How To: Slow Jigging the Hogy Harness Jig for Giant Bluefin Tuna East of Chatham

[Music] hi folks captain mike here from salty cape we're back at the dock after a great day fishing for giant bluefin tuna at the regal sword it's middle of august which means it's prime time for the big boys east of chatham here on cape cod the spot that we're fishing at the regal sword has been hot but you still need to focus on locating the fish especially if you're using artificials so we had two strategies today the first strategy which makes the most sense for most anglers is to stick with the life by life i mean whales birds aggressively feeding with the whales sand deals lots of life this is a perfect example of a humpback bubble feed look how much life is here it's a full food chain in motion you have birds aggressively working sand deals getting eaten by the ton tuna are very much part of this equation and further down in the water column now the other method is uh to do a sort of a search pattern with your fish finder uh what i like to do in that case is idle slowly while staring at my fish finder looking for targets today we've been noticing the targets have been hanging down near the bottom even though we have seen some fish surfacing on the top water [Music] so we're fishing with jigs today so locating the fish is really important as opposed to if you're drifting with say live mackerel uh the mackerel can sort of help find the fish for you but if you're fishing with jigs this is a little more of a tactical situation than fishing with live bait so you really want to make sure you're on top of the fish so i know from past experiences this summer there's a mix of sand deals and mackerel here at the regal those sea herring are a common occurrence there's some good bottom here too so there's cod which makes a great plan b but also the usual bottom fish such as mud hague pollock etc for all those reasons i think the hoagie harness jig is a great place to start it has the right size and profile to match any of those aforementioned baits so the hoagie harness jig is highly imitated you'll notice a couple of things about this lure for starters the airbrushed head and oversized eyes pair perfectly with the color patterns on the hoagie harness jig tails so that means this bait will look very natural very realistic if a fish gets a close look at the bait now this is very important today because we are slow jigging which is how i like to fish soft baits for tuna and that means the tuna are going to have a good look at this bait before committing so we want every edge we can get particularly in a situation if these guys might decide to be a little finicky for outfits you want high quality tough stuff there are a lot of big fish in the area and i expect some heavy vertical lifting so i'm going to err on the side of conventional reels today because i feel like i can put more pressure on the fish i have a mix of shimano metallica 20s and 25 rigged with 100 pound braided hollow core with 25 feet of 130 pound test fluorocarbon wind on leaders the hoagie harness jig has a ball bearing swivel molded right inside the head of the lure making the usual swivel split ring combination unnecessary this will minimize fish spooking hardware again important with the slow presentation and high visibility to the fish i recommend the smallest piece of heat shrink and crimp you can get away with again the less hardware the better take your time to crimp the harness jig on properly you'll be putting a ton of pressure on that connection the lure can stop a bust make sure your crimp connection can too so the name of the game with fishing these soft baits is slow and by slow i mean really slow hip up slow drop tip up slow drop let it out crank up if you feel like you've come off the bottom reel it up a little bit and drop it back down you want to pay attention to where you're marking fish anywhere in the fish finder and focus on that depth but again today the name of the game has been down deep close to the bottom speaking of drops we find that many of our hits come on the drop with soft baits fishing this man be vigilant if you hit bottom before you should hit bottom crank down on the handle like this fish on fish on just like that just like that the hooks on the hoagie harness jig are ridiculously sharp and sticky in the articulated bend on the hook we'll make sure that fish stays buttoned we've taken the time to carefully connect the lure so i know i can play massive amounts of pressure with confidence we're going to take the time here to break down how to properly fight bluefin tuna like this one two things to remember teamwork and communication are the most important components to this battle we're gonna let the fish run meanwhile my crew is gonna clear the deck and stow the rods in a safe position at this point i like to have the engines fired up and in the ready position it's the anglers job to advise how much line is on the reel at this point if you're on a center console this is the time where the angler will head to the bow and fight the fish about 15 off the center today we're on a downey style boat so the angler will stay on the aft corner whichever side is practical in either event the captain will position the boat to accommodate this many anglers will be startled by how much line is coming off the reel at this point if you have a reel set to 12 to 15 pounds of drag the pressure is immense to the fish not just you let the fish run it's hands down the fastest way that fish needs to get tight remember your reel has at least 45 inches of line per crank so when the fish gets tired you can pick up line quickly once the run is complete we sometimes idle back towards the fish while the angler puts more line in the reel while maintaining pressure if you put wine back on without idling do it the fish will tire more quickly that way the goal is to get as much line back on the reel without letting the fish rest too much so that it can make another big run and get even more tired i expect at least five or six good runs at this stage of the fight take turns these fish are very big fish and extremely tiring on this skier these rods may be considered