Bluefin catches draw Half Moon Bay boaters

August 3, 2020

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FISH FIGHTERS – Darrell Ticehurst of Hillsborough and Michael Maulick of Pacifica with a bluefin caught aboard Ticehurst's boat Noosa Cat out of Half Moon Bay.

ANOTHER NORTHERN BLUEFIN – Paul Peoples of San Bruno and Dean Hafeman of Hillsborough with a big bluefin caught within a half dozen mikes of Pillar Point Harbor.

Paul pulled on the fish until his arms were hurting, handed off to Darrell, who handed off to Capt. Tom, who handed off to Dean, who handed off to Michael. There were multiple rounds of handoffs until finally the bluefin came to gaff after 1 hour and 32 minutes of sheer battle on 50-pound test mono, a Penn International 30 reel set to 14 pounds of drag and CalStar 6455 XH A/R rod. Two gaffs, a line on the tail and the fish came on board for pictures. Numerous private boaters went out for a crash course on bluefin fishing, but sadly many were totally undergunned and many fish were lost.

Half Moon Bay sportfishing boat Queen of Hearts had quite a week. Jose Lares from La Grange caught a 19-pound salmon trolling an anchovy. Capt. Wallace Klughers said, “We had a pretty epic week here it started off with great salmon fishing only 5 miles south of the harbor. On our rockcod trip Wednesday, we were off Martin’s Beach in 200 feet of water and out of nowhere a huge school of bluefin started jumping around the boat. Some looked to be 100+ pounds. And this continued for the next 2 days. It was definitely a rare sight to see especially so close to home.”

New Captain Pete had good bottom fishing action. The Martinez family got 2 salmon, 3 lingcod and a huge canary among their pile of rockfish. Crew member Braden Baxter reported that a friend mooched up a limit of salmon before 10:00a.m., on gold colored spoons off the Ritz Carleton.