The Megamouth Shark Specialist: Dr. Jose Castro Discusses his Rare Expertise

Dr Jose Castro

Megamlouth shark specimen being studied

Megamouth Shatk internal structure

Megamouth sharks are one of the most elusive shark species in the world. Since their discovery in 1976, megamouths have been documented between 50 and 60 times; yet only a handful of specimens are on diplay at aquariums. Exceeded in size only by whale sharks and basking sharks, the large megamouth shark uses its wide jaws to filter for plankton in the deep-sea. Recently, biologist Dr. Jose Castro of NOAA Fisheries had a unique opportunity to help dissect a rare megamouth shark on display at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan.

They don’t call Castro a specialist for nothing. In 1994 he was part of the first ever female megamouth shark dissection at Fukuokka, Japan, and has dissected the only specimen caught in the Atlantic. We met with Castro to ask about the recent dissection and to learn more about the elusive megamouth.

How did you first get involved with megamouth shark research and dissections?

In 1994, a female megamouth was stranded in Fukuokka, Japan, and I was invited by Senzo Uchida of the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, to help with the dissection. Everyone was particularly excited that the shark was a female because we had the opportunity to investigate reproduction questions. For years that was the only dissection of a megamouth, and to this day the majority of information known about the species comes from that one shark. Later, the Brazilians invited me to document a megamouth caught off the coast of Brazil. Of course there are more megamouths in the Atlantic, but just one confirmed specimen has been found there.

What is it like dissecting a megamouth shark?

I dissect big animals all the time. But when I was working in Japan with the dissection team led by Dr. Keiichi Sato, it was a different and fantastic experience. We were not just examining the megamouth, we were preparing an exhibit for the aquarium. On one side of the creature we removed the muscle to expose the organs and skeleton, which was made of cartilage and connective issue. Visitors could actually see the animal’s anatomy. The dissection was a difficult and time-consuming process, and it didn’t help that the animal was preserved before we started, so the smell was horrible.

What do you hope people will learn from the megamouth display at the Okinawa Churami Aquarium?

The Okinawa Aquarium is one of the greatest in the world. The previous director, Senzo Uchida, was the first person to successfully keep whale sharks and manta rays in captivity. The research and curiosity behind the scenes give the public a chance to see what these creatures are really like. The megamouth specimen will be a part of a very unique filter-feeder exhibit along with the head of a 27-foot basking shark. I hope this will spark interest in the visitors the way it has for the scientists.

How does your work make a difference in shark management?

We have done a good job managing shark fisheries in this country, but not on an international scale. Sharks are among the last group of large vertebrates being destroyed by humans, and it has taken us a long time to realize we need new methods. Shark finning and other practices threaten the future of sharks, and we need international cooperation to make a difference. Luckily, the pursuit of science bridges countries and connects people to our oceans.

What is the one thing you want the public to know about megamouth sharks?

We hardly know anything about this shark. Through tagging we know that it goes up and down in different depths at night, but tags cannot tell us the bigger picture of what the shark is doing and why. The most we have learned about these creatures is through necropsies, or looking at them after they’ve died. We have yet to discover everything about these mystifying creatures: their behavior, reproduction, physiology, and some anatomical features. The first one was discovered in 1976, but didn’t become known outside the science community until 1983. I think the megamouth shark shows how little we know about the oceans. A lot remains to be discovered, even about these large animals.

Permit are fun to catch

Permit is a species on the bucket-list of many anglers world-wide. Here’s a review of the fishery in Florida, where they’re found both on the flats and over deep water reefs.

Permit is a highly sought-after fish in Florida. Learn about the current and historical status of this fishery.

Permit (Trachinotus falcatus) have long been sought after by commercial and recreational fishers on Florida’s Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Though this species is a prized catch, little is known about the status of the permit fishery. Commercial landings are relatively low; however, recreational landings data are scarce and there is still much to learn about the permit’s basic biology. That’s why Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) biologists, in collaboration with Bonefish and Tarpon Trust and Costa Del Mar, are conducting a multi-year study on permit biology, life history and movement patterns.

