Kayak TUNA!

Wow, what a weekend.

Friday I went out at dawn. The Gulf was flat and tuna were skying every where. I made bait quickly as I could and head out.

Surprisingly enough with all the tuna at dawn, it took me a couple hours to hook up into my first ever tuna and wow what a battle. It weighed twenty pounds bled out. It didnt fit in my cooler so I hit the beach to get it on ice.

Saturday, I had to do it again so, again, Im at the beach at dawn. This time Im ready to go with a big cooler, too big for my yak actually.

Anyhow the big cooler paid off.

After making bait I head out and suddenly tuna start busting about ten yards in front of me. I throw a jig at them and burn it across the water. They fight over it, one eats and I jack him up. Fifty minutes later I get about a twenty five pound tuna. It was noticeably bigger then Fridays but I didnt weigh it.

About thirty minutes later my slow trolled live cigar minnow gets ate. Forty four minutes later I land a NICE black fin tuna, estimated at thirty plus pounds. So, in a little over two hours I catch two tuna and most of that time was spent fighting fish. Both fish were caught on seventeen pound test. They are strong fish but the fight is rather boring. They turn sideways and just stay down and thump. Id get em twenty feet from the surface and theyd go down forty five feet to the bottom. This happened over and over again during the fight.

The bite died down giving me a much needed rest then the king bite picked up. I snagged a few including a new personal best smoker in the upper twenty pound range.

Fresh tuna sashimi and rare grilled tuna is FANTASTIC. It just melted in your mouth like butter. YUM.

The sailfish are still here with a couple being caught this weekend and October is usually prime time for tuna and sails. I cant wait, all I need is my sail and I will have the pelagics covered.

Some pics to enjoy.

More pics....

The pic of the prepped fish on the counter is just two of the three fish.

Tuna from a yak has to be a blast! You tried throwing surface plugs at them? I know some of the NE tuna folks hit them on top like that from time to time.

Andrew

Well the fight is rather boring. However the satisfaction of getting over twenty pounds of fresh tuna for under a buck a pound is extremely gratifying.

I threw a casting jig because I can throw it further then an appropriate sized popper. I did burn it across the surface and they did come out of the water to hit so still a thrill.

I just heard another couple reports of sails caught in this area over the weekend. I can't tell Yall how bad I want one.

Fishing for big game powerful salt water fish from a kayak is indescribable. It really is one of the most exciting ways to fish. Not to mention my average trip costs less than ten by is with ice being my biggest expense.