- 2 days ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00I'm Nick Honoshefsky. As a professional saltwater fishing journalist, I've explored the world's wildest fishing destinations.
00:07Now, I'm bringing you there, into the saltwater underground.
00:30Tuna fishing commands a certain respect.
00:47Sleepless nights and long offshore runs are rewarded only by arm-busting, gut-wrenching battles that can make or break an angler.
00:54The yellowfin bite in New Jersey has been firing, and I knew I needed muscle to handle fish that had been breaking past the 100-pound mark.
01:02So on a whim, I dialed up social media friend NYPD cop Mike Coonahan to put some work in.
01:10Finding the tuna shouldn't be a problem, but the question is, would we be successful with a brand new crew who never fished together?
01:17Tuna fishing demands perfection when gearing up.
01:24The crew at Fisherman Supply always dials me in with guidance on picking out the right lures, spooling up the reels properly, fueling up the boat, and getting the primo intel to make the day a success.
01:37All right, Kyle, check this out. We're going to go out tuna fishing. I know we want to go chunking, jigging, popping. Can you show us what to do for the proper popping rod and reel?
01:47Yeah, sure. All right, so for popping, I'm using a Shimano Twin Power, usually a 14,000-size reel, purely for the line pickup.
01:57We can cover, with this type of setup, all different types of beads in the water column.
02:03Down below, you've got the Ronzi's up on the surface, throw the Azori slide baits and the poppers out.
02:08Got our fluorocarbon, man. All right. All premium stuff.
02:19All right, Jay, we also want to do some chunking out there on the tuna grounds. Can you show me the perfect rod and reel setup to use?
02:24Yeah, absolutely. So this is a Shimano Talica 25 paired up with a Fisherman Supply custom rod.
02:31We have this spooled up with 60-pound mono with a 60-pound Yozuri fluoro top shot.
02:38And then the hook is a 7-0 inline circle hook.
02:43We like something like this because whether you're fishing a Butterfish or a Sardine, you'll be able to hide the hook really well.
02:49Sounds like exactly what we're going to need for chunking stuff.
02:52Awesome. Cool, cool.
02:54Let's go get some Butterfish out of the freezer.
02:55You got it.
02:56And I'll grab that setup, too.
02:57Cool. Awesome.
02:59Thanks, brother.
03:00You got it.
03:08All right, boys. Thanks for the setup. Let's get it done, man. All right?
03:11We're going to go out and get some tuna.
03:12Don't forget this.
03:13Don't forget this.
03:14Thanks for the intel, all right?
03:15Woo! Yeah, supply boys. All right.
03:16Anytime.
03:17All right.
03:18We just took the two-and-a-half-hour ride about 65 miles off the coast of New Jersey here.
03:35Didn't get any sleep on the way out.
03:38And we're here at a spot called the Triple Rex.
03:42And apparently there's been a ton of Yellowson tuna, some Allison tuna, even a few Big Eye tuna that have been around out here.
03:50So it's about 535 right now in the morning.
03:53Sun rises around 625 or so.
03:56Might as well start getting the lines in the water.
03:58Let's go check out the plan and see what JR's got in store for us.
04:02All right, JR.
04:03What do we got going on?
04:04What's the game plan for today?
04:05The plan is to set up a chump slick.
04:08We're going to start chunking with some butterfish, some sardines.
04:11Put a couple of flat lines out.
04:13And then we'll be jigging as well.
04:14All right.
04:15Let's get the boys going on.
04:16We got Timmy chunking already.
04:18Cutting chunks.
04:20All right.
04:21Got the butterfish sliced up.
04:23Time to rig up, set the drift, and make it happen.
04:28Saltwater Underground with Nick Hanushefsky is brought to you by, at Nick Hanushefsky on Instagram,
04:48Yozuri, Bubba, Island X Lures, Fisherman Supply, Grumpy's Tackle, Brundon's, and Ron Z Lures.
04:58All right.
04:59So the main lures, we're going to try casting out for these yellowfin.
05:03Start out with the Yozuri Twitch baits here to give a little slash bait type of action.
05:04If we see anything feeding on the surface, they're going to be throwing the Yozuri Mag Poppers,
05:05and the Bull Poppers.
05:06And the Bull Poppers.
05:07Or these Island X Hellraiser Lures.