The study relies on anglers tagging and fin-clipping, which is collecting a tissue sample, permit they catch and release. Biologists can then track movement patterns (e.g., reefs to shore, reef to reef, inshore to offshore, south to north) when anglers recapture and report catches of tagged permit. In addition, FWRI scientists are conducting genetic analysis of fin clips to assess permit population structure and determine whether permit throughout Florida’s coastal and inshore waters share a single genetic stock. This valuable data can help Florida’s fishery managers determine the best management methods for permit. To learn more about how anglers can contribute to this research, read the article Tag a Permit for Research Gains.

This permit is fitted with a tag that will allow researchers to track when and where the fish is caught again if it is recaptured in the future.

History of the Fishery

Commercial landings accounted for the majority of the statewide permit landings before the net limitation amendment (Amendment Three to the Florida Constitution) went into effect July 1, 1995, making use of entangling nets (e.g., gill nets, trammel nets) illegal. Since then, the majority of permit has been taken by the recreational sector, which accounted for 82 percent of permit landings from 2001 to 2007 on average.

Commercial landings have been declining since 1998, which can be partially attributed to changes in commercial regulations. Fishers target permit in the 1.5- to 3-pound range, which is characteristic of permit of legal harvest size. Most commercial fishers along the Gulf Coast (where most of the landings come from) land less than 500 pounds of permit annually. This equates to approximately 250 fish or less, which is a relatively small number of fish compared to other commercial fisheries. In fact, the monthly average weight of permit landed per trip from 2006 to 2010 was less than 55 pounds for all months but August, when it was 75 pounds.

In 2011, the FWC eliminated all directed commercial harvest of permit in state and federal waters off Florida. Since then, only 100 permit may be kept as bycatch by commercial fishers who hold a saltwater products license and a restricted species license and who are legally fishing for other species with gill or entangling nets in federal waters outside a Special Permit Zone, so landings remain low. The Special Permit Zone, an area in south Florida that includes all state and federal waters south of Cape Florida and south of Cape Sable, was created by the FWC in 2011 to provide additional protection to the species. There is no direct or indirect commercial harvest of permit inside the Special Permit Zone.

The recreational fishing sector accounts for the majority of statewide permit landings and most are taken along the Gulf Coast. However, recreational permit landings have increased along the Atlantic coast since 1997. The most productive months for recreational permit fishing appear to be March through June with a peak in April, based on estimates using Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey data (1982-2009). This coincides with the start of permit spawning season. There is a secondary peak in catches from November through January when permit aggregate at warm-water areas such as around power plants, allowing recreational anglers to more easily find them.

Permit are targeted by some anglers for catch-and-release sport fishing, but they are also commonly harvested and eaten. Data from 2004 to 2007 show anglers harvested an average of 59 percent of the recreationally caught permit. Since permit form large schools that will gather by reefs and wrecks for days at a time, they can be easily targeted by spear-fishers and hook-and-line anglers once the schools are located, especially during spawning season. In 2011, the FWC implemented regulations to protect adult permit aggregations found along Florida’s wrecks and reefs from too much fishing pressure. Managers also changed size and bag limits and established a closed harvest from May through July inside the Special Permit Zone. The closed season equates to catch-and-release fishing only during spawning. Both of these changes help to protect both juvenile and adult permit.

For a map of the Special Permit Zone, visit the Permit, Florida pompano and African pompano regulations page. For up-to-date permit fishing regulations, always check the FWC Saltwater Fishing Regulations.

Black Sea Bass

Today’s feature from NOAA not only gives insight into the restoration of black sea bass, but into how the Magnuson-Stevens Act is designed to work–and sometimes does work.

The southern stock of black sea bass has been successfully rebuilt and annual catch limits will now more than double.

The wait wasn’t easy but it’s over. In May of this year, NOAA scientists declared the southern stock of black sea bass successfully rebuilt. The short seasons and low catch limits that fishermen have endured in recent years are about to pay off-the catch limit for this popular fish will more than double this fall.

The southern stock of black sea bass, which ranges from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to the Florida Keys, was declared overfished in 2005. The following year, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council implemented the rebuilding plan, which ended successfully this past spring.

The rebuilding plan was required by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the law that governs the nation’s marine fisheries. The Act requires that overfishing end immediately, that overfished stocks be rebuilt, and that stocks be subject to annual catch limits.

