Jamaica - Brielle, New Jersey
September 22-23, 1998
(Please be patient, there are alot of cool photos downloading)
Well fellow fishermen, when it comes to rough seas, thank God for big party boats like the Jamaica. We went out to the Hudson Canyon on Tuesday evening...I had been told repeatedly that it was going to be evil out there. Yes, it's time for that roller coaster ride. But it's tuna...so I went for the story. The weather was calling for a wave height of 4 to 6 feet...actually the waves turned out to be 10 to 15 feet respectfully.
The ride out was not bad considering that we were going with the waves...going "downhill", as they say in California. It was a 6 hour ride out and then the Captain and crew anchored up...that's when reality hit...and she was doing the shimmy. If you were in anything smaller than the Jamaica...foggedaboutit! We waited for the tuna bite, patiently...the crew handled the conditions like pros...another day at the office, they said. This is part of fishing as we all know it, no delusions here. Slowly the bait started coming around our slick and soon there were tons of mackerel and squid below the boat.
The water temperature was in the low 70's and I was humming cowboy songs to myself. At about 3 AM we hooked a bunch of live mackerel and stored them up in a barrel to use for live bait. Finally, at around 3:30 AM, bam a reel screamed then two reels and then four! Out of four rods one tuna was brought in...and then every ten minutes a reel would go off and two out of five rods would bring in a fish.
Yours truly saw the mackerel doing the death dance in front of me...I flat lined the bait all the way out and there she was...bam...that baby sucked the bait right up and ran like the Road Runner! Yeh baby...tuna on! I had taken dramimine, which I never take, but the rocking of the boat got to me after a few minutes, so I passed the rod on to my partner Jim. He fought the tuna for a while, then he passed it back to me. I cranked that baby right up and to my horror another line got tangled up with mine and "pop goes the weasel"...oh well. Anyway, it's all part of fishing.
About 14 tuna made it on board and about a ton were lost...either from popped lines or fighting for too long and the hooks coming loose. Now considering the weather conditions with the howling winds, this is not the norm by far. The tuna are out there and Captain Steinert knows their location. Under normal circumstances we would have done some damage to those Road Runners.
So go book now...look this is my hot tip...no not tomorrow..today! Get out this week and get your sushi. The tuna won't be here for much longer...it's a short season. The mates were definately pros and Captain Steinert handled those seas like a seasoned captain. It was not an easy trip by far, it is very frustrating and trying when you fish under these circumstances. On the ride home (in California it's called "uphill") try, oh try to pour a cup of coffee when sliding down a 14 foot wave...ouch!
Monster Fishing 102
Tips: Use circle hooks...and don't go cheap. At night catch as much bait as you can for use at day break. And at night put it on and send it down. When using the mackerel for bait always put the hook through the eyes. I'm just passing info to you, from the pros, as I get it. Fluoro carbon line goes from 80 lb. down to 40 lb. as the sun comes up. Use leaders no longer than 6 feet. Use ball bearing swivels not the cheap ones, they will only jam and you'll have line twisted from here to Missouri. Also, at night use a hundred pound test for party boats...you need to get that fish in quickly. Well that's all for now. Signing off...Tuna Dave!
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