After several weeks of unsuitable wind conditions, the forecast indicated a nice WX window coming. Conditions were supposed to be calm with accompanying relatively flat seas, low 70F temps and clear skies. What we got instead was heavy cloud cover, thick fog, rain--heavy at times-- and wind gusting to maybe 15+. Seas weren't too bad at maybe 2'-3', but with the rain and wind blowing spray when underway, it was decidedly wet on board. As the temps were in the 40s, it was also pretty cold. Since I foolishly trusted the forecast, I left my rain top at home. At least I had 'me oilskins' bottoms, and more importantly, I had my lucky hat with me. I've had an amazing string of outdoors luck when wearing it on my noggin, with critters ranging from moose to bear to pronghorn to whitetails to hogs to giant tuna and more. Hopefully that old, beat up and decidedly filthy hat would bring some magic with me once again.

I headed south just before 5:00 am and we were launching into the canal and into Cape Cod bay by 6:30 am. The first five or so hours we saw pretty much nothing but rain, heavy fog and a couple of giant mola-mola thrashing on the surface. I'd gotten intel from another tuna hunter a day prior about where his crew had seen tons of fish. He also reported that the bay and outside was thick with bait and surface feeds were seen all over, with fish in size classes ranging from footballs to giants. Unfortunately they didn't hook into anything. The fish would come to the surface quickly, hammer bait on top, then quickly disappear, and they were determined to get into fish casting at them only.

Having shared the intel the night before, our crew planned to start the hunt a few miles off of P-Town. We'd planned to cruise across the bay and run about and watch for any surface action and keep a keen eye out for birds. Diving birds almost always indicate a surface feed by predators who've gotten bait concentrated. Birds will take great advantage of the situation and swoop down to pick off any small bait fish, or parts thereof, left by the predators below. Shearwaters in particular are like scouts for the tuna hunters. Find the birds, find the feeding fish. Many, us included, actually utilize the radar on board with the gain turned up, to locate clusters of birds beyond what the naked eye can see. But then none of that mattered to us. The fog banks, sometimes pea soup thick, we ran in and out of took the visual cues out of our tool box. As such, the plan to heave metals and other tackle at surface feeds with stout spinning gear went right to hell.

The good thing is that we planned for the possibility of having to use Plan B, and so with a trio of Penn International II 80 class winches on board and already rigged up, we headed for the 120' contour line to jig up some bait, which was accomplished quickly. Bait was everywhere. This can work against the tuna hunter, as the fish have so much to choose from, but I'd rather be where bait is thick than a place where it's scarce. Find the bait, find the fish, oftentimes. We had ocean herring, whiting and mackerel in the live well in no time, and all make for excellent tuna baits. And so after running back to a likely place in ~250 feet of water and some quick rigging up with balloons, three livies were sent to their fate ranging from 30 yards to 150 from the boat. The drift was on.

Being where the fish are and being able to read sign is obviously of importance, but then so is luck. Some fish, such as tuna, will key into one kind of bait and will want that type *only*. A guy drifting a large, juicy mackerel through a tuna blitz might not even get a sniff while a dainty herring half the size of the mack won't last 3 seconds in the same scenario. Other times it seems like the fish get a 'drunken chef' mindset and will eat anything in front of them. Squid, pogies, sand eels, butterfish, ballyhoo, bluefish and much more. That's another aspect where the luck part comes in.

We had the first inkling of our quarry's presence less than an hour into our drift. Two of the baits beneath their respective balloons started getting squirrely. Moments later, one of the reels chirped. By the time anyone could put a hand on the rod, the line was slack. Some choice words were uttered and just then, the reel chirped again and the rod tip bounced. Then the line went slack again. More copious cursing flowed. We were all thinking we might have a shark problem and we started pulling the baits in for a check and swap out and or a move. And as we were all slowly cranking on a reel, the close in reel the good skipper was on started screaming, with the heavy duty rod suddenly violently bent over. We were tight!

Davey told me to jump on that reel as he ran for the helm. Catching large tuna often requires not just the proper gear. Being in the right place at the right time, some luck and a competent angler and crew all contribute to success or failure. You need someone at the helm who knows what he's doing. You get the line in the screws, or touching the hull, or tangled up in lobster gear, or whatever, it's game over. Brendan, the young son of one of our other tuna chasing compadres, was aboard for his first outing with us, and charged with getting the other baits in and gear out of the way, keeping a keen eye out for any other boats, and where necessary making sure the line wasn't in danger of hitting anything.