“This shows that catch limits work,” said Jack McGovern, the South Atlantic Branch Chief for NOAA Fisheries. “People are seeing more black sea bass than they have since the 1970s.” The fish are also larger on average and are showing up in places where they haven’t been seen in decades.

The southern stock of black sea bass is only the latest to cross the rebuilding finish line. A total of 34 stocks have now been rebuilt since 2000.

Increased Opportunity for Fishermen

For Robert Johnson, a charter boat captain out of St. Augustine, Florida, this will mean a longer fishing season and more customers. “We’re a tourist-driven economy here in Florida,” Johnson said, noting that hotels and restaurants in his area are also looking forward to a longer fishing season.

Black sea bass is a popular species among recreational anglers throughout its range. That’s because in addition to being a particularly tasty fish, black sea bass are relatively accessible. “The nice thing about black sea bass is you don’t need a million-dollar boat to catch them,” Johnson said.

Tom Burgess is a commercial fisherman out of Sneed’s Ferry, North Carolina. Like most commercial black sea bass fishermen, he catches the fish in baited pots. “What we’re experiencing now was worth the wait,” said Burgess, who expects his income to rise with the catch limit.

Catch Limits and Accountability Measures Make Rebuilding Possible

In 2005, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council considered two alternative rebuilding strategies. One cut catch limits steeply up front but allowed them to rise steadily as the stock rebuilt. The other involved less pain initially but held catch limits constant for the duration of the plan. The Council chose the constant catch plan.

As the black sea bass stock was rebuilding, there was pressure to let up on the catch limits. People were seeing more fish, and they wanted to catch them.

“There were a lot of frustrated fishermen out there,” Robert Johnson said.

But the 2006 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that catch limits be set at a level that prevents overfishing and that the limits include accountability measures. These measures ensure that, if the annual catch limit is met early or exceeded, then any overages are balanced out with in-season closures, a reduced catch the following year, or other corrective measures.

It is this combination of annual catch limits and accountability measures that give the rebuilding requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act their force. Without them, the black sea bass stock might have followed what was once a more common trajectory, with any increase in numbers being quickly fished down.

Instead, the stock was rebuilt, which means that the population is now large enough to produce its maximum sustainable yield-the largest annual catch that won’t cause the population to diminish over time. Managing stocks at or near this level allows fishermen to extract the greatest value from fish populations today while also maintaining a healthy stock for future generations.

For the fishermen who had to live with low catch limits so that black sea bass could rebuild, the new catch limits will be an extra-large dose of good news. Because they were held constant during the rebuilding years, catch limits are now set to more than double. Last year both the recreational and commercial seasons were over by early fall. This year fishermen should still be having at it into late fall or early winter.

Working to restore eel grass in Morro Bay

Today’s feature on restoration of California’s Morro Bay eelgrass comes to us courtesy of N.O.A.A.
from The Fishing Wire

Morro Bay is a small fishing port situated halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on California’s Central Coast. The town is often referred to as the “Gibraltar of the Pacific” because of a volcanic peak that rises nearly 600 feet above the harbor. It is an iconic coastal village closely connected to the sea and the environment that sustains it.

So it was no surprise when local community members, as well as state and federal agencies, responded to a request from the Morro Bay National Estuary Program to help restore the bay’s rapidly declining eelgrass beds.

“Eelgrass is a cornerstone of Morro Bay’s ecosystem,” said Bryant Chesney of NOAA Fisheries. “But over the last several years we have seen eelgrass beds in Morro Bay shrink from about 350 acres to less than 20.”

The exact cause of the decline is unknown, but since the 1850s, eelgrass beds along California’s entire coastline may have declined by as much as 90 percent. Human stressors, such as dredging, nutrient pollution, and sedimentation, are possible causes. However, warming temperatures may also be diminishing the plants’ overall ability to survive.

In Morro Bay eel grass is essential to halibut, juvenile rockfish, leopard sharks, pipefish, and numerous other fish and crustaceans. It also provides habitat for sea birds. Black Brant, for instance, use Morro Bay as one of a few migratory feeding grounds between Alaska and Baja California.

