I am traveling today to Prince Edward Island, Canada today. The goal is to battle some GROWN bluefin tuna on the new Shimano Stella 30000’s. I will land in PEI around 9:30 tonight where a friend from Jersey will hopefully be waiting to finish the last hour of travel over to Souris. This is on the eastern side of the island. We will fish 2 days and travel back on Friday.
Canadian law is very strict in regards to bluefin. We are just fishing the 2 of us as you are only allowed to catch 2 fish a day and must touch land between fish.
So basically, it is 2 charters in one day, a morning, return to land for lunch then back out for the afternoon. We will typically fish within 10 miles of the dock. We will soak baits and fly the kites. Hopefully after we shake the dust off the first day we will get a chance to throw the poppers on day 2. Then again, we may not even hook a fish much less land one.
I must be getting old, I don’t have one ounce of desire to fight an 800+ lb. tuna [:0] I’ll pass the rod and drive the boat, and enjoy the show:smiley:
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
I must be getting old, I don’t have one ounce of desire to fight an 800+ lb. tuna [:0] I’ll pass the rod and drive the boat, and enjoy the show:smiley:
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
You can only fight the fish for an hour, then you need to break it off. After 35 minutes fighting with just a plate I decided to put the bucket harness on. At that point I realized we had just been fooling around. At the end I was around #50 of drag. Twice had the leader and could have darted the fish if we were going to kill it. Just over the hour mark I instituted the NLO, No Line Out policy. Had the guys get my other glove and jammed it in the spool, it was all or nothing. The #130 mainline snapped if that tells you how hard I was pulling.
Trip recap:
So the goal was to go catch some big Bluefin tuna on the new Shimano Stella 30000. The optimum time for the fishery in Prince Edward Island is in the coming weeks, not so much right now. Scott and I knew it might be a struggle but he already has 2 more trips booked for September and my kids start school this Monday which makes life around the house even crazier than normal. These things considered, I would rather try and fail than never had tried to begin with. I am always up for an adventure.
Scott had a 15 hour ride from New Jersey to look forward to. I had three flights to get to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island from Savannah, GA. We were going to thread the needle, as Scott was to pick me up at the airport and we would finish the last hour together over to Souris on the east coast of the island. A slight misunderstanding about the one hour time difference we both encountered was overcome and we made it to our hotel around midnight. We would fish for 2 days with Spencer of Tightline Tours. Spencer?s father is a legend of sorts in PEI and Spencer is quickly making a name for himself at the ripe old age of 24. He has likely seen more giant tuna than any other 24 year old. Since he could walk he has been on a boat for the short season that graces PEI each year.
Weather can be an issue in that part of the world and we were greeted by most of what mother nature has to offer. The first day was foggy with a good breeze out of the SE in the morning, changing all the way to sunny and light wind in the afternoon. The second day it smoked out of the west. Not an issue if your luggage hadn?t been lost. Sneakers and jeans do not fair well in light rain and fog.
