Renegade - Hatteras - Giant Bluefin Tuna Jigging Report - Insane

[Captain Mike C]

On Saturday March 20, the Renegade Sportfishing team returned to Hatteras, NC on another R&D mission (our second in 13 days) to absolutely try and destroy some of the light weight jigging gear. Teaming up with Capt. Jay Kavanagh from owner/operator of Bite Me Sportfishing we departed 6 am Saturday morning. Headed NE out of Hatteras into the stream about 30 miles in flat calm seas. Started off slow with a couple falsies. About 30 minutes and few moves we finally started to mark and land some decent bft’s. The 6th fish leadered we decided to take which weighed 155 pounds and was lean/empty (see photo). Fish was whooped in 20 minutes on the Shimano Talica 16II/ Trevala XXH. By 10am jigging was off the charts with triple, quadruples and finally five on at once. This school was larger with the final fish being fought for a ridiculous 4 hours , passed off 80 times including the mate and Capt Jay, while backing down for 10 miles in the stream. Fish was released with Capt. Jay estimating it at 75 inches and 250 pounds, a personal jigging best for all including the boat. The giant destroyed all 8 of us while taking up half our day, as courtesy dictated, no others could jig except BP.

We had about 24 bites total, with about half leadered to the boat all in the 70-150 pound class. Jiggers destroyed trollers getting down deep. We also had schools of large bft’s busting water feeding on bluefish. The Torsa 40 and Talica 16II two speed reel had the most power. The giant was actually fought on a Daiwa Saltist ST TLD 50, 80 pd suffix braid and 80 pd floro, the pole was a Penn Torque 80-130 jigging rod. The Stella’s were not used since our braid did not arrive in time. The Sagarsosa 18000f’s with the new drag washers worked flawlessly with a 100% improvement over the old drag washers. Momoi Diamond Blue 65 solid braid had minimal resistance over the 100 hollow core. All colored Shimano 10oz and 12oz jigs performed the same with no color really out producing any other. The Fin Nor 085 also did well with no problems. Excellent Captain and crew who went the distance for us by days end when we were close to 60 miles NE of Hatteras and fishing with the Oregon Inlet boats. Small yellowfin are also making their arrival south of Hatteras. We will be returning next week for another bft jigging trip. Possibly out of Oregon Inlet as the bft’s are slowly moving north. Can't wait for these fish to arrive in our waters. Renegade will be running 4 times a week and specializing in offshore bft jigging. If interested in a charter call us now to reserve. Our first trip is scheduled for June 5th. See website for additional information.

Capt. MC

[JFLORES]

Mike,

Awesome pictures and report....looks like you guys had a blast.

Going to blow for a few days...hope there still around,looking to get back
down soon.

[Eamon]

Outstanding!!!

[bluefincrazy]

It seems I have a problem with hooking big fish, prohibiting fishing for the others, and destroying the crew. 2 fish and 6+ hours invested. Sorry guys. The 40-80 lbers will be at the Princess soon enough and we all can fish together. Until then I will promise to hook the jumbo's, prohibit fishing for others, and wreck our crew.

[Captain Mike C]

You did good bluefincrazy sorry about not spotting any bald eagles on this trip. Hopefully next weekend you will but beach access might be an issue. You can always ride out with us and pretend to be fishing . Did the wife at least spot any? Photos?

[shrimpman steve]

fantastic report! I have never sailed with you capt., but this is gonna be the year! Will you be supplying the jigging equipment with your charters as I only have conventional gear.

[Captain Mike C]

Yes Steve, we supply all top of the line Shimano jigging equipment, tackle, jigs every color and size, poles and reels which make up the Exclusive Shimano Butterfly Jigging Sytem, ESBJS. We have invested a lot of money in the system in the last few years and it has been worth every penny.

[dales529]

Nice trip Mike! All that work and preperation sure does pay off.

Shrimp: Went with Mike a lot last year and plan on it again this year. You cant go wrong! Top notch trips, gear and fun wether its stripers or tuna

[Jig and Snap]

Glad to hear you had a gret trip Mike. You and your crew deserve it. The mrs. and I were out bottom fishing in the morning and then decided to make a move to the Tuna grounds. We didn't have much luck trolling around and only had a couple of monster False Albacore. By any chance did you see the loads of Portugese Man Of Wars out there? What a mess they make on your lines when you troll through them.

[Captain Mike C]

Jig and Snap, thanks for the update on the falsies. No bird watching?

Capt. MC