Bluefin tuna in the Adriatic Sea: Day 3

Today was our last day. During breakfast on the hotel, we were talking about how the fishing was going to be today. Nikolaj and I had a feeling that this could be the day. Perhaps it was the last hours of yesterdays frenzy that gave us THAT feeling. Would the tuna switch still be on?

Today was also the day where we would make friends with renowned Italian tuna whisperer: Michele Meggiolaro. Michele knows everything there is to know about BFT and he had helped us organizing the trip, gear etc. Besides that, Michele is just as crazy as we are so everything was a match!

Alessio had to stay at the Maretta Club to prepare the Exteme Tuna Spinning Cup that was going to take place the day after. In stead of Alessio, Matteo was at the steering wheel.

The conditions were quite the same as yesterday morning: Glass out and easily spooked tuna. We all started out with the most efficient lure from yesterday: The Tackle House Britt 145 sinking but the tunas refused.

Michele suggested to try a floating lure and Nikolaj had convinced himself to try the Upekari 190. In the first or second cast, he had a big boil at his lure. In the next cast, he hooked a nice fish. What a start for the Urpekari!

Jacob had continued to fish the Britt he borrowed yesterday but while Nikolaj was fighting he asked me to find a lure in Nikolajs box - "Just anything that floats", he said. I gave him a Maria Loaded 180F and it wasn't long before he hooked a nice fish!

On the next bust up, Nikolaj had a strike on his Urpekari again but the leader was cut in the strike. Bye bye fish - bye bye Urpekari. The fish busted up right away 100 meters away and Michele said grab my rod, Nikolaj. He casted out and sweeped twice and BOOM. Fish on!

I had tried a Shimano Ocea Head Dip 175 on which I had a strike on Day 2. I had a boil on it this morning but I didn't trust it 100 percent. I changed to a gamma 105  and at the second big frenzy, I had several boils on it. Next bust up and I came tight:

 

Michele tagged the fish, so now there is a tuna named Peter in Italy.

Some of the bust ups were very big today. The frenzy was suddenly too much for Michele so he made sneaky cast from the back of the boat with his Gamma 90. A fish followed the lure zig-zagging checking it out until it attacked!

Michele bending his beloved Souls rod

He clearly took the lure head first

In the last couple of hours of the day and the packs were getting smaller. I think that some of them were single fish. So when the boat would arrive there were no tunas to see. We made some casts anyway and I managed to catch two fish - both were on a Shout Entice Seduce 190. One of them missed the lure at the first attempt. Accidentally I pulled the lure out of the water and soon as it reached the surface again, the fish hit it full speed. I will never forget the sight of that.

To sum this day up, we caught 7 tunas - all on floating lures. If Michele hadn't suggested to try the floaters, I don't think we would have caught that many fish. Local knowledge is gold. Thank you Michele.
The lures that produced fish were:
Tackle House Britt 145 Sinking: 3 fish
Jack Fin Pelagus 165S: 2 fish (many more hookups not landed)
Homemade sinking stickbait 170 mm 88 gram: 2 fish

Carpenter y-105: 2 fish
Shout Entice Seduce 190 mm, 79 gram: 2 fish
Homemade sinking stickbait 170 mm, 77 gram: 1 fish

Carpenter y-90: 1 fish
Maria Loaded 180F: 1
Amegari Urpekari 190: 1 fish

So the winning lure in terms of boated fish was the Britt. But relative to the time it was in the water, I would say that the Urpekari was the winner. The sinking Pelagus also produced a lot of strikes but they were not converted into boated fish.

Rods:

Carpenter TBL 84/22, TBL80/35, TBL80/40, Coral Viper 79/40, Endless Passion 85/36, Shimano Kaibutsu Pencil Instrument, Souls Performance Studio XVI - 7'5" Level 8.

Reels: Stella, Stella, Stella

Braid: Tasline Elite White 80 lbs, Power Pro Hollow Ace 80 lbs, Daiwa Boat Braid PE6.

Leader: YGK Castman Absorber 130 & 170 lbs.

In the evening we were kindly invited to dinner for all the participants in the Tuna Cup on the following day. It was nice to meet guys from Jack Fin, Glide and Megabass.

The dinner included an awfull lot of white wine and it evolved into a party. We had an awesome time with crazy people but we will keep the details to ourselves :)

This operation works really really well. The reason why it works so well I guess is a good mix of knowledge about the fishing, friendly and very helpful people and the perfect tuna weapon: A very fast inflatable boat.

Bluefin tuna in the Adriatic Sea: Day 2

Today, Alessio was the captain again and Boris was with us to do some filming.

We left the harbour at 8 pm with 40 knots cruising speed (yes...).

