Last Minute
So, I got an invite to go bluewater tuna fishing from my friend Jack. The only thing was I got the text late the night before we were to drive down to Jacksonville. So of course I said yes to the invite, but it was a hectic morning the next day getting all my stuff ready for a trip to the other side of the Gulf Stream and leaving the house in order. But after a crazy morning, I met up with my friend at his place and we loaded up his truck with all our tackle and gear and made our way south around noon. We had a 400-mile drive ahead of us and were hoping to make that in around 6ish hours. Of course, Atlanta traffic had other ideas and delayed us about an hour, but once we made it past that damn city it was smooth sailing down I-75 and eventually I-10. Once we made it to Jack’s friend’s house we got about to prepping all our tackle for the next day’s trip. So we spent the next couple of hours adding fluoro leaders on all the rods as well as tying on all the trolling plugs. After that was all done, we got a quick bite to eat for dinner at Taco Lu’s, grabbed some food to eat on the boat the next day, and went to bed. We had an early start at 3 am waiting for us.
After a very short sleep, we got about to load up the boat while all of Jack’s other buddies came over. Everyone donned some warmer clothes and foul weather gear for the ride out, we all knew it would be a cold and wet one. Once everyone was ready we were off, heading out into the Atlantic through Mayport. Once outside the pass, we gunned it straight east looking for a rip that Jack’s friend had told us to hit to try and find the tuna. I have to say, the Atlantic is a bit different from the Gulf, being a bigger body of water it seemed to be a bit bumpier than I had expected for there being no wind at all in the morning. So after about an hour sitting up front on the bench seat with Nate, getting beat up by the swell, we decided it was time to move to the back and sit in the bean bags.
This was great timing because one of the spinning reels had worked loose and it was a good opportunity for a bathroom break. So after the reel was reattached, everyone relived themselves, and we got situated in the bean bags in the back, we were off again. We had to run at least another 70 miles to get near the Gulf Stream so at minimum another two-hours ride. That’s how the next couple of hours went, just running east at 36mph with a stop here and there to either get a rod situated, pee, or let John chum the waters due to having a bit too much fun the night before. While the bean bag was great for making the ride out more comfortable, getting slapped around by the 100-gallon fuel bladder we had in the back was not great.
But the time of getting slapped by the fuel bladder every time we hit a big swell was almost over, the sun started to peak over the horizon. This meant we had been running for over 3 hours now so it was time to top off the forward and rear fuel tanks. So we stopped and attached the pump to the bladder and filled up the fuel tanks. Then we wrapped up the bladder and tied it down at the front of the boat. Giving us so much more space in the back. While we were stopped we noticed a few birds in the distance, and even a couple of pilot whales just chilling at the surface. We did have a slight concern though, we had a radar going to look for birds. But even though we could visibly see the birds, the machine wasn’t picking them up. Also, the temp reader for the boat wasn’t reading the temperature right as we were running. It would only read true when we were stopped for some time. But being already 100 miles offshore there was nothing we could do so we kept running.
After the fuel up we kept running again and crossed over the Gulf Stream. The swell in the Gulf Stream is a good bit rougher than the surrounding ocean, which shouldn’t have been as surprising for me as it was. But we went from 3-5ft swells into 5-7ft swells as we were crossing the Gulf Stream. After we got past that though we just kept running, all morning trying to find the tuna. Once you get into them in the morning it would be a very visible sign of life, with birds diving and fish busting. But we just didnt find them, the radar wasn’t picking anything up. So as it neared noon we knew we had missed the morning bite so it was time to go find a weed line to find some mahi for the box.
Luckily after passing on a smaller weed line, we found a better-sized one soon after. So finally we started fishing, putting out 5 lines, a couple of rigged ballyhoo on the outriggers, a madscad, DTX minnow, and a madmac. Once the lines were all out we just trolled along the weedline. I also had my spinning rod set up with a ballyhoo pitch bait to sight cast if we see any fish we’d see.
We spotted a big log or post floating in the weed line and as soon as we passed by we had a couple of big hits, one on a ballyhoo and the other on the madscad. Nate and Jack were fighting the fish but Jack’s fish got off soon after, so we focused on Nate’s fish which appeared to be a better one. So we brought in all the lines and started working the fish, eventually bringing it boat side after a bit of boat work. Once we got it close Jack stuck a gaff in it and brought this nice cow mahi into the boat. We were all stoked to finally have a fish on board after all that running we did in the morning.
Running to the Otherside of the Gulf Stream – North Florida Bluewater Fishing
After putting our fish in the kill box we had to do a little searching to find the weed line again, but once we got back on it it was on. We started picking up mahi here and there, not the biggest fish but still meat to take home. I also caught the most aggressive and lost shark I’ve ever seen on troll. Looked like a little sandbar shark that cleared the surface chasing the ballyhoo, that we quickly tossed back in. Then we had some real excitement happen, we had a sailfish come and take a ballyhoo out of the spread. We initially thought it was a small white marlin with how it was fighting, running towards the boat initially then breaching the surface with its belly towards us. Jack 2(Jack’s friend Jack) made short work of it and John was the leader man and pulled the sailfish into the boat. We got a few photos and sent it on its way after reviving the fish next to the boat.
After the sailfish, we got a few more mahi for the box and as it neared 3 we pulled in the lines to try and find the tuna again for the evening bite. So the plan was to just run towards St. Augustine and hopefully see some birds on the way back. While time was a concern our bigger concern was having enough fuel to get back to the dock. With not seeing any birds on the radar and not having current reports though, we weren’t too hopeful. After an hour of just watching the horizon while we were making our way back, I spotted a few birds in the distance to the south. This was the biggest group of birds we had seen all day, we even saw a big frigate bird. Soon after sighting all the birds we saw tuna busting. Nothing big, but maybe a big school of skipjack or blackfin, but this was the most life we’ve seen all day. We put out a spread of lures as quickly as we could and I tied on a popper as well. Jack made the first cast with the popper and hooked up, but it got it off near the boat. I tried making another cast but the damn Alberto knot caught the mainline and tangle everything up. Of course, while this was going on up front the tuna didn’t hit a single one of lures in our spread. So after a brief bit of excitement, we had to call it a day, staying out any longer was risking getting stranded.
After getting everything packed up so nothing would fly off on the long ride back we made our way back. At least the wind that had started up was to our back to help lay down the swell as we made the long 4-hour ride back in, even as we crossed the Gulf Stream it wasn’t too terrible going back in compared to the ride out in the morning. While we didn’t get the tuna we wanted, it was still a fun first trip out into the Atlantic and crossing the Gulf Stream for me and I’m excited to get back out there soon to hopefully get into some tuna next time.
