Green Harbor MA Captain’s Log

I can now tell you first hand catching Bluefin Tuna is an unbelievable experience. I was lucky enough to land two the other day. One 51″ 100+ lb’r and another 50 pounder.

My crew on many days is my friend who lives 1 mile down the road (his wife hates me) and this day was no different. My dad also came along for this trip which made this success even sweeter. We left Green Harbor at about 5:30am and arrived on the south west corner of Stellwagen at 6:45am. It took a few minutes to gear up but I’d say we had the lines wet by 6:55. Set up to troll along the corner of the bank in about 100ft of water with four 48″ squid bars running and a deep diver plug (that looked a lot like a small bluefish) in the water. The plug was running under the closest spreader bar about 65ft back, probably just outside of the prop wash about 15 or 20 ft down.

It was business as usual when out of nowhere there is an enormous crash in the spread. The fish hit the diver plug so hard that it came right out of the water and it was GAME ON. The plug was set up on a Penn 80 reel set at about 25 lbs strike and the line just started peeling off like it was free spooling. I grabbed the 80 and the crew began the Chinese fire drill of clearing the 4 other lines, while keeping the boat moving straight forward. I had the Penn 80 in my hands keeping the pressure on the fish, fighting belt now on, I started moving the fish but he continued to take line so I pushed the 80 drag up to about 40 lbs and started cranking on him, there was still some give and take on the line but I was making good progress on the fish. After about a 15 minute fight I had it pretty close to the boat. But it made a final attempt to dive and peeled another 50 yards off the reel. I muscled it back to the top and got it to the side of the boat. My friend landed a perfect gaff shot and we dragged the fish over the side. 50″ inches and fat as a pig, conservatively this fish was 120lbs. Much celebrating commences. After a good bleeding/icing and some more celebrating we get the spread back into the water and troll the same line along the corner. We track back and forth along a 2 mile stretch. Each time we pass a small Hydrosport with two guys in it, there’re jigging. On about our third pass they are not jigging anymore, they are on a fish. We couldn’t have been 1000yards past them when a boat trolling along side us (500 yard port side) gets hit, and now they are on a fish. Another minute passed and our black squid bar get nailed (bent my outrigger on the release) and it is off to the races again this time it’s my buddy’s turn. He grabs the Shimano TLD50LRS and I start clearing the lines. He is much more patient than I am and he works the tuna methodically to us. Once we had the squid bar along side the boat I grabbed the main leader and kept the pressure on the fish while he put down the rod and landed another perfect gaff shot. This one was much smaller (50lbs) but still a keeper. More celebration, more blood, more ice, more celebration…..and exhale.

With two in the box on ice we break down the gear and head home.