Epic fish porn [Picture X-Heavy]

[MuskieBait]

Not much of a story there actually...

If you go trolling at any Fish Aggregating Device off Oahu in the morning (crack of dawn morning or just after sunrise), you'll find Skipjack Tuna there. Just slow troll (about 3-4 knots) a smaller tuna lure (small being 4" or so), you should be able to find some.

What is amazing is that sometimes there will be very large schools of them all feeding in the morning. When they feed, the sea is churned white by the baitfish pushed to the surface and the tuna exploding on the baitfish. Each school could be a football field in size and there could be a number of these schools close to the FAD. You could even see all that white water from a mile away (and you'll see a bird pile going crazy). When they school like that, the bigger predators won't be far away. In fact, we were trolling and I had a skipjack on the hook. I was reeling it in when all of a sudden my line became really tight and I couldn't even crank in any line. It was tight for a couple of seconds and then it went slack. When I reeled in the line to check, the tuna was gone. Something bigger had grabbed it and ripped it off the hook. A while later, another boat close to us hooked up a 500lb blue marlin. Go figure...could it be this marlin that stole my skipjack? Possibly...

That Skipjack Tuna is about 8lbs...and pound for pound, Skipjack Tuna is the hardest pull of them all. If Skipjacks get to 100lbs, we would not be able to bring them in...or that's what most people would say anyways. Noticed the Jigmaster and the UglyStik Tiger in the picture?

I did not eat that particular fish in the picture. Todd took that home with him. I did bring a couple of smaller Skipjack Tunas home to eat. Skipjack Tuna has darker meat than Yellowfin Tuna. Sometimes the meat is almost a dark burgundy colour. The dark meat near the lateral line is quite fishy (but I like it), but otherwise it just slightly more fishy than Yellowfin Tuna. You can eat them as poke, as sashimi, as tuna steak, cooked and then flaked for tuna salad or tuna sandwich (in fact, this is the tuna you get in a can most of the time)...or Hawaiians like I dried (I like that too).

Talking about it makes me hungry. Michael, if you ever have a chance to visit Hawaii, let me know...I have a friend with a BOAT ...and I have a friend called Stan Wright who used to be a co-host for Hawaii Goes Fishing show...and of course we have Thomas and Kaipo and their hook ups too.

I may actually visit Hawaii next year to visit my grandma...depending on when I may graduate next year.