Within 30 minutes we were at the tuna grounds and it wasn't long before we found the first bustups. Glass out conditions today. Good for sailing but it was like the tunas could hear the boat appraching. There were many bustups this morning until noon but everytime the boat appeared the tunas went down. We could see them on the sounder - often 20 meters below the boat. We had a couple of strikes just before noon but they were not aggressive like yesterday and they wouldn't stick to the hook.

At around 15pm the wind started to rip the water surface. It was like a switch! The tunas would eat more aggresively and show up in bigger packs.

At around 16pm with the clock ticking and no tunas boated, we were getting a bit anxious. We were chatting to another boat (with Matteo who would be the captain for tomorrow) when they suddenly put our attention to some tunas busting 70-80 meters from our boat! Alessio aligned the boat to cast at them and Nikolaj got tight within seconds. I made a cast and sweeped my lure two times and BANG! Double strike again!

Unfortunately some fairy had had fun with our camera and f..... up the settings which made the pictures a bit dark and some of them just crap.

At that time, Nikolaj and I had caught three tunas each. Jacob had been connected to several tunas to no avail. The hook just wouldn't stick to the fish! We felt that he needed a little boost so I lend him a Tackle House Britt - a long casting lure that had produced for Nikolaj. It was as if the sinking Pelagus just couldn't reach the fish under these circumstances.

And sure enough: first bust up  and BOOM Jacob was on. But he lost it again! I don't think I have ever seen a guy that unlucky. He did everything right but they just wouldn't coorporate ... Nikolaj came tight again and I actually think I saw smoke coming out of Jacobs ears.

Next bust up and YES! Jacob was on!

Jacob is in for some tuna love

They just never give up

Ever...

Jacobs first bluefin tuna was a perfect way to end the fishingday!

We went home to the hotel, had a shower and then we had dinner with Alessio, his wife and son, With Boris and two flyfishermen who had  actually caught a tuna today. The video on their GoPro looked insane! They fought it for one hour with a 16 weight rod. RESPECT!

We went home to the hotel very happy with minds full of fishing, meat and "vino rosso". A perfect setup for the 3rd and last day that unknowingly was going to be our best day.

Bluefin tuna in the Adriatic Sea: Day 1

After a really bad trip (fishing wise) to Madagascar in January 2017, we were in need of a trip with more fish. We had heard about the tuna fishing in the Adriatic Sea. I contacted Michele Meggiolaro for more information. He advised us to contact Maretta Club ASD in Porto San Giorgio which is run by Alessio and Boris.

We, Jacob Rønnow, Nikolaj Bielecki and I, set up three days of fishing that went like this:

Day 0, September 2017, travelling day

We took a plane from Copenhagen to Rome where we hired a car and drove 2,5 hours to the town, Porto San Giorgio, on the Italian east coast where we were supposed to fish. We arrived at the hotel at around 9 pm and to set up our rods. 

Day 1, September 21st 2017:

After a good nights sleep and a nice breakfast on the hotel, we grabbed our rods and gear and walked to the harbour - a trip of around 5 minutes.

Alessio was ready in the boat: An inflatable Focchi boat, 7 m 30 cm and 250 HP engine. We should find out later that this was a real war machine!

We went to the tuna grounds in around 30 minutes which was 20 NM from shore. After one hour of searching, we saw the first bust up. Every one was excited - even the boat! Alessio turned up the engine and we were slowly reaching 57 knots. With a bit of old swell from the day before, this was not a pleasant ride - but who cares! The tunas looked really agressive turning the water white. We casted all three of us and we all had a strike, unfortunately Jacobs and my fish did not connect to the hooks properly. As the line got slack, I twitched two times  with my homemade sinking stickbait and I was tight again - double hookup with Nikolaj!

Double hook up on the first cast

It was a bit of a mess fighting two tunas this way but soon, Nikolaj had his fish on the surface. 

And not long after, my fish surfaced and was boated for a quick pic.

What a start! First bust up - first cast and BOOM! After this, we thought it was going to be easy. But tunas can be finicky and 2 hours of casting to busting tuna went past before Nikolaj got tight again.

An hour later, it was my turn. I wanted to catch a tuna on the other of my two homemade stickbaits - a pink/purple/silvery one. We came to a frenzy and Jacob had a strike but no hooks would penetrate. I had a strike as soon as the lure hit the water.

We were in the harbour at around 5 pm. Went for a shower in the hotel room and walked to a restaurant nearby. We had a really great meal there trying to gain some power for tomorrow. 

Oman Video is finally done!

After 4 years, I finally found some time to finish the video editing from our terrific trip to Southern Oman in Oct-Nov 2013.
The video can be found here:
https://youtu.be/pgsL-7vm2kA


Efter fire år fik jeg endelig redigeret optagelserne færdig fra vores gode tur til Oman:
http://peterosher.blogspot.dk/2013/11/jakob-and-i-had-awesome-fishing.html

Videoen kan ses her:
https://youtu.be/pgsL-7vm2kA

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