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Ric Burnley Saltwater
Sportsman Magazine
3/10/2010
166-LB KAYAK BLUEFIN BONANZA, BEST EVER - Veteran kayak
angler Matt Shepard shattered the kayak tuna record last week when
he corralled a 166-lb beast of a bluefin against the Gulf Stream
current line some 30 miles offshore of Cape Hatteras. Shepard and
friends Lee Williams and Ric Burnley motored out on Capt Scott
Warren's Big Tahuna, where they baited ballyhoo and worked jigs for
multiple strikes, but their pell mell sleigh rides ended in pulled
hooks until Shepard solved the puzzle. The trick was to wait out the
crazy surge of the first run, then settle in for a give and take
battle on light drag. Shepard used a two speed Accurate and 90
minutes to claim his record for a tuna hooked, fought and leadered
from a kayak. It may not last long. According to Burnley, the trip
is easily repeatable. PHOTO COURTESY BIGTAHUNA.COM AND RIC BURNLEY |
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Got the late night call from Captain Scott Warren on Big Tahuna
that his Saturday crew had cancelled but he wasn't going to
let the blackfin tuna take the day off. The weather forecast
was tolerable and he wanted to take the fishcrazy.info kayak
ward jigging for tuna. I alerted Lee Williams and Matt
Shepard and we met Rob Alderman at Teach’s Lair early
Saturday morning. Skies were overcast and the winds were
puffing, but the blackfin had been snapping so we loaded the
‘yaks in the back of ‘Tahuna and headed offshore. We got to
the 240 Rocks and Scott immediately started marking fish. A
test jig confirmed that we were on the blackfin. Deploy
‘yaks. The plastic force hit the water and it wasn’t long
before we started hooking up. Scott would motor in circles
until he marked blackfin (he knows the fish’s signature mark
on his fishfinder) then tell us how deep to drop our jigs.
Color-coded Daiwa braid indicated when my jig would hit the
target depth. Then start jigging. |
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Working a jigging rod in a kayak isn’t easy. Since we sit so low
to the water, I hopped up on my knees to get the maximum action out
of my set up. A short model like my Okuma medium heavy and matching
reel made were an advantage. Lee was using a spinning rod, which
gave him more options for action. Either way it didn’t matter; as
long as the jig was going fast, it was getting bit. These little
tuna hit with bone jarring power, then take off like a torpedo. Many
skippers agree that blackfin are the hardest pulling of the tuna
family. Despite 12 to 14 pounds of drag pressure, these fish were
bending our jigging rods double and stripping line at will. Often
several of us would be hooked up at once, and the fish would drag us
around and bounce us together like pool balls. Just as I would start
to make headway, the tuna would turn and dump another 20 yards of
line from the reel. By the time I got one of these fish to the
kayak, my arms were Jello. It was all I could do to grab the jig and
swing the fish into my lap where it would spaz out and beat its tail
against the plastic with death metal double bass cadence. We also
caught a few amberjack and albacore and had run-ins with monster
sharks that would eat our catch right on the line. At one point, I
saw a big, black shape swirl right behind Alderman’s bright red
kayak. The resulting boil was larger than Rob’s boat. Even though it
was raining and the wind kicked up white caps and spray, we were
fortunate to have little current so we were still able to chase Big
Tahuna and the blackfin. Between the guys on the boat and the crew
in the ‘yaks, we brought home 29 blackfin. Lee had the biggest ‘yak
fish at 23 pounds – a North Carolina citation. With all the jigging
and paddling and fighting these impossibly hard pulling fish, we
were sapped by lunchtime. The box was full of tuna and our bodies
were emptied of energy. Blackfin fishing off Hatteras should stay
hot through the winter. Get on it. |
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