88 pound Bluefin

[SkunkBoat]

I took another Wednesday off for good weather. At first we were trying to get out with a buddy on a bigger boat but there were too many guys. My brother and I decided to trust the forecast and take the V20. As we gassed up Tuesday evening, we saw five or six boats come in with tuna to 90 pounds. We got the shakes!

They were catching in the Chicken Canyon 60 miles out. We picked up a bucket of chum in case we had to bail out and go sharking. We cast-netted a 5 gal bucket of peanut bunker.

Broke the inlet first light. we stopped at the Princess where there was a small fleet and a slick on the surface. trolled maybe 15 minutes, didn't see anything and moved on towards the Chicken. Came upon another fleet and a slick. Lots of readings of big fish just at the thermocline 45 ft. Some boats were trying to jig on them. We circled back on readings a few times and our biggest rod got hammered and was dumping line. We maneuvered to take back line and when we got settled we started the camera rolling up in the hardtop rod holder. Unfortunately, I forgot that it can only take 12 minute clips and the fight went at least 20 mins.

Popped the cherry on my new gaff!
54" CFL and later weighed in at 88 pounds.

Trolled until 10:30 still marking fish then decided to drift and chum.
We had a Minke whale come up every 30 minutes to scare the crap out of us with a blow. He'd take 4 breaths and disappear again.

Then we had a bull mahi head-butting the float on our shark rig. I also had a peanut bunker out there on a circle hook and he ate it. As I got it to the boat there were 2 more nice mahi following. I kept him in the water while my brother desperately tried to tie a hook on a spinning rod. No luck with the other 2.

Then we had a little hammerhead come right in eating the peanut chunks and ignoring the big baits. we were about to leave so we rigged a short wire on a small rod and fed him. Guess the wire was too short cause he was gone in 2 shakes.

Ran home at 33mph. 42 gals

Still working on the YouTube video but here are some pix.
Will post a link to video when its done.