TUNA!................................

[Mike J]

The game boat I used to skipper released a grander Blue only last year!
All less than 3hrs away so you can leave the family by the pool while your off chasing the Marlin and Tunas.
PM me if your serious?

[dannytaylor]

How do you stop a great white picking up a bait intended for a prorbeagle etc?

You cant, but Porgies generally target mackerel shoals and have a small mouth so you use a small bait, whereas Whites tend to follow the Tuna and why there are so many in the Med. where Tuna go to breed.
Besides the leader you would use for even a record Porgy wouldn't last long on a GW eg; fishing for Makos we had a 3mm steel cable cut through in under 15mins by a 4-500kg Tiger (shark).
Before they were protected an English guy used to write about his exploites chasing GW in a small boat off SA, from memory I think he had them to over 3000lbs.

[andrew_nagel]

The bft returned to the north of Denmark last summer for the first time in decades. So they are running through the North Sea again.

[Mike J]

Tuna ARE present in our waters, but very few willing to make the effort to catch them.
Eg;
The Spanish trolling fleet have followed the Albacore from Galicia across the Biscay the within sight of the Scillies for decades.
I know of a recreational boat that has been catching Albacore to 40lbs halfway up the Channel for the past five years, keeping it quite by cleaning the fish at sea, returning with just the quarters in ice chests. NB Albacore is the finest eating of all the small tunas.
Small tunas are caught most years off the Channel Islands and around 20tonnes (unknown species) were netted by a SW boat a couple of years back but ended up being dumped because a buyer couldn't be found.
Sadly only a few Irish and Welsh skippers are pioneering this fishery.

[pikerholic2]

Nice butterball I tagged and released today ...tremendous

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[dannytaylor]

[pikerholic2]

IMG_3505.JPG

.....Dogtooth thurs...night speed jigging

[alan behenna]

You "still" out there!

Well Done that man!!

[pikerholic2]

It's heaven Alan pb yft on the jig and on the popper...fly back Monday

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[Dave Horton]

POW!

(Awesome face)

[Mike J]

Lightly grilled with a dash of wasabi Yummy


Hows your arms now?

[dannytaylor]

[colinb]

An amazing fish. I had a couple of days with Adrian Mulloy back in August 2002, never got a hookup but saw quite a few.
Heart stopping stuff when they come up behind the lures.
It was a case of you should have been here yesterday when Adrian's boat landed a fish of 868lbs Yes 868lbs

The Tunny record for the UK I thought was around 1500lbs?

Medlar Press do a great book all about the Tunny off Scarborough.

[pikerholic2]

That is a big fish !! The Irish record is held by Adrian himself at 968

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[Mike J]

Lovely fish for Uk waters

For sizes a Bluefin was caught in the a trap off Spain that weighed 2000lbs..........gutted and gilled!
A commercial angler off Nova Scotia was drowned when his fighting chair was ripped out of the deck and over the side by a giant Bluefin.

As the saying goes "fish the chair, if you dare"

[frankcarty]

I was on a charter with Daryl Ewing from Rosses Point in Sligo in 2015, we were catching pollack when he spotted tuna breaching on the horizon. During the day they breached many more times, and on one occasion they were not that far from the boat so we pulled up beside them. I never thought I'd be so close to a BFT, and really wanted to catch one! so I booked a trip on the Kiwi Girl from Mullaghmore for september 2016.
The day on the kiwi girl was frustrating, until the last hour! The sea was pretty rough, on many occasions we thought we spotted tuna but they were dolphins. After a few hours we went closer to the coast to a more sheltered spot, where we were met with more dolphins, and a minkie whale! Out of nowhere, well behind our lures a tuna breached, around 5 feet clear out of the water. Just a single fish, no other fish followed, but after being on on the boat for around 6 hours, a sighting got the confidence up again. Around 5pm we seen a feeding frenzy on the surface around 1km from the boat, when we got to the location there was just oil slicks from the remains of their meal. Over the next 90 mins, this shoal (well I think it was the same shoal) appeared on the surface in many locations, once we managed to get to them on time. we spent around 5 mins over the shoal, but they had no interest in the lures. The shoal then disappeared back into the blue, and I was sure our chance was gone. Around 7pm out of nowhere one of the rods screamed off, around 20 mins later my mate Alan had a 350lb (estimated) to the boat. Biggest fish I had ever seen by long shot! Tagged and returned.

A few weeks later, I seen an spot had opened up on Adrian Molloy's boat with 2 days notice, so I jumped at the chance of going out again. Long drive from the midland to Kilcar in south west Donegal! We were joined by 3 marine biologists that were hoping to fit the satellite tags to any Tuna we landed. Very different day to my day on the Kiwi girl. The sea wasn't calm, but it was much more bearable than the previous day. We seen no fish on the surface at all, but we had 5 strikes at the lures, and landed 3! First two fish estimated at 450lb and 550lb were brought on board and fitted with the satellite tags. I was lucky enough to land the last fish, estimated at 600lb. It wouldn't fit in the door at the back of the boat, so it didn't get a satellite tag. The power they have is incredible, 20 mins of hard work getting line back, and within seconds its stripped off the reel again.