05:08And if they're down deep, they're going to be throwing the Yozuri Mag Poppers.
05:09Or these Island X Hellraiser Lures.
05:10And if they're down deep, we're going to go with the old school Ron Z Long Soft Baits.
05:12And the new Ron Z Z Fin Packers.
05:13And the new Ron Z Z Fin Packers.
05:14And the new Ron Z Z Fin Packers.
05:17So we're going to work the whole water column from top, mid-range, and bottom.
05:18So the main lures, we're going to try casting out for these yellowfin.
05:19Start out with the Yozuri Twitch baits here to give a little slash bait type of action.
05:24And if we see anything feeding on the surface, they're going to be throwing the Yozuri Mag
05:28Poppers and the Bull Poppers.
05:31Or these Island X Hellraiser Lures.
05:34And if they're down deep, we're going to go with the old school Ron Z Long Soft Baits like
05:39this.
05:40And the new Ron Z Z Fin Paddle Tail Shad.
05:43So we're going to work the whole water column from top, mid-range, and bottom.
05:46We just saw two to come up with the surface.
05:51We're going to see if we can get them to blow up on one of these.
05:54He's got dory poppers.
05:55It's a cool little fish.
05:56It's neat.
05:57Check this out.
05:58We've got a skipjack tuna here.
05:59They're actually pretty good eating.
06:02You see the lateral lines on the bottom there.
06:04You hit it pretty good, Mike, or what?
06:18Yeah, you hit it on the way up.
06:19Alright.
06:20Where these skippies are usually yellowfin and bluefin as well.
06:22Look at the colors.
06:23See how purple.
06:24That is so beautiful.
06:25Alright.
06:26You guys don't want them, dude.
06:27You want a skippy or no?
06:30Good, buddy.
06:31Such beautiful colors on the skipjack tuna.
06:36Nice purples and everything.
06:37They're great.
06:38Alright.
06:39We've got one on deck.
06:40Let's get the yellowfin now.
06:54Did you have any pictures?
06:55Yep.
06:57Yeah.
06:58J-R-Z on right now.
06:597-15.
07:00First fight on the chuck.
07:01Still on?
07:02Yeah, he's still on.
07:03First bite on the truck
07:33Oh
07:35No
07:39JR's fish busted the 40 pound leader but now it was my turn to get some revenge on the tuna
08:03This is a weighted chunk down there
08:15A little pumpkin reel
08:33Õ¹Õ¾Õ¾Õ² Whoa
08:35๗զ designers
08:38Õ¡ÕºÕ¿ Õ´Õ¾Õ¹
08:44malfunction Android
08:48Õ¸hard
08:53Õ”Ö€ Õ¹Õ©
08:54Õ°Õ¡Õµ
09:00Get him up!
09:01Get him up!
09:02Get him up!
09:03Get him up!
09:04Get him up!
09:05Get him up!
09:06There we go!
09:07There we go!
09:08Wireman!
09:09Catch him up!
09:10Catch him up!
09:11Catch him up!
09:12Catch him up!
09:13Catch him up!
09:14Catch a nice fish brother!
09:15Woohoo!
09:16Got him man!
09:17Thanks a lot stick man!
09:18Long fight!
09:19Long fight!
09:20Long fight!
09:21Light leader!
09:2240 pound leader!
09:23That's the first one on deck right now!
09:25Hopefully we get a few more!
09:26Just gonna make some nice tuna snakes at home!
09:29Bring your wife home some pokeball!
09:31She's gonna love that!
09:33Oh this is so sweet!
09:35Yeah!
09:36Let's get those lives back in the water and start making this happen alright?
09:39Yeah!
09:40Alright!
09:41Start it on!
09:59So this is the one thing I love about a yellowfin tuna is these tiny little finlets or finlets
10:09are individually movable so that's how they can hone in and absolutely pinpoint baitfish!
10:15Nice long pectoral fin goes past the dorsal that's how you can tell a yellowfin basically
10:20a bluefin will have a shorter pectoral fin here but um look at this!
10:24Look at the colors man!
10:25I'm always continually mesmerized by the yellows on these fish man!
10:30Just unreal!
10:31Time for some sushi brother!
10:32Yeah!
10:33Let's bleed them and get them in the pot you know!
10:36Alright!
