Costa Cat Cay Tuna Tournament: Want to Catch a Tuna Fish? 

On Saturday 20 June we were trolling a weed line north of Lighthouse Pt. in 875' of water (flat calm). We waited out the weekend flood of boats and the ocean was empty by 1:00pm. We saw what we first thought was a huge school of very large tarpon broaching northbound. We wound up and tried to get in front of them but they were moving at 15-18 knots broaching and crashing up the weed line. As we got closer we realized the "tarpon" had no scales. Closer yet and it became obvious it was a school of Bluefin. First time I have ever seen literally dozens of huge fish moving so fast. We tried to pull ballyhoo and mullet strips in front of them but nothing. We ran 1/4 mile up the weed line in front of them and shut down everything including the livewell pumps. Tossed two dozen pilchards in along with a bunch of chunk ballyhoo. Sighted them on the surface 300 yards to the south of us moving directly at us and we tossed in several pilchards on spinners and a handful of remaing pilchards (our final shot). The fish came within 50 yards of us and turned and continued broaching right around us. They were gone in seconds. We waited a while hoping they were down below looking at our bait but, we watched the ocean surface go flat and not a sign of life. We looked at each other and started discussing what we just witnessed. First time for all of us to see such a sight and frankly we choked and didn't know what to do. Any pointers on what we could have done better with bally's, strip mullet and pilchards? Can you catch tuna when they are broaching and moving that fast? Is this common along the east coast of SoFla? I've lived and fished here for 50 years and never witnessed this.