Weekend Dozen

Tuna fishing can be one of the most frustrating sports in the World...there are times when you will spend days on the water and never see a fish...and there are other times that you will catch a fish but the hook will pull out or the line will chafe and break.

This weekend was not that weekend...with only two boats fishing for the tagging team...the F/V Bay Queen IV and F/V Nicole Brandy tagged and released 12 bluefin tuna on 16 hook-ups. To say the bite was hot is an understatement...the fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are large by anyone's standards, and the "small" fish are still over 500lbs. It takes almost an hour to fight these fish, so in two days we fought fish for over 12 hours (including the ones we lost). 

We had fish erupt all around the boat on multiple occasions...imagine twenty 800 lb tuna coming 6 feet out of the water only an arm's length away from the boat. Standing at the back of the boat, you actually got splashed by the jumping fish as they chased billfish (saury) from Cape George to Cape Breton.

Our last bite on Sunday came as the sun was setting...it was our 6th fish of the day...and as I reeled in the Huey bait...WHAM...double header! Double headers happen quite often in fishing, especially tuna fishing and it is quite exciting. However, when both fish are over 700lbs it can be quite difficult to get both fish back to the boat. The captain has to maneuver the boat to make sure the fish don't take all the line off the reel or that the fish cross and cut the lines. Captain Dennis continued to amaze as he flawlessly positioned the boat to ensure both fish were successfully tagged!

Double header

Hot Bite

Captain Steve McInnis and Captain Bernie Chisolm pass off  a tuna to the tagging boat

Lloyd McInnis fights a tuna while Pilot Whales swim past

Pilot Whale visits the tagging boat

Dr. Mike Stokesbury eye-to-eye with a bluefin tuna

Captain Dennis Cameron irrigates a bluefin tuna

Bluefin tuna  slides out the door with a pop-up and acoustic tag

After some bad weather, the TAG team hit the water and found the bluefin biting all day...the F/V Carrie Anne was hooked up before the tagging boat even got to the fishing grounds. It stayed hot all day with multiple hook-ups aboard both vessels...we will give it another try tomorrow!!

Cachalot app

Here is a short clip we made for Duke University’s Cachalot app, a novel digital textbook designed for students enrolled in Duke’s Marine Megafauna class, but free for everyone, everywhere...check it out at your app store. The video was shot by Robbie Schallert aboard the Bay Queen IV while tagging bluefin off the coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.