Tuna Tagging Safari

Tuna Tagging Safari from john logioco on Vimeo.

Last week my brother Jeff and I went out on a 2 day tagging safari with Capt. Keith Maurer aboard his 36' Twin Vee catamaran called Anticipation. Capt. Scott Murdoch from HighHookSportfishing was also aboard to help in the pit. We left Monday morning from Tom's River and met Capt. Freddie Gamboa from Andreas Toy at Clarks Landing Marina before heading out. Thanks to Freddie for actually setting this trip up, as he connected me with Keith so we could get a tagging mission in during the weather window.

We broke the inlet and had lines in at the Princess shortly thereafter. We didn't go fifteen minutes and had two knock downs, to our surprise both big bluefish. But there was lots of life, skipjack busting all around us - then we saw the rays. Big schools of brown/green rays surfing just below the swells. That's all Captain Keith needed to see as he set the big cat on a trolling course to follow the life. After the bluefish ripped up our balyyhoo rigs we got to see Scott Murdoch in action, as he sped through the rigging and consistently had the lines back out quickly. We went another 15 minutes, saw the rays again and boom - the starboard short rigger popped and the 80W was bent over like a pretzel. Captain Keith yelled out "That's no bluefish!", and he was right. I was closest to the rod, so I picked up the rig and watched several hundred yards of line disappear withing seconds. Scott and Jeff got the lines in and we went to work. I needed the harness after 15 minutes to work the big bluefin closer. The fishing stayed like this for the next couple of hours as we caught and tagged several bluefin. The homemade tagging stick worked great as Jeff LoGioco tagged the first LoGioco family bluefin for the Project. Following the rays and jumping skippies was really exciting because you just knew the bluefin were lurking below.

After we tussled with the bluefin, we decided to pick up and run out to the canyon for the late afternoon bite. We were escorted by some giant dolphins jumping in the bow waves which was a treat since since on the cat we could get real close to them on the bow. We were all hoping that Freddie's supposed weather window would start to come true as but the seas were continuing to build. Scott had our lines in for about 45 minutes and we had the first explosion in the spread by a couple nice yellowfin. We had good action on yellowfin 40lbs - 60lbs. On one hit, we were all looking back into the spread at the same time - just as a nice 60lber hit the transom line. You could see the entire back of the tuna, with finlets and dorsal fully out of the water as he stole off with the lure and our drag. Jeff fought this fish nicely and yet another tuna was tagged and released. Post release we had a ball filling out our tagging cards with the tuna's measurements and using the underwater camera at boat side.

Freddie also had a great bite on bluefin, tagging and releasing several before heading out to the canyon.

Seas at dusk were approaching honest 3ft - 5ft with some larger waves. Wind 15kts and steady. We were very happy to be in the big catamaran as this boat was just incredible for the kind of fishing we were doing. Not only did she run great in the seas, but she drifted great as well. With several feet of deck space 360' around the entire boat, fighting big fish was enjoyable, largely due to the fact that the angler stays close to the action by sliding up the gunwale, instead of walking back out of the action like on a convertible.

We decided to tie up for the night to a lobster pot so Scott wrestled one with the swinging radar blades whizzing by both our faces as the bow of the cat heaved in the waves. It's always a sketchy operation but we did it. A dinner of grilled chicken, pretzel rods and cookies went down quick. Captain Keith made himself a homemade nest of bean bags and pillows and hit the deck for a much deserved rest. Scott went right to work immediately, no surprise there, and had the entire cockpit converted over to chunking with the green hydro glow light in the water to attract bait. We had lots of laughs discussing Freddie's "weather window" seeing we were being tossed about in solid 4-5 foot seas but we had hopes that by morning things would calm down.

During the night, Scott did not sleep and kept the chunking vigil even through the witching hours between 2:30AM and 5:00AM. For his heroic efforts he did battle and released a hammerhead shark, a nice yellowfin that made an usual surface blazing run that frankly had us all thinking we had a mako or sword given all the commotion. Scott also lost another few hookups, one that seemed to be good size as his 50W was curled into the water.

By morning, Freddie's weather window started to finally unfold and the seas went down nicely. We were back up on the troll and had another barrage of yellowfin that were tagged and released. Again Captain Keith always knew where to go, as he stayed close to a pod of pilot whales until the lines went off. By mid-morning the tuna wore us out so we headed for the barn. On the way in we stopped at a pot and had a ball with some big mahi. Captain Keith showed us how it's done and bagged a nice bull for the table.

Only after fishing was over, near 48 hours later, did Scott finally take a break and try to close his eyes. Can't say enough about his efforts to keep us fishing while Keith ran the boat. These guys were an awesome team and one that we highly recommend. Capt. Keith can be found at KRMSportfishing.com and Captain Scott Murdoch as HighHookSportfishing.com.

Until next time, which won't be long, tight lines as we all work toward a better tuna future.