Eelgrass also supports the marine environment by converting sunlight into oxygen. Some studies indicate eelgrass beds may also be capable of absorbing carbon dioxide, an atmospheric gas linked to climate change that can negatively impact the health of our oceans and marine life.

With all of this at stake, it’s no wonder volunteers of all ages and organizations gathered along the shore of Morro Bay to harvest, prepare, and transplant eelgrass back into the upper reaches of the waterway where it has significantly declined.

The restoration process for eelgrass is labor intensive, and this effort was no exception. First divers harvested no more than ten percent from a healthy eelgrass bed and brought it to shore.

Volunteers then washed the leaves and roots, bound several plants together into a single “unit,” and attached a biodegradable “popsicle stick” to act as an anchor. The volunteers prepared nearly 10,000 units to transplant. The plants were then assembled into bundles. From here, a team transported the bundles by boat to the upper portions of the bay where they were transplanted. The shallow water allowed divers to stand up in most places, but they needed scuba equipment to follow a previously positioned underwater line. The divers pushed the roots, or rhizomes, into the sediment every meter along the line. The plants are held fast with the previously installed “popsicle anchor.”

“We are hopeful our efforts will be successful and with this kind of community support, I’m sure it will be,” said Chesney. “The Morro Bay National Estuary Program is a great partnership with federal, state, and local constituencies that care about Morro Bay and its watershed.”

Learn more about eelgrass: http://www.habitat.noaa.gov/abouthabitat/eelgrass.html

Catch saltwater trout like these on topwater

By William Redmond
from The Fishing Wire

They could very well be one of the most underrated sport fish of the Gulf Coast. Lacking the sturdiness of a snook or redfish, speckled trout are known for their soft bodies and paper thin mouths, but once these fish reach about 24 inches, they earn the nickname “gator trout” for an undeniable ferocity most clearly displayed in their treatment of topwater plugs.

Monster trout like this one are tough adversaries, unlike their smaller cousins. They readily attack big topwaters like the Heddon Spook.

From a boat or on foot, casting surface plugs for speckled trout ranks as one of the most popular angling pursuits for shallow water anglers throughout the Sunshine State’s Gulf Coast region. Capt. Jason Stock, who guides from a flats skiff and a kayak in the Tampa Bay area, knows well the trout’s penchant for attacking topwaters. For him, the entertainment value is tough to beat.

“It’s so visually exciting,” Stock said. “When they pop it, there’s no question. He may blast it, miss it and come right back for it again.”

Stock’s a fan of Heddon topwaters – typically the Spook Junior in calm conditions and a One Knocker Spook when a summer breeze puts a little motion on the ocean and requires an audible trail to help the trout track their target. A 7- to 7 ½-foot medium- action spinning outfit with 25-pound braid and a 20- to 30-pound fluorocarbon leader will handle even the 7-pound-plus monsters. At any size, Stock said, trout are crafty fish, so seamless attention is a must.

“Be ready, because they might hit at the end of a long cast,” he said.

Trout are widely dispersed throughout Gulf of Mexico coastal environments, but Stock has three favorite scenarios:

Daybreak

Easing up to island edges or onto the top of a skinny grass flat just as the sun starts to “pink out” the sky, Stock expects to find big trout hunting finger mullet, sardines and anything else they can catch in a foot or so of water. Dimpling pods of bait are a sure sign, as the food source won’t go overlooked by hungry trout.

Stealth is a must in this shallow habitat, as big trout are keenly aware of their vulnerability to porpoises and ospreys. Here, especially, long rods and thin-diameter braid play essential roles in achieving the long casts needed to reach these fish from a distance they can tolerate.

Note: Minimize your movement in a boat, as pressure wakes will alert the perceptive trout. Likewise, wade with soft, sliding steps rather than a noisy, stomping pace that sounds like thunder beneath the surface.

Smaller trout are always part of the game–keep this size for the pan and let the big females go to spawn.
For either Spook model, Stock likes the bone, chrome and black/gold colors. It’s the same for the new 3 ½-inch Chug’n Spook Jr., which creates more surface commotion while still retaining the ability to do the classic walk-the-dog retrieve. Stock often employs a slow, steady retrieve with a 1-2-3, 1-2-3 cadence that produces the enticing walk-the-dog action. Resembling a wayward finger mullet, this Spook display will draw some of the most indescribably violent strikes you’ll ever see.