I am always amazed at the power and speed of bluefin tuna, and especially so with fish in the two hundred pounds plus class and over. I can't imagine going to war with a grander--a tuna that weighs more than a half ton, but I'll find out one of these days, I'm sure. Davey has taken many bluefin from 300 to 900 pounds, and one over 1000 pounds. That beast was more than ten feet from nose to fork! As far as this fight went, it was as exhilarating as ever, and according the the GPS, the fighting fish dragged us in a rough circle of roughly 4 miles. He made three intense runs and on the most determined run, peeled off maybe 3 hundred yards of the 200 lb test mono. That reel can generate up to 65 pounds of drag. I had this one set at around 50 pounds. That might not seem like much to those unfamiliar with that kind of hardware, but imagine rigging two 25 pound weightlifting plates to the tag end of a rigged rod and reel and then dropping them off a 4 story roof with you holding on. It'll pull some line but then will easily hold fast with the drag cracked down. The question is, can you hold fast with that kind of pressure?

After about 45 minutes of back and forth, I had the fish's gas tank getting low, and was bringing him in handily. At about 20 yards off the port, I finally saw color and loudly said so, which is standard. Communication is important in this game. The time where these large fish get near the vessel are almost always the most tense times and when most well-hooked fish are lost. I continued to battle the fish and when I had him about 50 feet away and just below the surface on his side, I knew the hard work was coming to a close and the next phase of the hunt was coming. The process of landing a fish of this size normally involves coordination between the skipper at the helm, the rod man and a third guy to keep the line away from the boat, use his eyes for any eventualities as well as running things like gaffs, harpoons and tail ropes and tying off lines where necessary.

All was going pretty much textbook and I began bringing the fish alongside the boat, with it still thrashing wildly and fighting and full of power but tiring, and so yelled, "OK, let's get a gaff ready boys!" The response was silence. I looked over my shoulder with curiosity to see Davey and Brendan looking at each other with their best, 'I thought YOU brought the gaff!' looks. You've got to be kidding me, right? Nope, no gaff. "OK, fine. Get the harpoon ready, then!" Again, silence and I witnessed with low-level horror the same, 'I thought YOU said the harpoon was taken out of the truck and put on board!' looks. I had to giggle a bit. This was going to be an interesting situation to deal with for certain. How do you get a still green, 200 pound class bluefin tuna over the rail when the only thing connecting him to us is the end of a 2" hook stuck in his mouth? Hmm. Now here was a nut I hadn't had to try to crack before.

I immediately said to Davey that if we had Brendan jump on the rod, I'd grab a knife, lean over the rail, handle the line and either slash at the gills or try to get a good bleeding poke into his side behind the pectoral fin, then to jump back on the rod. The idea being that the fight would leave the fish as the blood pressure dropped and we could get a tailrope on him after he go sleepy. Of course, with a powerful fish that would almost certainly go berserk at getting abused by a sharp piece of steel, a guy wielding a sharp knife bent over the side of a bobbing, moving boat might just get more than he bargained for, including a trip to the ER.

Now, when landing a fish of this size and larger--if it's not one big enough to necessitate the use of a harpoon-- by typical means, the fish is normally drawn alongside the boat, with the engine in gear, and the gaff put to the fish's tail. You smartly get the fish's prop out of the water and half of the end game is won. You then tail rope the fish and the rest is pretty much history. Alternately, with smaller fish you can gaff them in the head or mouth and with one or two guys simply muscle the fish over the rail. BTW, you never want to jam a gaff in the throat of a tuna as that is where the heart lies and you don't want damage it, as the heart is what will pump the blood out of the fish as it's dying--which is exactly what you want.

Anyway, with no gaff or harpoon controlling the fish, we had to do *something* to land this beauty. Just then Davey yells to Brendan, "hey B, I just might have a short-handled tailroping rig with a steel cable in the front hatch but I don't think so. But check!' Brendan yelled back, 'I got it!' And just like that, we were right back in the game. Sort of. That tool is a good one, but is supposed to be used after the fish has been already gaffed...

