Valentine's Day date - Bluefin Tuna Fishing

For Valentine's Day my husband invited me to go on an 1.5 day BlueFin Tuna charter. We have been married 10 years and have done the dinner, roses, chocolates thing many times. This sounded like an awesome adventure that I was up for especially because the fish were biting. It's rare to have bluefin tuna biting in February so we wanted to get, while the getting was good. We left at 8pm on Thursday, February 12th on the Aztec from Seaforth Sportsfishing out of San Diego, CA. Like most people the only experience I had with Tuna fishing was watching the Wicked Tuna show on the National Geographic channel so I didn't quite know what to expect. As expected, I was the only girl on board. All the guys were great about showing me things and were very welcoming. I genuinely think they liked that I was "couples fishing" with my husband. I quickly learned that there was a science to it.The first night the Captain gathered everyone and gave a short tutorial on baiting the hooks. We used live Sardines as bait and they were fed into a well for us to catch. The Captain told us to find the best looking Sardine and "belly hook" it. Bluefin are picky and like to chase their food. If you hook the Sardine through the belly it can swim straight and out from the boat once it hits the water. Apply a little back pressure and the Sardine will run hard. Oh, and hook it quickly and with the least amount of handling as possible to avoid knocking off scales. That's the key to getting bites on the fish is having a bait that is moving quickly. Let's just say it took me awhile to get the hang of it all. I was lucky that my husband was helping me as he had been Bluefin fishing many times. Those who knew what they were doing caught more fish than those who didn't.

The crew was excellent. Once on board they helped everyone with their gear and shortly thereafter we went to bed. We traveled for 100 miles overnight and in the morning were ready to start fishing. The cook made an (excellent) breakfast for everyone and I didn't know what to expect as far as the fishing was concerned. The Captain used his sonar, looks for birds and Boils. Once you spot those, more or less you are ready to go. Once he says "go" it's a mad dash for the bait wells. Several people got hooked right away and the crew was busy trying to keep people from getting tangled. Once I was hooked up I fought the fish for at least 25 minutes. They fight hard.  My arm was very sore the next day.

There were Sealions around. They call them "dogs." Now I know why. They will wait until you have the fish up next to the boat and then steal it. After 20+ minutes of fighting I can see why people hate having them around

All in all I got three and he got three. That's enough sashimi to last me a good while. Bluefin is my favorite and it felt fantastic to catch it myself. I will definitely do this again. I encourage other women to give it a try. The crew and other anglers were very friendly and helpful. They made sure everyone was catching fish. I would suggest you go with someone who has been before, for your own comfort. If you have any questions I am happy to answer as best I can.

If you have a fishing or hunting adventure you would like to share, we would love to talk to you! Please email Lauren@reelcamogirl.com for details.