Gib Rock Tuna

Monster Experience 2017
Giant Bluefin Tuna at the Canary Islands

After a much needed, totally disconnected ‘off-season’ I am back in action. I needed a proper break and my toddler needed a lot more of my attentions as the past two seasons have been very hectic and very intense.

So after much reflection and my motivation towards this world, we are heading towards this new season with might!
Like many years, the Spring marks the beginning of my seasons with the migration of the BFT reaching the Canary Islands, a couple months before they reach my home ground, The Straits of Gibraltar.

The Magical Canary Islands has a special place in my heart, I never get enough of them and every year we set ourselves new challenges and we explore new areas. It has been a great success as we have found the BFT in every expedition.

This year I decided to scale things down dramatically…. No big boats, no guest anglers…. I had good friend Aaron who had just bought a 4.60m open boat with an outboard. He’s one of the only guys on the Canary Islands to be loyal to the Jig & Pop game and has been working really hard on it whilst all the rest of locals where calling him mad, crazy and all sorts of stuff because of his aim to land these colossal creatures of the deep in that small boat and with spin gear! The challenge was on, and we had to prove them wrong!
As the day of my arrival to the island approached, we kept on getting reports of huge fish spooling trollers on 130lb gear. The giants were certainly there!

It didn’t take us long for our first contact. A while into the fishing grounds on day one, we spotted some feeding birds and made way there, getting in before a couple of trolling boats as we obviously did not have any lines out and we could go faster. I asked Aaron to stop the boat because I could feel with the attitude of the mammals and the birds that there was something going on under the surface. On my second cast, right under some sprinkling baitfish…. Swoosh! Like a ninja, this BFT took my Amegari Dzanga230 Popper in flash and I was tight! Jeez, one of them buggers that leaves you puzzled. We had no idea of its size, and not even if it was a BFT since there have been some Big Eye Tuna being landed too. Shortly into the fight, we had no doubt it was a big BFT… and the grueling combat was on! The fish was very strong, going a few hundred metres deep, then charging up to the surface. Each of these runs were slower and shorter untill we managed to keep him 60m under the boat. The usual grueling up and down vertical battle was on, but we were very determined and full of fresh motivation. We had the beast boat side and lip gaffed in 72mins. Just Aaron and myself, taking it in turns on the rod and helm, we were euphoric. We quickly measured the fish (220cm) and fat as a pig. We couldn’t measure its girth, as he was alive and ready to swim off, and we couldn’t get around him so we decided to release whilst he was still in good shape. Not a bad start at all! A beautiful 220-250kg Bluefin already under our belt on one of my first casts of the year!

Our second day was a different story. The wind had picked up, and the sea was gnarly, but this didn’t stop us from heading out. Finding any sort of action was a real mission and keeping on top of the running fish was a pretty hard task. Big thumbs up to Aaron and his skills behind the helm, because following the running fish, upwind and in this seas was not for the feint hearted. Inspirational stuff from the captain!
We were determined and we managed to raise a fish, fully airborne but unfortunately not sticking. After some hours of us getting battered by the elements I put out a lazy cast onto some following birds and whilst slowly working back my Amegari Kaxu240, BOOM. The water erupted just a couple of metres away from the boat and I was setting the hook with such a surprise. When we least expected it we got slammed and the Stella 30k was singing that beautiful music we all love. As I mentioned before, the conditions were a whole different story. The wind had picked up and maneuvering the 4.6m boat in those heavy seas was quite dodge. We had a support boat, so we were safe, but we still had that sense of falling into the sea a few times. This fish was a demon. Since the hookset, he dived deep, very deep and vertical. I knew right away this was going to be painful, and that we had to pace ourselves. I wasn’t too far off. It took us just over 2 hours to see the fish. It surfaced 50m from the boat, swimming downtide and as soon as we put some extra pressure it dove down deep once again. Something that made my knees shudder a little more was to see that the fish did not have a proper hookset. It had both singles buried in its chin, under the bottom lip and my experience with this has never been good as it is very hard to turn its head and have a proper fight. This demon really put us, and the boat to the test, in terribly grotty weather. After over 4hrs on a nightmare of a battle, the small boat got hammered and the wind also made maneuvering pretty difficult. It got to a point where we lost control of the boat, it changed direction and the fish also charged right under…. The inevitable happened, and the mainline broke, together with our hearts!

Day three unfortunately, we could not make it out. The wind was howling and the sea was just too treacherous, so we played it safe and had a good rest for the following day, which looked good on the forecast.

They certainly did not let us down, and a beautiful ocean greeted us. Smooth, yet rugged. Right outside our harbour we already start to see some bird activity and we start to follow them. A brief while after, they took us to a spot full of life. Mammals, birds and of course… we did spot some BFT flashing under those birds. Right from my first cast, it was Mayhem. We experienced such a beautiful 2hours of fishing. The giants were attacking our poppers with such aggression that they would miss entirely, and going totally airborne. An awesome show, because we hooked up to 8 Giants, and funnily enough… all of them pulled hooks (except for one fish who broke two of the GT recorder trebles Martin had rigged). I was very satisfied with the action, it was amazing! The wind picked up, and they started charging upwind at an incredible speed. It was almost impossible to keep up with them for a while, but we still stayed on top getting some good chances, but we didn’t capitalize on any. I think we kind off relaxed a little, since we had such good action earlier on and that left us gob smacked.

I have nothing but praise and words of encouragement towards Aaron. Such an inspirational fella, with soo much good energy and full of passion for this world.
Thanks to Martin too, our good friend from france who lives fishing with a passion too and transmit so much positive energy in the boat, and of course Jorge! Our camera man, always with a smile and boy has he have some treats for us on his camera! Watch this space for a video of the trip to follow soon.

There are plenty of exciting plans in the pipeline for 2018 and these Giants, so get in touch if you would like any info to get involved.

Fotos by: Jorge Madinaveitia

OK... It's been a very quiet off-season (on social media) for us, but our foot has never been off the pedal! 2017 BFT commences with some beautiful action and some slobs already for Gib Rock Tuna, and boy do we have some treats for you in store...
Watch this Space!

Hungry for prototypes?

Testing this secret Amegari lure this season was quite interesting.
I remember this fish very very clearly. On my second sweep of a long cast I had two fish busting and throwing the lure in the air... as I twitched it back into action a school of 100lbers swarmed trying to get hold it with the result being what I call the 'cubano'. A BFT with a cigar. Haha. He sure wanted that!

Jackfin Argo 75.

Some tuna candy right there!

In stock

WWW.GIBROCKTUNA.COM

Ripple Fisher Big Tuna 710. Pure class for those days you feel like handling some beats with some finesse and perfect to cast those smaller range of lures too.

In Stock!

WWW.GIBROCKTUNA.COM

So these little killer lures Amegari Lingo 120, have been one of our secret weapons this year!

I won't give away too many details just yet, but one (of many) image will say a thousand words

Please note, these are yet not in production.

https://instagram.com/p/BKnQM-WhuSI/

Instagram photo by www.gibrocktuna.com • Sep 21, 2016 at 9:42am UTC See this Instagram photo by

The French fishery is not an easy one. Most of the boats are chasing these sub-trucks with live bait because they are very difficult to get them to take lures plus they are fighting really strong. Good friend here is setting the bar well high managing to land a few beautiful fish like these.

Of course, with these fish. No Racepoint, No Party!

RP300 and Amegari Mehe 225 were the weapons