Day 7 of 15 - Galapagos Islands - Jack Attack

Once again fishing in the Galapagos Islands has surprised me just as I knew it would.  Paul, Alan, and Daniel decided to skip marlin fishing and we visited a spot where two days earlier we slayed the yellowfin tuna on poppers.  There were still a few yellowfin around, but the spot was loaded with bigeye jacks (bigeye trevally).  They could not resist our Guides Choice M-80 Poppers.  The strikes were incredible.

Bigeye Trevally – Alan Lapes

We even hooked a huge pargo (a type of grouper) that was well over 100lbs that broke off when a knot (that I had tied) pulled.  However, when we returned to the area three hours later we found the plug floating on the surface and got it back.  The amazing thing was that the tide certainly moved that plug a mile in one direction and then back again to almost the same spot.Whenever we drifted into the deeper water (200+ feet) we drew strikes from yellowfin tuna and Paul Stevens brought one to the boat that was around 30lbs using a Guides  Choice No.2 Popper.

We lost a much larger yellowfin tuna when Daniel threw a popper that was hit so hard that it snapped an 80lb fluorocarbon leader right in the middle.  The fish hit the popper only 20ft from the boat.

We continued our field test for the Penn TRQS7 and the new Penn Carnage rods.  We loaded everything with 80lb Spiderwire Ultracast and are using 80lb Berkley Big Game Fluorocarbon leaders.  After countless big yellowfin tuna we have had only one broken leader (which could not have been avoided) and have yet to see the Spiderwire fail.  The Carnage rod we are testing is actually rated for 80-200lbs braid.  It is only 6ft and is really designed for jigging.  However, it is excellent for throwing big plugs to tuna and getting them to the boat quickly.  The largest tuna was have taken so far was around 100lbs.  We really want to see if we can hook one over 200lbs on this trip to see how the gear performs.  Click here for our recommended tuna tackle for tuna plugging.

Learn more about travel and fishing in the Galapagos at Sportfish Galapagos