Trolling for Tuna South of the Vineyard

Based off the reports that were being shared inside the 2023 Tuna thread in our members' forum, it sure seemed like the action had been good. That's why I jumped at the opportunity when My Fishing Cape Codder Chris Demma invited me to join his friends on a trip south of Martha's Vineyard this past Monday July 17th.

For this trip we would be fishing with Big Game Fishing out of Snug Harbor Rhode Island. That meant I needed to wake up early - really early! My alarm was set for 1:30am but I ended up waking up naturally around 12:45am. Getting good night's sleep before a big fishing trip is oftentimes a challenge. I am sure many of you who are reading this can relate!

I arrived at the marina early before anyone else and all was quiet. I took the opportunity to get all my drone and camera gear organized and ready, before we hopped onboard at 5am sharp. The wind was calm but the seas were still rough and the swell was still big from the high winds that had blown through the region all day Sunday and into Sunday night.

Fortunately we were on a 53 foot sport fishing boat that could definitely handle it. The only question was whether or not our crew could handle it! It was not long before sea sickness struck Dale, one of Chris's friends.

Dave was the next one to get ill, and for the first time in my life I myself felt a little woozy. Sea sickness is no joke and I felt really bad for Dave and Dale who would be battling sea sickness for the next 10 hours. I would wish that upon no one.

Upon arrival at the Dump, captain Peter Bacon and his mates Nate and Hunter set out a spread consisting of green and purple spreader bars, and a green daisy chain. We trolled along at around 6 knots and the water temperature was in the mid 70's. We were hoping for yellowfin tuna, but it seemed that Sunday's high winds had pushed some of the hotter water out of the region.

Pretty quickly into the troll we noticed one of the rods seemed a bit heavy and the spreader bar was not trolling properly.

Hunter reeled in the line and we had actually caught a bonito - the first I've seen this year! Obviously it was not the target species and it put up no fight at all on the heavy tackle, but it was still cool to see.

We kept the bonito for food and Nate and Hunter reset the lines. 

Perhaps about 30 minutes later one of the green starboard side spreader bars got slammed. This was no bonito. Line was peeling from the reel and we figured we had hooked either a yellow or bluefin tuna!