More Fish Than Boat

Amazing size on those tuna! I wish we could catch those off the coast of Van Island :D

Reel Chaos
 
Never fished for them personally.

In the early nineties I had a buddy who used to work at a car rental agency while he went to college. One afternoon I stopped to pick him up from work a bit early and he was busy dealing with a customer. I just kind of wandered around the office looking at pictures and killing time.

I noticed on one desk an 8 x 10 frame with two smaller seperate pictures in it. The picture on the right was of some guy standing beside one of those monster bluefins. Picture on the left was of a typical chitty suburban home.

When my buddy finished with the customer I asked him what was up with the fish and the odd photo of just a house in the same frame.

He says, "Oh yeah! I can't believe I haven't told you about that! Jeremy went to the east coast last year to meet his new girlfriends family. Somehow he ended up going fishing for the day and ended up catching that thing. I can't remember how much money his share was, but he came back to Calgary he used it as a downpayment on that house!"

Imagine?

Gimee the gaff!!!
 
Never fished for them personally.

In the early nineties I had a buddy who used to work at a car rental agency while he went to college. One afternoon I stopped to pick him up from work a bit early and he was busy dealing with a customer. I just kind of wandered around the office looking at pictures and killing time.

I noticed on one desk an 8 x 10 frame with two smaller seperate pictures in it. The picture on the right was of some guy standing beside one of those monster bluefins. Picture on the left was of a typical chitty suburban home.

When my buddy finished with the customer I asked him what was up with the fish and the odd photo of just a house in the same frame.

He says, "Oh yeah! I can't believe I haven't told you about that! Jeremy went to the east coast last year to meet his new girlfriends family. Somehow he ended up going fishing for the day and ended up catching that thing. I can't remember how much money his share was, but he came back to Calgary he used it as a downpayment on that house!"

Imagine?

Gimee the gaff!!!
 
quote:Originally posted by r.s craven

Pretty cool, anyone from this forum ever fished for bluefin ??
Click to expand...

aYup! 15 years ago that is, when there were still a few real large ones about - not those middlin's on the video ;)

I was with a handful of Inuit attending a Coastal Zone Management Conference on the East Coast. Ran into a fellow who commercially fished blue-fins, and he offered to get us out there for a day...

Ran from a small fishing village down towards the yank border for 3 or 4 hours before we ran into them. HUGE school, feeding frenzy reminded me of trout going after flying ants! They were all over the surface, literally blowing right through schools of baitfish the locals termed "skipjacks". Ran several types of gear, a mackeral off a kite, a mackeral bouncing along on the surface by itself, and a large "array" of squid imitations with a larger one (with the hooks) behind and below.

It was the array that produced. Got to see that monster run up and git 12 feet behind the boat! One MEAN scrap, that beast spent a LOT of time in the air, and it was likely more the man at the helm than the one on the rod that eventually brought him boatside. There, the Skip hands me an aged Remmy and said "Apparently you know how to run one of these. Fer Chri$akes, don't hit the hooks!" Bang BANG - two slugs through the gill plate and that part was over. They used a hide-away hyab to circle the tail and lift it clear of the water to bleed, then drop into a slurry.

Hit another in about 20 minutes, and my Inuit Buddies played that one out.

Upon landing, the fish were weighed (1,400+ for the first, just shy of 800 for the second), sized to fit the crates for air shipping (the "leftovers" came home & were EXCELLENT!) then dropped into another slurry to cool. The Japanese and 'Merican buyers handed the Skip a check for $15K US as downpayment for just the bigger one. I recall thinking at the time I was in the wrong industry!

Today those huge Giants are rarer than hen's teeth. Always envisioned a return to try them on again, but understand that any which go over 700 pounds now are considered "top end".

Hell of a Hoot! And yeah, I very much wish they were fish-able here!

Cheers,
Nog
 
quote:Originally posted by r.s craven

Pretty cool, anyone from this forum ever fished for bluefin ??
Click to expand...

aYup! 15 years ago that is, when there were still a few real large ones about - not those middlin's on the video ;)

I was with a handful of Inuit attending a Coastal Zone Management Conference on the East Coast. Ran into a fellow who commercially fished blue-fins, and he offered to get us out there for a day...

Ran from a small fishing village down towards the yank border for 3 or 4 hours before we ran into them. HUGE school, feeding frenzy reminded me of trout going after flying ants! They were all over the surface, literally blowing right through schools of baitfish the locals termed "skipjacks". Ran several types of gear, a mackeral off a kite, a mackeral bouncing along on the surface by itself, and a large "array" of squid imitations with a larger one (with the hooks) behind and below.

It was the array that produced. Got to see that monster run up and git 12 feet behind the boat! One MEAN scrap, that beast spent a LOT of time in the air, and it was likely more the man at the helm than the one on the rod that eventually brought him boatside. There, the Skip hands me an aged Remmy and said "Apparently you know how to run one of these. Fer Chri$akes, don't hit the hooks!" Bang BANG - two slugs through the gill plate and that part was over. They used a hide-away hyab to circle the tail and lift it clear of the water to bleed, then drop into a slurry.

Hit another in about 20 minutes, and my Inuit Buddies played that one out.

Upon landing, the fish were weighed (1,400+ for the first, just shy of 800 for the second), sized to fit the crates for air shipping (the "leftovers" came home & were EXCELLENT!) then dropped into another slurry to cool. The Japanese and 'Merican buyers handed the Skip a check for $15K US as downpayment for just the bigger one. I recall thinking at the time I was in the wrong industry!

Today those huge Giants are rarer than hen's teeth. Always envisioned a return to try them on again, but understand that any which go over 700 pounds now are considered "top end".

Hell of a Hoot! And yeah, I very much wish they were fish-able here!

Cheers,
Nog
 
Seems like a pretty lame fight in this video. They must have cut the best parts out. From what I know tuna fight like crazy.

But clipper is right, bluefin stocks are in very bad shape. And btw so are most tuna stocks worldwide. That's why I stay clear of any tuna from the stores. Tough to find any cat food with no tuna in it.
 
with the price the sushi market pays in japan, these fish are on the fast track to extinction. those in the med are almost there right now despite the fact that is illegal to fish for them in most areas. who cares when you can get a quarter million for one fish!
 
I would think hanging three Bluefin off the side of the boat like that would attract sharks. Maybe they don't have many sharks that far north [?][?]

DSCN4812-2-1.jpg
 
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