Giant Bluefin Tuna on Spinning Rod

By Captain Jack Sprengel, East Coast Charters

I finally got a chance to take our new North Rip 30 out on the type of run she was built for, a jig-and-pop trip with three great clients, Jeff Conti, Mike Argiro, and Rodney Jean-louis, and ECC Mates Kyle Oneppo and Kyle Paparelli. Running buddy boat with us for this trip was ECC’s Captain Brandon Lake and Team ECC’s Landon Cohen aboard Venator.

After making short work of what should have been a lumpy ride, the two boats began to search an area of promising life signs and fishy energy. Brandon hailed me on the radio to alert us that we had fish about 2 miles north of us. We steamed in his direction and together we boxed in a solid mass of birds bait and feeding tuna. Both crews fired and just as I remarked about fish on the screen and beginning to surface, Kyle Paparelli (Who was fishing a new Proto-Type Jigging World Blank built by Ralph Craft of Crafty One Customs and tipped with a 10-inch Big Game Series RonZ in Silver Metallic) yelled “JACK!!!!” and was literally pulled off his feet toward the stern of the boat. Kyle Oneppo helped Paps back to his feet and, what followed was hands-down the most legendary dump of 350 yards of line off a spinning reel that I have ever seen.

In a desperate effort to get some line on the spool, I had to put the boat up on plane in the direction the fish was heading. Eventually the fish stopped its run and swam up near the surface. Once there it began a series of wild changes in direction, random dives to the bottom, and eventually even turned directly at the boat and charged us. We had a lot of heat on this fish and rotated the crew though quickly to keep the right amount of heat on her. Then, unlike many of these Jurassic fish I have hooked this season, this one made a huge mistake – it came within throwing distance of the harpoon. As it quickly streaked across the bow, I made a now-or-never Hail Mary shot and hit pay dirt.

The fish immediately dumped all 300 feet of the harpoon line and the poly ball shot by me as if fired out of a cannon. The fish pulled the ball across the surface hard Jaws-style for about another hundred feet, then ran out of gas. Kyle Oneppo was on the rod and made a series of hard pumps and quick cranks to plane that meat submarine up to the surface. The fish got within range of the 8-foot Jay Jigs Gaff and I nailed it with a head shot, VICTORY.

The fish measured in at 92 inches and weighed 400 pounds gutted, putting it a little over 400 live weight! Finally, a real giant tuna on spinning gear.This fish was the very first fish, on the very first tuna run for the North Rip 30 with East Coast Charters and is one of the largest gamefish ever to have ever been hooked on a lure and landed on spinning gear, something my friends Capt Bobby Rice and Capt Dom Petrarca have already set the standards for!

Hell of a start for the North Rip and I can now say with absolute certainty that it is not only one of the best looking, but is hands down one of the most efficient sportfishing center consoles I have ever had the pleasure to work on. Moments later Capt Brandon Lake and Landon also landed a handsome 70-inch bluefin on a 10-inch green glow RonZ. We putted toward each other, fish in tow, and managed these awesome photos while boating our fish. Storybook day for the boat and my top-notch crew, one that I’m sure we will never forget. Special thanks to Landon Cohen for the killer shots of us boating the North Rip’s first tuna!