10:37Now when we get those tuna in the boat we gotta bleed them right behind the pectoral fin!
10:42Grab my bubba blade!
10:43Make a nice slice right in there!
10:45Get the heart and it'll start bleeding out like as if he hasn't already!
10:51There it is!
10:53So we'll get him bleeding out and we'll get him in the cooler and he's ready to go!
11:01Nick we're gonna pick up and run!
11:03Why?
11:04There's tuna busted on top about two miles from here!
11:05You got the word?
11:06Yeah I got the word!
11:07Buddy!
11:08How far away?
11:09About two miles!
11:10Alright!
11:11Let's go!
11:12Let me get this in the cooler!
11:13Alright!
11:14Let's go!
11:15We just pulled up here and used claustros and try and pop some crap over the with me
11:29and this is huge!
11:30Everyone in this area is gettin' hooked up right now!
11:31This guy's been battling that for about 25 minutes 30 minutes!
11:35This old timer taught me years ago to stick the hook down here through the anal fin!
11:41have one like that it's stronger there and it doesn't like this gets soft it
11:46doesn't tear the bait on trying to buy a bite at this point later today and see
11:56if we can get one on
12:11what do we do out here to get a plate I guess sometimes when that was 50 bucks and a fish
12:15the kuna hang start putting the muscle to this fish
12:24get the sardine this time
12:26listen to that real smoke again
12:41we'll smoke it right now but it'll tire them out for a little bit
12:55finance starting to make quick work of them now you can tell he's done this before
12:58short stroking nice work
13:14normally we have heavy leader we can winch these fish in but generally we got to
13:18kind of like you know play it easy on because we don't want to break the line
13:22it's so light but fish is coming into the hands putting the boots to him
13:52that's it
13:54hey yellowfin baby
13:56another one in the box and the second one of the day
13:58we're two for three now right
13:59yeah I believe so
14:00I'd say they're 65-70 pound fish almost you know
14:04fire boys on the hook and all
14:07got ourselves some yellowfin tuna today
14:09probably 65 pounders maybe I think
14:12some fat boys we're gonna go home
14:14make some sushi poke bowl
14:16make everyone happy at home right
14:22catching tuna is a huge win
14:37now it was time to bring it to chef brad rodriguez and spring lake seafood to work his man
14:43saltwater underground with nick honischewski is brought to you by
14:51at nick honischewski on instagram
14:54yozuri
14:55bubba
14:56island x lures
14:58fisherman supply
14:59grumpy's tackle
15:00grunden's
15:01and ronzi lures
15:03hey
15:04what's up buddy
15:12so i'm like this is pretty rad man it's the first time i've actually been to brad's place at spring lake seafood
15:17is it really it's a cool spot man
15:18yeah let's go find him see where he's at
15:21all right mikey there he is
15:23there he is
15:24what's up brad
15:25what's up guys how you doing
15:26nice to meet you man
15:27nice to meet you guys
15:28here we go he's already cutting up the tuna for us
15:30looks delicious
15:31yeah i got some tuna cutting up we've been aging it for a couple of weeks for you guys
15:34and now we're going to show you a couple of different preparations we'll start in the kitchen
15:37how's that sound
15:38sounds good chef
15:39leave it away brother
15:40let's go
15:41all right guys here she is
15:48oh yeah bradley
15:50man that looks delicious
15:52chef bradley
15:54so we have our sesame seared tuna that you guys caught um a fresh lo mein noodle that we make here in house a little stir fry vegetables um our own proprietary spicy mayo
16:01wasabi crema and uh soy grass streak and sticky soy sauce
16:03you're good
16:04that's it i'll tell you you're just going to go ahead and go get it
16:05that's a lot
16:06you got something else coming out you said or what
16:07yeah so we're uh we're going to make some nigiri for you guys to try the uh different cuts of tuna
16:11so we have our sesame seared tuna
16:13so we have our sesame seared tuna that you guys caught
16:16um a fresh lo mein noodle that we make here in house a little stir fry vegetables um our own proprietary spicy mayo
16:21wasabi crema and uh soy grass streak and sticky soy sauce
16:24you're good
16:25that's it i'll tell you you're just going to go ahead and go get it
16:28that's a lot
16:29you got something else coming out you said or what
16:31yeah so we're uh we're going to make some nigiri for you guys to try the uh different cuts of tuna
16:35okay
16:36yeah you got to explain that to us so mike and i'm like you're the one that cooks it for us so that's awesome
16:43all right we're going to dig in with this for a second and uh bring up the nigiri afterwards
