Memories of fishing for bluefin tuna

I have many memories of catching bluefin tuna beginning back in the early 1970s when my late brother-in-law, Paul Coffin, bought a 22-Mako and we started exploring the great big Atlantic Ocean.

At first it was big bluefish on Hoochie Trolls at B Buoy; then we ran all the way out to the Delaware Lightship Buoy to try for football-sized bluefin tuna. Before we left on that first trip, I asked the mate on the 31-Bertrum, the Bluefin, what they used to catch their tuna. He showed me a cedar plug. It was a piece of wood with a lead head and a hook on the end.  I thought he must be kidding. But I ran back to the tackle shop on the south shore of Indian River Inlet and bought two from Barbara Porter.

When we got in sight of the Lightship Buoy, we put out two Hoochie Trolls on the outriggers, and I set out my cedar plugs on the flat lines just beyond the prop wash, exactly like Barbara told me. The football-sized tuna we caught that day all came on the cedar plugs. Big blues still loved those Hoochies.

Another friend, Lark Bonelli, had a 21-Grady-White, and we took a mutual friend, Bobby Rumble, out for his first tuna trip. Bobby and I began to set out the lines, and we assumed that Bob knew that you engaged the clicker on the reel before you placed the rod in the holder. He didn’t. I happened to look up and see the line on the Penn 4/0 was almost gone.  By the time Bob got that tuna in, he was about done for the day.

Then there were the giants of North Carolina.

I had heard that boats running from Cape Hatteras were catching true giant bluefins on wrecks just a short distance from the inlet. I had an assignment to get a photo of a big speckled trout for a magazine in the dead of winter, but I knew a guy in Rodanthe who knew some gill netters, and one phone call and the next day, my son Ric and I were on our way to the Outer Banks from our home in Virginia Beach.

Sure enough, my friend had no trouble getting a big speck from his gill netter friend, and once the photo shoot was over, I called Rom Whitaker on the Release and asked him about the giant bluefins. He told us the stories were true and said he had a charter the next day, and Ric and I were more than welcome to ride along.

We spent that night in a motel in Buxton, and bright and early the next morning we were on the dock in Hatteras. The six-man party was there as well and the leader was none too happy that Ric and I were going to be along for the day. Rom could not have cared less, and off we went.

Ric and I were on the bridge with Rom, and the party was either in the cockpit or the salon. When we got just a short distance from shore, the mate set out a gill net. Several other charter boats were there and did the same. Soon the net was full of menhaden, and as the mate pulled it in, the party carried the bait to the live well.

Then it was off to the tuna grounds. Once we were on a wreck, the mate tossed over a handful of live menhaden, and these train-car-sized bluefin tuna crashed the bait. The next time he tossed over some bait, one of the menhaden carried a very large hook. That hook was tied to about 400 feet of 400-pound fluorocarbon line, and that was tied to a 130 Penn International reel filled with 300-pound mono line. The angler was seated in a fighting chair, and when the line came tight, it was a good thing he was strapped in or else he would have gone overboard.

I would guess these fish weighed between 500 and 800 pounds. Due to the heavy tackle, it took 15 to 20 minutes to bring one to the boat for a quick release. No one asked to fight more than one per trip.

During this time, I had a TV show called “Virginia Outdoors.” We filmed a segment aboard the Tuna Duck with six of my friends who had charted the boat for giant bluefins. Since it was my show, I had to catch one of these monsters. I asked the mate to throw the bait in front of a small one. He didn’t listen. Twenty minutes later, I was done for the day.

Now we have decent-sized bluefin tuna holding on bait just a short run from Indian River Inlet. If you plan to target them, make sure to read the regulations and have the proper permits.