When it’s on, this shallow water trout bite will have you begging the sun to delay its ascent, but once the big orange ball rises high enough to start warming the meager depths, the daybreak madness quickly wanes and it’s time to move on to Scenario Number 2.

Midday

During the heat of midday, anglers often ditch their trout pursuits and turn their attention elsewhere. Stock, however, knows that trout don’t depart the area – they simply relocate. In most cases, the fish will move away from the shallow flats and slip off the outer edges of adjacent bars.

Settling into potholes and grassy trenches in the 4- to 6-foot range, the fish usually require a little more coaxing before they’ll venture topside. This is where the One Knocker and the Chug’n Spook really shine, as this low-pitch rattle speaks to the trout’s belly and the added surface disturbance makes the lure easier to locate and track.

Tidal movement always benefits predators with food delivery, but incoming cycles really stimulate summer fish with cooler, oxygenated water. Also, Stock said weather can profoundly influence the midday action.

“Approaching storms will often get the fish going,” he said. “They might chew really good right before the rain comes and then also after the storm because that rain cools the water.”

After Hours

Particularly at dawn and dusk, noisy floating plugs do the job on sea trout along the Gulf Coast.

Nighttime offers a twofold benefit for trout anglers. For one thing, lower light reduces visibility and thereby makes the fish more approachable. Moreover, the abundance of dock and bridge lights offer countless targets where Stock finds trout ambushing tide-born crustaceans and baitfish that flow past the illuminated areas.

A variety of baits work in this scenario and topwaters certainly have their place in the game. Walk a spook past the edge of a dock light and the result may look like someone dropped a coconut into the water.

Of course, the pinnacle of nighttime trout fishing is the full moon phase when the silvery beams bring the dock light affect to the entire coastal region. Anglers are still better concealed than they are pre-sundown, but trout enjoy the cooler feeding period with plenty of visibility for targeting those bait schools. Stock said he uses his ears as much as his eyes to locate the full-moon action.

“You can hear the smaller mullet getting blasted,” he said. “Look where there’s activity, ease in slowly and anchor off the mullet schools. Or, if you’re looking, just drift through the area and fan cast.”

In any of these scenarios, remember that those giant “gator” trout that love Spooks are typically females. Handle these fish with great care and consider releasing your bigger trout. Returning these breeders to their coastal habitat will help perpetuate the awesome topwater action.

Redfish can be tough to land

Barnie White and his partner Chad Dufrene were named champions of the 2013 IFA Grand Isle Redfish Event on Sunday, Aug. 25. For the win, the team takes home a fully rigged Ranger Banshee Extreme powered by a Yamaha Outboard, valued at $30,000, and qualified to fish the Series Championship Oct. 25-26.

When sight fishing is tough, breaking out the noise-makers can be the trick to luring fat Louisiana redfish.

To win the tournament, each team weighed in two fish under the Louisiana maximum length of 27 inches, so beyond just catching fish, teams must catch fish as close to the maximum length as possible while releasing any overs. White and Dufrene weighed in two fish for 16.47 pounds.

The morning began with rain and wind, which continued throughout the day. Not only did the conditions make fishing more difficult, but it also slowed travel and prompted the team to fish a back-up area closer to weigh-in.

“The spot we actually started fishing was our backup spot in Venice,” White said. “Conditions just went from bad to worse. We had torrential rain and heavy wind and decided to stay closer. It saved us about 2 hours of fishing time.”

The team started out throwing jigs with soft-plastics suspended under a Paradise Popper Xtreme popping cork. Sight-fishing these redfish was impossible because of the heavy cloud cover, rain and waves. Those same conditions also make it more difficult for the fish to feed, so the anglers needed extra noise and surface disturbance for attraction.

The Extreme Popper makes a lot of noise

The Paradise Popper Xtreme features a deep concave face that produces a big splash when twitched, plus two brass beads on top and three specialized plastic beads on bottom. The beads click together to simulate the sound of shrimp popping. The wire that runs through the unit is high-grade titanium, which resists bending or kinking and is up to the task of catching multiple big bull reds without failure.

