First Giant BFT in the Annie P

[natchalkley]

How'd you catch em- casting, jigging, trolloing or live bait?

I was up in the bay today and came upon a couple of schools of giants pushing, what a sight! I want a stick boat!

Steve

Steve

let me put it this way: we werent jigging or casting. dont bring a pen knife to a gunfight.

you dont really want a stick boat. it took me 6 years of fishing, including all the tackle, fuel, safety gear and heartache of lost fish, to catch my first giant. I know a guy who has been out a bunch this year already and has not seen one sellable fish.

[BigLew]

Natchalkley,

You raise some very good points! I remember through the 80's when the Moonies had a big place in Gloucester, Mass. One of the businesses they used to raise money was fishing for bluefin tuna. They had an entire fleet of their own boats, which if memory serves me right, could have been copies of the 21 foot SeaCraft. I wasn't truly aware of the SeaCraft at that time, so I cannot specifically remember a VDR hull, but the shear line and the general look were definitely similar. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the 21' or a copy. Those guys would handline those tuna, and use a wrapping post on the bow to manage the fish during the fight to get it in!

Here in Newburyport, the last record BFT I remember was 1495 lbs.! At $22.00 a pound, we're talking some $30,000- for 1 fish!!! The Japanese holy days are at this time of year, and bluefin sushi is in high demand. The problem is, the fish are up here off the New England Coast at that time a year. Since that time, the Japanese have gotten smart and cooperate with each other regarding pricing rather than trying to outbid each other! They even had agents out on the water taking plugs of tuna and buying the fish on the spot. One fish per season paid for your boating season and still put money in the bank.

It was a real kick to be down at the docks after sundown until midnight, watching those fish come in, be weighed, headed and gutted, put in a coffin like box and iced down, loaded on trucks, straight to Logan Airport and they would be in Tokyo in the morning.

What a way to go!

[Tiny]

That's a mighty small picture for such a large fish

[77SceptreOB]

Here in Newburyport, the last record BFT I remember was 1495 lbs.! At $22.00 a pound, we're talking some $30,000- for 1 fish!!!

What!!?? - This can't be right, that's outragious.

[rockdoc]

Nat, I hear ya on the spinning and jigging. Maybe when the next year class comes through at under a hundred pounds. Who wants to fight a big fish for an hour then lose it? I just got started last year trolling with Penn 50 VSWs and 80 lb mono. Now I'm looking at 80s or maybe 130s to try for giants this year. The small fish, under 73", "shorts" are a lot of fun. I can only imagine how something three or four times the size fights.

The really funny thing about tuna fishing is how it changes your perspective. We were out on Stellwagen Bank yesterday and saw large schools of 20 30 and 40 lb bass busting through clouds of sand eels, some jumping clear out of the water, but we were looking for tuna. And this is from someone who has been a hardcore bass fisherman for 45 years, since I was five.

Steve

[BigLew]

What!!?? - This can't be right, that's outragious.

To be frank, it wasn't something I pursuued, given that the gear alone would cost upwards of 2 grand to get started and I didn't have a boat I would consider using for something like that. Sharks were a real possibilty in the mix of things as well. They may not have been BFT, but they were tuna! Maybe Big Eye of some other species, but they were tuna and 1500 lb. was the record for around here! Regardless of them being "bluefin" or another species, they were BFT's. That BIG F-ing Tuna!!!

[BigLew]

I might have been right.



Ken Fraser and the all-tackle world record bluefin tuna. It weighed 1,496 lbs. and was caught off
Nova Scotia in 1979. (Photo, courtesy IGFA)
The wesite for more pictures is:

http://www.bigmarinefish.com/photos_..._tuna_pg1.html

Rochport and Gloucester are just down the coast on Cape Ann. Tem miles by boat. Stellwagon Bank is about a 20-30 mile run from Newburyport.

The picture I saw where I used to fuel up was of 1495lbs., apparently 1 lb. shy of the mark.

Check it out!!

[BigLew]

[QUOTE]

What!!?? - This can't be right, that's outragious.

http://www.bigmarinefish.com/photos_..._tuna_pg4.html

[KenB]

The moonies boats were originally called master marine 28. I think they were basically a mako 25 mold that was stretched out to 28 feet by a new england guy. The moonies would run 4 man teams, fishing 2 at a time, on 24 hour shifts. I think they invented the concept of nailing a giant, and then racing back to port to beat the market (as mentioned above when the fish were airlifted to tokyo), as opposed to filling a downeast with multiple fish.

As far as I can tell, the variable deadrise on the master marine come from the two chines, which stick down into the water, sort of whaler-like. Pretty narrow hulls that could run offshore with smaller outboard power, and could be trailered. The moonies still make them, they are now called true world marine. If someone made up a novel about the moonies, I wouldn't believe it. I went to school was a few of the moonies kids.

There is a guy on reel-time/THT called CMP who confirms the "crazy BFT 1980s." He redid a really nice bertram 25. The size of fish and price sounds right, though I don't think anyone ever got both at the same time. CMP said a bunch of NE fishermen set up a company in tokyo to compete on price, which may be why the prices crept up.

Here are some photos of BFT off novi, yes tuna fishing used to be an intercollegiate sport!:
http://www.yale.edu/fishing/photo%20...%20scotia.html
(at the bottom of the page click on index to see 3 more pages of pics)

[77SceptreOB]

[QUOTE]

http://www.bigmarinefish.com/photos_..._tuna_pg4.html

I was referring to ONE fish = $30,000