600lb tuna release
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxeNhfxlW_I

Tuna frenzy in 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsHO4SURMRw

[TinnyMan]

I was on a charter with Daryl Ewing from Rosses Point in Sligo in 2015, we were catching pollack when he spotted tuna breaching on the horizon. During the day they breached many more times, and on one occasion they were not that far from the boat so we pulled up beside them. I never thought I'd be so close to a BFT, and really wanted to catch one! so I booked a trip on the Kiwi Girl from Mullaghmore for september 2016.
The day on the kiwi girl was frustrating, until the last hour! The sea was pretty rough, on many occasions we thought we spotted tuna but they were dolphins. After a few hours we went closer to the coast to a more sheltered spot, where we were met with more dolphins, and a minkie whale! Out of nowhere, well behind our lures a tuna breached, around 5 feet clear out of the water. Just a single fish, no other fish followed, but after being on on the boat for around 6 hours, a sighting got the confidence up again. Around 5pm we seen a feeding frenzy on the surface around 1km from the boat, when we got to the location there was just oil slicks from the remains of their meal. Over the next 90 mins, this shoal (well I think it was the same shoal) appeared on the surface in many locations, once we managed to get to them on time. we spent around 5 mins over the shoal, but they had no interest in the lures. The shoal then disappeared back into the blue, and I was sure our chance was gone. Around 7pm out of nowhere one of the rods screamed off, around 20 mins later my mate Alan had a 350lb (estimated) to the boat. Biggest fish I had ever seen by long shot! Tagged and returned.

A few weeks later, I seen an spot had opened up on Adrian Molloy's boat with 2 days notice, so I jumped at the chance of going out again. Long drive from the midland to Kilcar in south west Donegal! We were joined by 3 marine biologists that were hoping to fit the satellite tags to any Tuna we landed. Very different day to my day on the Kiwi girl. The sea wasn't calm, but it was much more bearable than the previous day. We seen no fish on the surface at all, but we had 5 strikes at the lures, and landed 3! First two fish estimated at 450lb and 550lb were brought on board and fitted with the satellite tags. I was lucky enough to land the last fish, estimated at 600lb. It wouldn't fit in the door at the back of the boat, so it didn't get a satellite tag. The power they have is incredible, 20 mins of hard work getting line back, and within seconds its stripped off the reel again.

600lb tuna release
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxeNhfxlW_I

Tuna frenzy in 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsHO4SURMRw

Great stuff Frank, your persistence paid off! Dont think I have the stomach for sea angling, Well done!

[BillCollins]

I was on a charter with Daryl Ewing from Rosses Point in Sligo in 2015, we were catching pollack when he spotted tuna breaching on the horizon. During the day they breached many more times, and on one occasion they were not that far from the boat so we pulled up beside them. I never thought I'd be so close to a BFT, and really wanted to catch one! so I booked a trip on the Kiwi Girl from Mullaghmore for september 2016.
The day on the kiwi girl was frustrating, until the last hour! The sea was pretty rough, on many occasions we thought we spotted tuna but they were dolphins. After a few hours we went closer to the coast to a more sheltered spot, where we were met with more dolphins, and a minkie whale! Out of nowhere, well behind our lures a tuna breached, around 5 feet clear out of the water. Just a single fish, no other fish followed, but after being on on the boat for around 6 hours, a sighting got the confidence up again. Around 5pm we seen a feeding frenzy on the surface around 1km from the boat, when we got to the location there was just oil slicks from the remains of their meal. Over the next 90 mins, this shoal (well I think it was the same shoal) appeared on the surface in many locations, once we managed to get to them on time. we spent around 5 mins over the shoal, but they had no interest in the lures. The shoal then disappeared back into the blue, and I was sure our chance was gone. Around 7pm out of nowhere one of the rods screamed off, around 20 mins later my mate Alan had a 350lb (estimated) to the boat. Biggest fish I had ever seen by long shot! Tagged and returned.

A few weeks later, I seen an spot had opened up on Adrian Molloy's boat with 2 days notice, so I jumped at the chance of going out again. Long drive from the midland to Kilcar in south west Donegal! We were joined by 3 marine biologists that were hoping to fit the satellite tags to any Tuna we landed. Very different day to my day on the Kiwi girl. The sea wasn't calm, but it was much more bearable than the previous day. We seen no fish on the surface at all, but we had 5 strikes at the lures, and landed 3! First two fish estimated at 450lb and 550lb were brought on board and fitted with the satellite tags. I was lucky enough to land the last fish, estimated at 600lb. It wouldn't fit in the door at the back of the boat, so it didn't get a satellite tag. The power they have is incredible, 20 mins of hard work getting line back, and within seconds its stripped off the reel again.

600lb tuna release
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxeNhfxlW_I

Tuna frenzy in 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsHO4SURMRw

Great stuff Frank, a day to be remembered !

[dannytaylor]

Real adventure angling.

(Like the video of the feeding frenzy)