“Cheap popping corks don’t hold up as well,” White said. “The Popper Xtreme makes a lot of noise, a lot of ripples on the water, produces the right sound, and can handle big redfish all day long.”

One key to that popping cork’s longevity and consistence is two metal grommets, one at the top and the other at the bottom of the foam cork. These grommets prevent the wire from cutting into the cork and diminishing the sound.

Another important factor for fishing a popping cork in low-light conditions is leader length. While many anglers use leaders 2-feet long or longer, White keeps his leaders at around a foot.

“Shorter leaders work for two reasons,” White said. “If you’re fishing a long leader, fish can swallow the jig easier without you knowing it, and we have to keep these fish alive. If a fish hits on a short leader you know it immediately. The other reason is that fish are drawn to the sound of the cork, so you want the jig where they immediately see it when they come in to investigate. You don’t want to make them hunt for it, especially in low-light conditions.”

Barnie White and Chad Dufrene found a pair of “toads”, super fat reds that earned them some $30,000 in prizes.

Another factor to the team’s success was matching the size and colors of the baitfish the reds were feeding on. Using a glow-color, 4-inch plastic and glow jighead created the appearance of a small pogy. White says that anglers need to take into consideration the light level and water clarity when selecting colors. If the light level is low and the water stained, the fish need all the help they can get seeing the bait, making black or glow-colors more important than matching the exact colors on the prevalent baitfish.

“If you cut the lights out at night in my shed where I’ve got glow-colored plastics and jigheads hanging up, you can see them,” he said. “I know in darker conditions when the water’s a little murky, I know that bait is putting off some light.”

White said the team started catching fish immediately that morning, and had 14 1/2-pounds in the livewell within 45 minutes. Considering the weather and knowing they had enough weight to be in the race, the team headed back to weigh-in with several hours of fishing time remaining.

Bluefin Tuna are great to eat

You don’t need a big sportfisherman to chase summer bluefin

Jigging up a bluefin tuna is super summertime sport, and fish this size can be handled without resorting to big game tackle.

Summertime presents an interesting fishing opportunity for outboard boat owners in the Mid-Atlantic region as schools of small-to-midsize bluefin tuna take up residence on the middle grounds. That means that boats incapable of making the run to the edge of the Continental Shelf and the many submarine canyons that attract yellowfin and bigeye tuna, have a shot at catching those species’ very substantial inshore cousins.

Bluefin are hard-fighting gamefish that can grow to four times the size of their next largest relative. These summer fish tend to weigh between 30 and 100 pounds with some as large as 250 pounds. They are truly big game, so be prepared for a fight if you’ve never caught one before.

Bluefin are highly regulated and therefore U.S. restrictions on seasons, sizes and bag limits must conform to the plan developed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

To fish for bluefin, you must have an Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Angling Permit, which is issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). You can purchase a permit online by going to https://hmspermits.noaa.gov/PermitList.asp, paying the $20 fee with a credit card, and then printing it out on your computer printer. The permit is for the boat, covers all anglers aboard and is good for the calendar year in which you purchase it. There are no individual angler permits required.

Lots of delicious steaks in hand–but only one per boat per day is permitted.

Since conservation of bluefin tuna is paramount at this time, commercial and recreational fishing is tightly controlled. On the recreational side, retention is strictly limited. Currently regulations stand at one fish per vessel per day, larger than 27 inches and smaller than 73 inches. The season is open until NMFS estimates that the quota has been reached, although that is not expected to occur until later in the year. With these restrictions in place, the fishery is overwhelmingly catch and release. The good news is that bluefin have an extremely low estimated release mortality rate, but care should always be taken when handling them.

The Yamaha crew joined Captain Jim Freda of Shore Catch Guide Service recently for a day of bluefin tuna fishing aboard his twin Yamaha-powered 28-foot Parker® Sportcabin. We left from Manasquan Inlet, N.J. in the dark for a slow ride to an area of lumps about 50 miles offshore, carefully watching the radar until the sky started to lighten with the rising sun. We arrived in an area where the water changed from a dull green to a clear, green/blue color, and the water temperature bumped up a few degrees. There were slicks throughout the area, oily calm spots amid the waves and chop, created by tuna and bluefish feeding on the schools of baitfish below. You could actually smell the fish, a pleasant watermelon type of aroma, when we got into the area. Tuna chicks, small dark colored sea birds that flit across the surface picking up pieces of baitfish that float to the surface, were present by the hundreds. These are things offshore fishermen call “signs of life” and when we stopped, the depthfinder lit up with massive schools of baitfish near the bottom in 180 feet of water.