16:47all right guys enjoy it
16:48it's been killer man
16:49appreciate it
16:50i guess we'll dig in mike and see what's going on
16:52yeah man this looks delicious
16:53this is the first time we've actually like hung out and fished and you know now we're eating the tuna
16:58i know right
16:59you're a huge fisherman
17:00yep
17:01you know and uh you know on instagram
17:04i saw you always posting stuff and i'm like oh and you're an nypd cop number one right
17:09yep which is cool but the funny thing is your handle on instagram no donuts here
17:14yeah
17:15it's it's like a jab at you know the cop stereotype and i've my social media started just like
17:20trying to get cops to live a healthier lifestyle break the stereotypes and do all that stuff and
17:24you know it's been cool like the relationships i've built from being a cop from pushing the
17:28stuff on social media and then like all the fishing all the fishing connections i've made it's
17:32just like you know it's so cool man how different things could bring different people together
17:37good thing too is like you're talking about you know promoting a healthier lifestyle what's healthier than
17:41you don't catch
17:42you don't get healthier than this man it's fresh you caught it you killed it and it's just
17:46yeah that's right i think i caught this one
17:48yeah you're eating yours
17:50yeah people don't realize how much work goes into actual tuna fishing you know
17:53and like not only the mental capacity for the work for it but the physical capabilities that you have to challenge yourself with
17:59tuna fishing we saw that on the boat yeah tuna fishing in particular is a full contact sport
18:03you know what was the craziest thing on the trip too was that uh i didn't see this until
18:07afterwards i was looking at the gopro footage that we had so i don't know if i showed you this yet
18:12but when i had my hands down there we're filming your tuna by the way and i did this for you
18:16i got my hands down in the water with the gopro and as i'm going through the footage i see
18:21on the bottom right hand side of the screen i was like what is that little bit of a blur
18:25it was a monster great white shark man and that thing was just creeping under the boat
18:30looking at your tuna the whole time i'm surprised you reeled that thing in man
18:33oh man i'm surprised i was able to you know keep my arms intact with that thing down there
18:38it's scary you don't know what's out there
18:39yeah yeah yeah that's some crazy stuff
18:41it has a different element to it
18:42yeah yeah that's for sure
18:44it's not easy bro people think it's easy
18:48that's what i was saying
18:50there we go
18:52so we got some uh daguerre for you we have the three different cuts
18:56akami lean red meat
18:58true toro medium fatty and the king o toro fatty tuna
19:02all right brad which one are we going to start with how are we going to do it
19:05let's start with the akami the lean red meat
19:07okay you go first
19:08am i going first yeah
19:09oh my god
19:10what do you always want to start out with the the lean one first
19:13that's amazing
19:14next would be the true toro the medium fatty
19:17it literally melts in your mouth
19:19and then the final up is what
19:21let's go for the uh king the o toro fatty tuna
19:24let's see what you think
19:26we'll both do it all right
19:28cheers
19:29whoever does it first
19:30yeah
19:31it's really ethereal man
19:32you really feel the shit
19:33there's so much flavor in it it's unbelievable
19:34well done sir well done
19:36oh my gosh
19:38we all learned something today about tuna
19:40thank you guys
19:41this is the way to eat tuna i'll tell you what
19:42best i've ever had for sure
19:44applaudable performance from spring lakes
19:47thank you guys
19:49cheers to you
19:50cheers
19:51cheers
19:52quite possibly no other sport connects people like fishing as a way of doing it
20:01the crew i put together for tuna fishing was a stable of hardcore anglers in their own right
20:06but funny enough most of us had never met each other face to face only through social media
20:13that's the true beauty of any type of angling adventure
20:16you can be virtual friends on instagram facebook or whatever
20:20but the act of fishing physically brings people together
20:23helping to connect with like-minded friends and share a passion in person
20:27not just from behind a computer screen
20:30tuna fishing in jersey with this new crew strengthened the bombs and built memories between people
20:37who may have never gotten to know each other
20:39and that's not a virtual experience
20:41that's what building a real fishing community is all about
Comments