The way things played out went surprisingly well. Almost looked like we knew what we were doing out there. I was on the rod keeping the fish tight, Davey had hands on the line keeping it and the fish away from the hull, and young gun Brendan had the tail rig. We all talked our way into each move, and when we were all ready and on the same page, Brendan took the shot and nailed it the first try. I let go of the rod and grabbed hold of the short handled tail rig and together Brendan and I pulled hard to get the tuna's thrashing tail out of the water, which was causing a great amount of white ocean to be sent into the air and indeed, onto our laughing heroes. Davey then grabbed the dedicated tail rope and in a flash had it also tight around the horn of the tuna's tail and tied off. Game, set, match! The three of us hauled the fish on board and I immediately covered its eyes with a wet towel, which always calms the dying fish down some. After making the bleeding cut, we put our prize back in the drink to bleed out as we dragged it alongside the boat as we started rigging for another fish. After some time we brought it back aboard, and after taking the obligatory pictures, I prepared the fish in the fashion which sushi/sashimi grade fish need to be. As the lads also forgot to bring ice, I insisted that we head for the barn, as the care of these magnificent animals headed for the table is super important and getting them cold ASAP is a crucial part. And so we called it and started the steam back to port.

The fish taped out at 67" and we all agreed that the weight was somewhere in the 200 pound range. As commercial season is closed, we were fishing purely recreationally and federally permitted vessels can keep 2 fish from 27" to 72" nice to fork per day. Anything over 73" is a giant class fish and must be released. So, we were lucky that our fish wasn't a little bigger, as we'd have had to release it. Which has actually been a problem for some other tuna hunters lately, as all the fish that were being hooked were *too big* and had to be released. Unfortunately, many of these fish are totally burned by a long fight and will not survive it and will be released to wind up as crab and lobster food on the bottom.

The lads only wanted one top loin for steaks, and said I could have the rest. I ended up with probably 80 pounds of high grade, fat rich flesh, from amazing ruby red akami to creamy, marbled pink slabs of belly cuts. A fish of this quality in good market times will sell at wholesale in Tokyo for $3K or more. I'd rather have the fish! I made my wife, who my friends here know is Japanese national, supremely happy. Other family, fish and hunt buddies and neighbors benefitted and were tickled with lots of wonderful gifted cuts to be eaten raw or cooked. I'm down to the last 4 or 5 pounds after being spoiled by eating it 2 of 3 meals for the past 6 days. I don't yet feel confused or have any hand-eye coordination issues yet, so maybe my mercury levels are still OK. We'll see.

I might some day get tired of this kind of wonderful adventure at sea, but I strongly doubt it. Thanks once again to my beloved and trustworthy Lucky Hat. May your magic never run dry!

KG

Que bueno, brother kamo.

Great job.

You gonna let Roger wear that hat sometime?

Good stuff KG. Your posts have a way of making me hungry.

Damn, that's a big fish.

W O Z Z E R

Outstanding story & a great fish !! Well done !!

I cant even imagine the smile on Mrs. Leightons face when she saw that amount of fish coming home for dinner......

Well done my Man, well done.

Awesome KG, what's a fish like that worth?

boy that was a great fishing story.

I can't even imagine how good that sashimi tasted

well done

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

You’re killing me with the food pics.

Damn. I've gotta get me a hat like that.

You're going to need a lot of cans!

You knew food pics were coming.

Awesome story and fish! (the hat is alright too)

What time is dinner?

Throwing a bone to the guys who think that eating fish any way but cooked is savage.

Insane pics! Way cool L!

Incredible and unfair! 😀

Congratulations -- great fish and thanks for taking the time to put up the pictures and story. Very nice.

Great stuff KG as usual

just think if we hadn't seen petey trying to bury that hat.

Good read and nice fish.

Remember the gaff next time.

Wow, great story. Congrats. What do you do with the ribs and carcass or is it just waste?

Each time you raise the bar over your last thread. Reminds me of The Old Man and the Sea. Outstanding.

So I watch that Wicked Tuna program with those folks running out of Gloucester I think. I assume they're fishing commercially with, it seems, a very similar set up to yours. I can't imagine the investment to fish recreationally, when these WT guys might go 2 weeks without a hook-up burning fuel and bait in the meantime. And then when they do bring a fish to port it can go north of $20K, which pays for that high dollar gear. The recreational guy gets a pat on the back, a quick photo op, and good eats for a week. Not for the faint of heart.


How does that one stack up to the one in your Avatar?

As always wonderful pictures and a well-told story. (I can't believe that you would go to all the trouble to arrange those slices so neatly on a plate before cooking them. from the world's most landed lubber)

I can tuna guitar.

