petrarca where the tuna’s headed. — Communication between captain and angler is paramount. DeiCicchi tells Petrarca the place the tuna’s headed so the captain can place the boat accordingly.

DeiCicchi’s tuna hung nonetheless for a second, assessing the risk with a number of livid headshakes that rocked the angler’s whole physique. Then it peeled off on an unstoppable first run, and DeiCicchi locked his knees into the gunwale and braced for the battle.

On the similar time, Petrarca took his place on the boat’s controls however didn’t give chase. He needed the rod and drag to work on tiring the tuna first.

Tuna fishing is a workforce sport. Efficiently touchdown an enormous fish on gentle gear requires a coordinated effort between the captain and the angler (or extra probably, anglers), to beat the fish. It’s unlikely, even unwise, for an angler to try to land a tuna this measurement alone. Passing the rod between fishermen offers the anglers time to relaxation with out letting the tuna do the identical. I knew DeiCicchi needed to beat this fish on his personal, however his need to land the fish efficiently, and shortly, overrode the satisfaction of doing it by himself; quarter-hour into the struggle, he tapped me in.

Watch: Captain Dom’s Rigging for Huge Bluefin Tuna

All through the struggle, Petrarca instructed us to maintain the rod at near a 45-degree angle. The decrease that angle, the much less bend within the rod and the much less warmth on the fish. Forcing the tuna to tug in opposition to the rod is a vital a part of tiring it out, so at any time when Anthony or I struggled to maintain the rod up, we handed it off to a recent set of arms.

By the 45-minute mark, even with common breaks, our arms had handed their sell-by date. I had sweat pouring into my eyes, my imaginative and prescient was blurring, and I considered the scene in Rocky the place Balboa, his eyes swollen shut stated, “Minimize me, Mick.” Like Mick, Petrarca was shouting directions and encouragement from his place on the helm. I appeared over at DeiCicchi slumped within the stern, the place he was wanting extra like Apollo Creed towards the tip of his match with Drogo in Rocky IV. The tuna is a machine.

Then we bought our look. The road planed towards the floor, and the sickle fin, then the tail emerged. It was 100 toes away from the boat, and was clearly tiring. It’s not a machine. It’s a fish.

“Pop it or cease it,” Dom stated, a mantra he repeated a number of occasions, instructing us to maintain most strain on the fish to pressure an consequence by hook or by crook.

Over an extended struggle, a bluefin can settle right into a groove, a depth, or a velocity it finds snug because it fights to rid itself of the hook. When a fatigued fisherman rests, so does the tuna, prolonging the struggle indefinitely. Petrarca emphasizes accountable practices in focusing on huge bluefin. If he loses a fish, he desires the hook to tug or the road to interrupt proper on the jig. He doesn’t wish to depart a tuna with a whole lot of yards of line trailing behind it, and he doesn’t wish to struggle a fish for hours on finish, decreasing its possibilities of survival after launch.

Keeping the heat on a bluefin — With the right gear and rigging, the one weak spot is the angler. Right here, the writer retains the warmth on a bluefin, however burning arms and decrease again have him able to faucet in DeiCicchi.

As a way to struggle big bluefin with a pop-it-or-stop-it mentality, nonetheless, it’s essential to have supreme confidence in your rigging. In any other case, the “pops” will severely outnumber the “stops.”

There was no guide for taking big tuna on gentle gear when Petrarca was first figuring this all out. He went by way of all of the parted traces, damaged rods, burnt-out reels, and straightened hooks to get his system to a spot that has allowed him to efficiently land so many giants.

His present big jigging deal with consists of a Shimano Ocea Jigger 4000HG, spooled on a machine below heavy strain, with 80-pound-test Tuf Line’s Information’s Alternative. The “heavy strain” is necessary to pack each attainable yard of line onto the reel. The Information’s Alternative is a hollow-core braided line, which will be threaded into itself, creating an finish loop that maintains the complete breaking power of the road. Dom loops this onto a wind-on fluorocarbon chief of 100- or 130-pound check that flows easily by way of the guides and onto the reel.

The rod is a 5’6” Jigging World Ghost Hunter, rated for 450-gram jigs. It’s a stout powerhouse of a rod that also has sufficient tip motion to deliver the jigs to life.

The size of the tuna, whereas immense, was overshadowed by its excessive girth, making it look shorter than the 90 inches Petrarca estimated. The hole between bluefin and boat closed to fifteen toes earlier than the fish stormed again to the depths.

Had the industrial bluefin quota been open, the struggle would have ended there. Petrarca would have thrown the harpoon, and the fish would have been ours.

In 2022, a leisure tuna fisherman may retain two tuna between 27 and 47 inches and another tuna between 47 and 73 inches per vessel, per day. Fish bigger than 73 inches may very well be saved solely by captains with an Atlantic Tunas Normal Class Allow, permitting them to promote the fish. Whereas Petrarca carries that let and sells his light-tackle-caught big tuna, the quota had closed only a few days earlier than our journey, granting a keep of execution to any 73-inch or bigger tuna we hooked.

With the harpoon out of the equation, the issue of touchdown the fish elevated tenfold. As an alternative, we would have liked to deliver it shut sufficient to seize the chief, after which the fish.

Tuna underwater tailshot — The tail of a 90-inch bluefin tuna because it’s introduced boatside on the finish of the struggle. Photograph by Adam Eldridge

After a closing baton-pass of the rod, I used to be on the stick for the house stretch, gaining with half-turns of the reel deal with till Petrarca snatched the chief. With the road in hand, any leeway offered by the bend within the rod or the reel’s drag was faraway from the system. The battle was now between Petrarca and the tuna, and DeiCicchi and I bore witness to a different closing spherical in a lifelong bout between two of the Western Atlantic’s prime predators.

Whereas the bluefin at all times get the more severe finish of the deal when Petrarca’s SeaVee darkens their doorsteps, the pursuit has taken its toll on the captain as nicely. “I depart somewhat little bit of my soul on the market every single day,” Petrarca stated later through the On The Water Podcast. Not simply his soul, although. A number of years again, Petrarca had again surgical procedure to arrest a few of the put on and tear introduced on by 1000’s of days of high-speed chases after blitzing bluefin.

Petrarca tried to steer the fish shut sufficient to seize its jaw, however with a thunderous shake of its head that reverberated by way of the hull, the massive bluefin parted the 100-pound-test chief and kicked off out of sight. We known as it a draw.Cramping fists bumped and aching backs slapped in celebration, I assumed the captain would level the SeaVee west when he returned to the helm.

“There they’re,” Petrarca stated, eyes locked on the fishfinder. In a single fluid movement, he was away from the console, rod in hand, with a jig hurtling again to the underside, hungry, as at all times, for the following battle with Thunnus thynnus.