light tackle as compared to the fish but they do put a hurdle on the angler i often see people switching out when they get tired but i recommend switching out before you get tired that way every angler on the rod will be in top physical shape and the fish will be getting the maximum amount of pressure throughout the whole battle be ready for the fish to swim towards you if this happens wheel as fast as you can sometimes the change in direction can be so aggressive that the captain will assist you by repositioning the bike as the fish gets closer to the boat it'll become more vertical if you're on a center console i'd advise working the fish half so you're in a position where the captain can easily step aside to assist i think the best place to fight a fish is aft on one of the corners pick a side that is easiest for the captain to keep the boat downwind of the pitch this will prevent the boat from drifting over the tuner and potentially breaking it off two will make big circles that get tighter as the fish gets closer to the boat let the fish run a little while it's swimming away from the boat and collect the line as it circles back away now is the time to put extra pressure on the fish with a little palm on the reel this takes some finesse you want extra pressure but you don't want to break off the fish as you make progress apply a little more palm on the reel as the fish circles away this will help shorten the diameter of the circles keep repeating trust your gear trust your connections but also know when to ease off you'll get a sense of this as you do it more often as the fish gets close the angler is responsible for advising line position relative to anything bad which includes the fish swimming under the boat or line hitting trim tabs swim platforms engines whatever it's the captain's responsibility to listen watch for him or herself and be ready to reposition the boat there are often many boat adjustments needed near the end game to avoid trouble usually this only entails driving a circle around a fish and keeping the fish in the most ergonomic position on the aft quarter of the boat as the fish gets very close to the boat it will likely freak out a little bit with the last final burst of adrenaline it will likely rip a little more line out no problem just keep working the turns the more spirals you shorted with your pond the more you're winning it's time for the end game so we have a decision to make here are we going to keep this fish or are we going to release it if we were to keep this fish we'd be considering using a harpoon and or a gap in either event the goal is to gap or harpoon this fish near its head if the fish is very large this is a good opportunity to get a tail rope on the fish to better secure its position alongside the boat but today we are releasing this fish it's very tired and the goal is to get a lip gap on this fish as quickly as possible and get it swimming alongside the boat so we can revive the fish and remove the jig this fish is very tired so we're going to spend the time to properly revive this fish it can take up to 45 minutes to do this properly but be patient the fish will come back to life roof and tuner are federally regulated and the regs change often so it's a good idea to check the regulations before leaving for each trip we estimate this fish to be approximately 85 inches which is far above the current regs of up to 72 inches for recreationally caught bluefin tuna so as you saw that fish messed up our soft bait a little bit now that i have this lure unraided i'd like to take a minute to show you the inside guts of this lure so you'll notice on this harness jig there's a heat shrink tubing that goes over the connection of the harness to the hook hence the name harness jig now what's cool about this heat shrink tubing is it creates a semi stiff rig so you'll see the hook flexes so it will allow the angler to put pressure on the fish without too much pressure on the lure so the hook up ratio will go up quite a bit with this component so bottom line is this heat shrink connection over the harness rig is a nice compromise between a great hook up ratio and the flexibility inside the lure so you can put unlimited pressure on the fish so the hoagie harness tail is built for rigging you'll notice the rigging channel in the front and the rigging exit in the back the middle of the lure is solid in the new hoagy harness tails this will minimize slippage with the bait when it's on the jig so it's about as easy as you get you aim for the hole and you can feel the passageway i am now at the solid part of the bait so it requires a little finger strength to get through it and i exit the hole that's in the back and i'm just going to slide that bait right up and over the knuckle of the tail and here you go you might actually get half a dozen fish on the same lure without needing to re-rig so i'm going to pull the soft bait back just a little bit and i'm going to put a little super glue just inside the head here you can see now this is an optional step the bait will stay on the lure without it but the good thing about the super glue is it's gonna greatly extend the useful life of the bait so if you can picture this lure inside a fish's mouth if this bait's gonna you know with the friction of the fish's mouth its jaws its fight the drag the bait sliding up and down the harness is what wears the bait out more than anything so while i let that glue dry i'm gonna go back to the exit hole here and just put a little down that channel and i move it around give it a pinch now you're ready to drop this 225 feet of water for your next giant bloop and tuna [Music] took a while to revive that fish it was such a great feeling to watch that fish swim away healthy dude huh that was a long time coming for the boys you

Channel: Hogy Lures

Views: 502,135

Keywords: Capt. Mike Hogan, Cape Cod Fishing, Hogy Lures, Fortier 30, Cape Cod, Offshore Fishing, Tuna Fishing, Bluefin Tuna, Harness Jig, Hogy Harness Jig, Jigging, Vertical Jigging, Regal Sword, Salty Cape, Chatham, Chatham Fishing, Monomoy

Id: 9cj28T2nd3I

Length: 14min 3sec (843 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020