By Bob Hoose
(Originally published in the September/October 2024 issue of The Big Game Fishing Journal)
The Vagabond, a San Diego long-range sportfisher, was steaming west along the outside edge of the canyon wall above San Clemente Island. It was 1:45 a.m. and there were only a few passengers up waiting for the next signal of bluefin tuna. The captain was glued to his electronics, the side-scanning sonar being his best weapon to locate schools of bluefin tuna suspended in the water column and feeding at 40 to 100 fathoms.
At about 2 a.m., the captain’s voice came over the PA system: “OK, guys, found a good school at 240 feet – drop ’em!” On those words I grabbed my night jigging outfit with a Mustad 300-gram Rip Roller and tossed my jig out into the depths on the windward side of the bow. As I free-spooled the jig into the depths, my braid marks counted off at 100 feet, 200 feet, then my line suddenly went slack. I pushed the drag lever up to strike and cranked on the reel handle rapidly until the rod loaded up. Fresh one!
All at once, every passenger who was at the rail was bending on Pacific bluefin tuna. It was our best stop of the