You can tuna fish.

A screechin’ drag is beautiful music.

Very cool.

Thanks for taking us along on the trip.



But damn, man, throw that cap in the wash...

that show is not reality.

Figured as much.

Congratulations ! Nice fish and the dinners look to die for ! Makes me want to start fishing offshore again. Reality is my back wouldn’t hold up for a single day and a fish like that would wreck me.
That belly looks incredible ! Melt in your heaven !

Simply fantastic.Your photo journals are always exceptional. Thanks for taking the time to bring us along!

Excellent work and teamwork on that fish! Those tailers really come in handy at times. Looks like y’all enjoyed the spoils. I love how she has the spoon out for the rib/bone meat. Hope you took the collar, it’s great on the bbq.

Great fishing story, Kamo. Congrats on a great catch!

If you ever leave that woman you will need your head read.

Nice Fish and as always great story and great pictures.

Awesome story Leighton.....thank you for sharing it with us!

Well done, Leighton!

Congrats!

Well, it’s a good thing everybody likes tuna 🙂

Congrats 😎

Beyond fantastic! Congrats!

Fantastic story! Thank you for typing that all up!

Bill

Leighton,

One of these days an EPA Toxic Waste Squad is going to show up and confiscate that Hat!

Thanks for taking us with you!

Leighton;

Great story, but as usual, the preparation & food pics are outstanding.

Jealous, man !

Yep, stole Ye Olde Lucky Hat and tried to bury it on the beach at the PINS. That damned dog was trouble from the get-go!

There is very little waste with these fish. The spoon is used to scrape the tender bits of meat from the ribs--the meat just slides right off with very little effort and is typically used in maki (rolls) or just as little bits of sashimi. When the scraping process is done the rack comes out as clean as a whistle and is then discarded. Only the ribs/rack, skin, tail and guts get tossed. Even the heads have lots of wonderful meat. Behind the removed head there are two 'cones' of meat to be had with a little knife work. Then there are the cheeks and as Capt. Craig pointed out, the collar, or 'Kama', as it's called in Japan, is just wonderful grilled. Maguro (tuna) kama and hamachi kama are my favorites. I'd post a pic but crappy PB is down again.

Thanks for all the nice comments, y'all. Life's supposed to be fun, right?

CFT: last week's fish was larger than the one in my avatar, which if I recall correctly was 59" and around 150 lbs.

Wash the hat? WHAT? Sacrilege! When you wash a lucky hat or other garment you wash the luck right out of it. Everyone knows that and would be a big mistake! Preposterous? Yep. But that thing's not getting washed. Ever.

I thoroughly enjoyed your write-up and the pictures are outstanding! Tuna is a favorite of mine but I've only had Ahi/Yellowfin - it sounds like Bluefin can get considerably larger. As to tablefare - how do they compare?

Like was already stated, you raise the bar with each adventure. Thanks once again for sharing.

Giant bluefin over 1000 lbs are fairly regularly caught around here and points north well into Canadian waters. I know of two granders and heard of a third that was caught this commercial season in local waters. Here's the 40 year old world record: can you imagine hooking into this?

https://www.marlinmag.com/bluefin-tuna-record-revisiting-history/

We have a robust yellowfin fishery here too, but mostly well offshore. They're rarely taken in the bay, where lots of bluefin are often found. The YFT can grow to very large size, relatively speaking and in general, but I don't know that they get much larger than 500 pounds anywhere in the world, and I'm pretty sure those that do grow to that size are considered to be true monsters. All the truly large ones I've seen have come from Pacific waters. I've never seen any really large YFT taken out this way, but the nice thing here is that we have so many flavors of tuna. We have albacore, skipjack, big eye, yellowfin and bluefin in our waters. We also have false albacore and bonito. They are definitely not all created equal. False albacore are all but inedible. Bonito are spunky fighters and good on the table but a big one is 15 pounds. Both commercially and recreationally, bluefin, bigeye and yellowfin are the real prizes.

As far as table fare, YFT is much leaner than BFT, and is mostly pink fleshed throughout, whereas BFT has the ruby red on top and the marbled pink to creamy white belly cuts underneath. In Japan there are classes of BFT belly meat. Toro, Chu-toro and o-toro, from fatty to superfatty. I enjoy YFT raw and cooked very much for sure, but in my opinion, the BFT is and always will be king both as far as sport, and on the table.

Thanks again for the comments, gents.