Tideline Summer 2017

Some other gear you’ll need to make sure you have onboard: multiple gaffs, as it’s pretty much impossible for one person to drag a bigeye over the gunwale. A tail-rope, to be secured to a cleat once the fish is onboard, thus preventing it from flipping wildly around the deck. And a good harness that allows the angler to lean back and use their entire body is 100-percent necessary, unless you have a young Arnold Schwarzenegger manning the rod. The Spread There will be plenty of argument over what to pull in your wake, but it all basically boils down to horse ballyhoo and spreader or splash bars. Some horse get rigged on Ilanders or Joe Shutes (whites and white/pinks or white/blues are favorites) and some get run naked. A spreader bar generally gets run off each short rigger position, one to a side. The ballyhoo run behind them and farther back on long riggers, and up tighter on flat lines. Spreader bars should be set so the lures are in the water but the bar itself is just above it, whenever possible. While more lines do get more lures into the water, many bigeye sharpies stick with a simple six-line spread. Multiple hook-ups are fairly common with these fish, and when a pair of bigeye are screaming line off the reels, you want to be able to get the remaining baits out of the water in a hurry. Night Moves On my own boat, I’ve had better luck with bigeye (numerically) after the sun has set. Chunking after dark produces them with some regularity, although usually night-caught bigeye seem to be smaller on average. While we have had the rare 150-pounder eat a chunk at night, most of the bigeye hitting after dark have been in the 60 to 100 pound class. Chunking for them is no different than chunking at night for other tunas: set out as much light as you can, preferably green; keep the chunks flowing steadily; set baits on floats at the edge of the light-line; and strip back at least one bait at all times. There are, however, a few specific tips that will boost your chances of getting a bigeye. For starters, arrive at the canyon early enough to locate those whales, and set up your drifts in that area. When you hear the “whoosh” of a whale breathing in the dark, you know the tuna aren’t far off.

Another good move is to carry a few squid jigs, and when you catch a squid, immediately slide a hook through the tip of its mantle and send it back out. Be sure to set the drag on live

A live squid set at the edge of the light-line tempted this small bigeye into biting.

squid rods as light as possible, so you know when they get hit. Those squid are pretty soft and tuna will easily rip them from the hook, and the strike-to-hookup ratio is probably only one to three. If the drag has much tension on it, you’ll never even know your hook has been stripped clean. With the super-light drag setting you usually get a few clicks, at least, and know to check the bait and replace it as necessary. The best way to boost your chances of tangling with a bigeye is, of course, to pony up and get on a professional boat. That said, many of us consider it a far bigger challenge and a far better victory to take on fish like this ourselves, on our own boats. Besides, watching Bubba cave is just too much fun to pass up.

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