Explain Tuna Fishing in 1000 words of less....

[amarshall]

Someone asked me to explain tuna fishing to them, so I gave them a play by play of my week.

Monday – Thursday: Banter with friends regarding tuna over email. I scour every internet forum from Canada to Greece searching for tuna reports. I call every lead I have from Cape Cod to Portland trying to track down fish. I now have a contact list of friends of friends of friends who tuna fish. My wife works with a guy who in passing mentioned he tuna fishes. He works in a different business group on a different floor and now we’re on speed dial even though I’ve never met him face to face. By Friday afternoon I’ve worked myself up into such a lather that it’s almost unbearable to sleep.

Friday: Work drags by, I sit here checking the clock every 5 minutes. I load up my truck with 500 lbs of ice (enough for a trip to the grand banks) ..at 3 pm sharp I do about 100 mph out of our parking lot straight into the world’s biggest traffic jam: The expressway. I do 5 mph from my office in South Boston to Marshfield, thinking about how many fish are being caught today. Usually I make it to the marina at 5pm just in time to see Mike Pratt and Charlie McClean offloading about 6 giants to the white truck. More foaming at the mouth.

When there’s bait to be caught, I head straight out to the bell of green harbor. Usually 5 boats are loading the baitwells with mackerel while I untangle 13 sabiki rigs that were left in the cabin last weekend. About 3 stitches in my fingers later, the mackerel are halfway to Maine and I spend half the night trying to get 3 macks and some weird looking bottom fish that will be the secret tuna bait. “You’ll see”.

Friday night, back to my parents summer house. Uncles and neighbors pile into the summer cottage to tell war stories about 1,200 lb bluefin tuna that were jumping into the boats in the late 1960s. “You didn’t come home unless you had a 900 lber that was caught on a freshwater rod” . Proceed to hear the same story the 50th time "about chasing records"at the H buoy on light tackle.

By now you’re on your 23rd bud light and it’s midnight. Your alarm is set for 3:30 am. Rather than fall asleep, you sit there wide awake in this unbearable hangover stupor watching the clock. Not drunk enough to pass out, and sober enough to feel your head pounding. You get up to go to the bathroom 25 times keeping everyone else at the house up.

3:30 am the alarm goes off, your 2 yr old screams bloody murder, you’re still half in the bag and you make your way down to the boat.

4:00 am you start your 1983 Nauset (with gas engine) that sounds like the space shuttle with no mufflers. Half the lights in Brant Rock turn on and anyone sorry enough to be sleeping on their boats are now awake. Attempt to pull out of the slip in darkness with heavy condensation on the windows and on the brain… hit 3 boats… sorry….and pull out into the channel. Realize immediately that your running lights you replaced last weekend are not working but F*ck it, you’re going anyway, “I’ve got an anchor light”. Power up the Nauset straight to warp speed of 12 knots while watching 65 center consoles going 60 mph straight by you.

OK we’re fishing….Get out to the SWC after 2 hrs of an agonizing steam expecting Disney World by the sea. Nothing but crickets. Not boats, no whales, no birds, no fish. WHAT THE F&K. Get on the radio...” yeah big bite at the SWC yesterday but the fish are out east today”. 9 million square miles of Atlantic ocean and you’ve got to find fish. At 12 knots you have two choices…SEC or Peaked Hill. Usually pick Peaked Hill because you can hit the race on the way home for bass. Get over to peaked hill and everyone is at the SEC. Decide to run to the golf balls, while burning another 30 gallons of gas. Get down to the golf balls and there’s a ton of weed in the water. No use pulling bars.

Head back to Peaked Hill, finally put some squid bars in the water and immediately you are tripled up on 15 lb bluefish. My uncle grabs the tuna spinning rod and runs to the bow to “cast to tuna” while we’re still trolling. Lure is immediately tangled up behind the boat at 6 knots. After nearly losing the spinning rod, he comes back to the cockpit with half the braid in his hand and that rod is toast for the rest of the afternoon. We give everyone a shot at reeling in a bluefish and somehow the line snaps on the spreader bar and kiss a $150 squid bar down the drain. Two 15 lb bluefish are now in the cockpit doing gymnastics amidst a clusterf*ck of squid bars, tangled braid and bare feet. An hour of untangling later, we're back in business.