The initial plan was to troll spreader bars, small plastic lures and cedar plugs, a very effective method of catching bluefin, and when we stopped Freda began prepping the boat by dropping the outriggers. While he was doing that, he instructed us to grab the jigging outfits and drop a variety of jigs to the bottom. As soon as the first one hit and was lifted and dropped a couple of times, the line came tight and we were into our first bluefin of the morning. It wasn’t a big one, but it fought hard, running line off the jigging outfit at will. Then a second one was hooked, and Jim put the outriggers back up and grabbed a jigging stick. The tuna’s response to the jigs was good enough that we never switched to trolling. The tally by morning’s end was nine tuna at 50 pounds, one 40-pounder on ice in the boat, and the rest released. Four of the bluefins released were tagged with ICCAT research tags, something Capt. Jim does on a voluntary basis.

Use a jig to catch bluefin tuna

Jigging is an extremely effective method for summer bluefins, especially when the bait is low in the water column. We were over schools of sand eels, small thin-bodied fish that swarm by the millions and tend to hug the bottom, diving into the sand to escape predators. When the tuna are feeding deep, trolling near the surface is not very effective. However, dropping jigs to the basement puts you right in the middle of the action. It is loads of fun because the specialized rods and reels used for this fishing are small, light and make fighting tuna both fun and challenging. The reels are all packed with thin 50- or 65-pound test braided line so you can get the jigs deep and feel them easily. The jigs vary in weight so you can get to the bottom and stay there regardless of the current or drift speed. We were using 200-to-260 grain jigs made by a variety of manufacturers, letting them hit the bottom and then bouncing them up and down rhythmically.

When a tuna grabs one, the drill is to reel like crazy until the line comes tight and then set the hook hard. After that, you have to hold on because you are likely in for quite a ride.

Before you go offshore for bluefin, you should have your boat prepared. Your engines should be in top condition, fuel tank topped off, all your safety gear checked and easily accessible, and you should have more than just the basic emergency equipment. An EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon) and a life raft are musts. There are valise-type rafts available for smaller boats that are easy to stow and deploy should an emergency arise. Take the use of PFDs very seriously, especially if the water is rough. Remember, you’re likely to be be a half hour away from rescue help by Coast Guard helicopter and two hours away by Coast Guard boat at the minimum.

When packing your gear, you should be prepared for three possible techniques: trolling, jigging and chunking. Trolling is usually the top producer earlier in the bluefin season when bait and tuna tend to be closer to the surface. Jigging comes on strong as the surface water warms and tuna do more feeding below the thermocline on baitfish like sand eels. Chunking can work from midseason through the fall. This technique usually requires anchoring the boat and using sardines cut into small pieces as chum and whole ones on your lines as hook baits.

You should also have a large enough supply of ice on board to cover a tuna that could run to well over 100 pounds in your fish box. Bluefin can spoil quickly if not properly cared for, and it would be a shame to ruin a delicacy because you didn’t plan ahead. When you get a retainable fish on board, it should be bled while alive. The next step is to collar the fish (remove the gills and organs inside the body cavity) and finally get it on ice, completely covered, until you get back to the dock to cut it into loins and steaks.

Of critical concern is picking a weather window for your trip. While many modern small outboard boats with twin engines are quite seaworthy and can easily handle moderate sea conditions, you have to take safety and passenger comfort into consideration. It’s not much fun getting thrown around a small boat in four-to-six foot seas. Make sure you hook up with the best marine forecasting services, and check them religiously before you make the call to head offshore.

What size boat can make the run to the bluefin grounds? You’d be surprised. During the day we had outboard powered boats fishing around us that varied from 23-to-38 feet with single, twin and triple engine applications. So if you’ve always wanted to catch a tuna and you’re up for running your boat a couple hours from shore, this is your chance.