First Giant BFT in the Annie P

[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

[BigLew]

Actually, while searching for the info on the size of BFT tuna, one site said that there had been ONE fish sold for over $150,000. That's your annual boating season cost AND a fleet of Seacrafts with refurbs paid for!

I honestly can't be sure that fish was a BFT, but many of the guys in this area naturally saw a LOT of $$$$ in this effort.

[KenB]

Those super expensive (at least recently) come from a very special fishery in Japan. There are a predetermined set of spots that can be fished in this one channel, and names are put in a lottery (to get your name in the lottery is a big deal). Once the names are picked, you can only fish your spot for a certain time period, and you have to fish solo. The spot in between the main island (honshu) and the northern island, hokkaido.

2 other comments about the expensive fish. I think there were 2 fish that broke the 200K mark. Both were bought by restaurants not based in Japan.

I think there were a bunch of folks who did really really well in the 1980s. Anyway, congrats to Nat on a huge fish! Way to shake that monkey! Hopefully Nat can get $150K for that fish!