5 July Rudee

I normally have great luck the week before the Virginia Beach Tuna Tournament and this week was no exception. Had Steady and Dave H onboard today. Had a couple of cancellations but we were locked and loaded to go this morning so off we went......Left at the crack of 0515 and headed towards the Hot dog to work with Dave and crew on Billable ours......We scored early with a couple of Bailers...kept to for Dave's refrigerator and returned the rest to the ocean to grow into bigger dolphin if they can learn to stop eating baits bigger than they did....wasn't a whole lot of action at the Hot dog so we went in search to an area I had heard was holding some nice Blue Fins....and it was.....we faught off tiny mahi until around 1100 when the long left rigger starts smoking.....nice fish on and he's hooked solid.....Steady gets the rod out of the T-top and we harness Dave into a belt and harness and the fight begins...those dam blue Fin are the hardest fighting tuna out there and this one worked Dave over pretty good but he's a tough guy and wouldn't give up.....had major drag on this fish and he wasn't budging....about 40 minutes later we are able to stick a couple of gaffs in the fish..he taped out at 57" and we thought we had us a citation......weighed the fish at the fishing center and he went 98 Pounds....just shy of a Citation for Dave H....