Now my father (my fishing partner) and I are seriously hung over from the night before and everything the other person does is completely wrong. No 4 knots, no 5 knots.. let’s go here… "no, over there"….."we’re in the wrong place." We’ve now seriously worked out a schedule for different hours of who runs the boat and who runs the cockpit to prevent any more fist fights. All the while we’re listening to Greg Sears on the radio catch his 9th tuna of the morning.

Finally pull the plug on tuna fishing after the 3rd call from my wife saying “you have a son”.

Decide to pull some wire by the race for some bass. Immediately one uncle has a snarl in the wire and the other has snagged a ghost pot. Spend 20 minutes backing down on a ghost pot.

Coast Guard comes over thinking you're fighting a 600 lb striped bass. Finally in frustration cut the line. Coast Guard comes over to figure out what the hell you were doing. "Hey when was the last time , you had a safety inspection". Kill another hour. (this happened to me two weeks ago with no exaggeration)

Fill the 25 ton boat with 150 gallons of gasoline while wondering if my credit card will work. (Hungover and tired father proceeds to fill the head waste tank with 5 gallons of gasoline, this also happened) . Uncles get "alligator arms" when it comes time to buck up for gas.

Second guess each other Sunday.

Back at the emails with friends Monday.

Do it all again the following Saturday, this time with ballyhoo.

[Reel Fast]

Nice read, you are not alone as I imagine most of the guys on the forum can co-miserate. You forgot catching nothing but 64" unkeepable fish and friends who bring nothing but beer and their fresh water tackle box and KMart rod their wife gave them as a Birthday present that is "special". Tuna fishing sucks, but I love it anyway!

[Springking]

Classic read!

It's truly a blessing I don't live near the ocean!!

[aloop]

Depending who I been out fishing with: simplicity, organized, tight ship, opened tackle flying out the boat while leaving the harbor at 35 knots Bah-Bye Sabikis, a buddy Captain fighting to get the corner hooked bluefish off a squid stinger for 5 minutes then throws a tantrum after you take fish and pop the hook out in a single movement, then the fish pliers fly into water out of anger! No brainer, No brains! Had a buddy reeling in a popper off to side nearing taking out my eye with the rod tip then the plug (actually happened on my boat!) Not prepared after never replacing missing equipment. And there's Chaos! On my little boat I alway try for simple!

[JoeyM]

haha....funny stuff!

[LadyB]

Hey that is funny stuff. I am sure your not alone whe it coms to much of that. When friends bring the beer its always bottles and never cans and they always wear shoes that leave marks! Of course they bring the gear!!!

Some what related but a story never the less. My friends dad decided he was going to go tuna fishing several years ago. After all, he owned a boat and had a bunch of fishing rods and had some experience fishing in the keys. About mid afternoon he came over the radio saying he caught a tuna and was saying how easy they are to catch. He mentioned he had harpooned it as it was swimming next to his boat. Cound happen I guess right? He guestimated the weight, made some comments about how big it was so a bunch of people decided to wait at the dock to see this very big tuna he was boasing about on his very first day of tuna fishing! The only problem was it was a sun fish!

[dwar9739]

Yup that is pretty much tuna fishing...very entertaining story to read while I am at work thing about fishing. Thank you very much. To end the hangover problem just have a few bud lights for breakfast.

[rmoody79]

sitting in my office on franklin st, foaming at the mouth to get back to scituate and get out there friday! thank god I have stories to read about tuna fishing until I get to tuna fish!

[fshsltwtr]

rmoody - funny, i'm at the end of federal, looking out at the horizon, just knowing i'm "staring" at someone on the bank fishing while i'm reading and just wishing i was there....

[rmoody79]

i face the harbor channel, so i just watch boats all day......in and out, I scan for birds no less than 4 times a day, and look down into the various marinas and stare at these yachts and sportfishers and say " if I only had that 60ft viking express.....i'd be at the canyons right now".....i need to win the lottery