Free boat ride for these yellowfin tuna.
July 2021, Oregon Inlet, NC – Seas were rough and sharks were lurking to the South so our captain navigated through the treacherous Oregon Inlet and then turned East Northeast to scope out new ground. It was a 50 mile run to reach the fishing grounds. The mate rigged all the gear in cadence with the bow cutting through white caps. As we approached the Captain’s coordinates he throttled down the boats diesel engines and the mate tossed the baits in the water one by one. Before the lines could even get tight we had four fish hooked up.
The first tuna in the boat was one of the larger fish of the day. The second reel was giving up line to the fish when all of a sudden it went slack. “Shark,” the mate yelled, as the line came back cleanly cut by shark that dined on our catch. We put a second fish in the box and through back a small
As the sun started to burn off the early morning haze, the bite was not as intense. Here and there we picked up a fish and then lost one to a shark. The roll of the 6 to 8 foot swells kept us off our feet all day and we ran out of time before we ran out of bait.
