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Giant fishing...there truly is no substitute. If it's big fish and breathtaking adrenalin that you're after than look no further. The giant bluefin are one of the biggest and meanest gamefish in the ocean...end of story. These monster fish are known to wreak havoc on the will and stregnth of even the most seasoned angler. After all, they do average 500 pounds, and regularly run as big as 1500. Nothing quite compares to the sight of a 9 foot fish staring up at you from beneath the depths!

Giant bluefin tuna begin to show in our waters in early June, and usually hang around until the middle of November. We begin fishing for them in September, providing they show up in good numbers. The big bluefin often frequent the waters off the coast of Maine in July and August, and then work their way down the NewEngland coast to Cape Cod waters in September and October. For five years in a row the Great South Channel was filthy with fish from September on, but then in 2003 and 2004, the fish didn't really start to arrive in good numbers until October. And when they did show, the schools never really stuck around. My guess is that the bait concentrations, primarily ocean herring, were extremely low during these time periods, and without bait, giant bluefin simply cannot survive.

The bottom line is that ocean trawling in the Great South Channel is depleting the herring stocks. This trawling fishery needs to be regulated more strigently by the NMFS so that we all can gain better handle on what is truly taking place. This exact scenerio took place at Jeffreys Ledge off the coast of Maine just a few years back. Commercial pair trawling literally desicrated the herring stocks, and turned a once thriving ocean fishery into a desert. Local tuna fishermen had to change their careers, or even worse, went bankrupt. The government stepped in, and a few years later, that very ecosystem bounced back to life. Now the same thing is happening in our waters. It's a more than scary proposition for fishermen that rely on bluefin tuna for their monetary needs. Hopefully we'll see a better showing of giants in 05, and that the last two seasons were simply flukes. The fish did show, but the schools didn't stick around. On a brighter note, the Canadian fishery was outstanding during the last two year. The fish showed up by the thousands and were caught daily just a few miles from shore on live mackeral dangling from kites. I don't think the problem is the bluefin population numbers being on a decline. There's a ton of fish showing off the Carolinas every winter and in Canadian waters every summer. The problem is the ecosystems for these fish in our waters might be in danger of collapsing. Stellwagon Bank and The Great South Channel are becoming deserts. Ask any whale watch boat captains. I did. All of them said the same thing. The whales aren't showing up like they used to. Why? Good question, my guess is that there's simply not enough food. Both these places used to be the home to hundreds of whales and millions of herring...not any more. Now don't get me wrong, we haven't hit disaster yet, but the signs are here, and we should at least look into the situation. I will be working on this more thoroughly to learn more in the next few months.

On a more positive note, the giants did make quite a showing in Cape Cod Bay in the fall, and we were able to catch a couple of very big fish just a few miles from shore. The bite lasted all day, with most of the action occuring at slack tide. The fish were there because of the vast schools of whiting that blanketed the bottom, that is until the trawlers harvested them. By late November, it was nearly impossible to jig a whiting off the bottom. That's the way it goes. The trawlers attracted the tuna too though, and I heard rumors of a few giants being caught up in their nets while trying to access the tumbling schools of baitfish....pretty crazy. Steve Kimbrough flew all the way across the country to catch a 658 pound fish three miles from the beach. The Eric Shaw crew will never forget the epic battle that took place between four brave men and an even braver 680 pound tuna that finally fell victim to the gaff in 6 to 8 foot seas! We lost a nice fish too from a pulled hook the next day, and Brendon Ryan, who also flew across the country in search of one of these beasts, had to get back on a plane dreaming about the one that got away. All in all it was a great end to another fantastic season of fishing. The fish just kept getting bigger. That's always a good thing. Well have to see what next year brings. Tight lines everyone. I'll end things with a Castafari story from the Dock Talk page. The wind finally settled, and we made our first trip in two weeks back on the water with the Eric Shaw crew onboard for another showdown with the magestic giant bluefin tuna. We headed back out to Cape Cod Bay where the action had been a couple of weeks prior. The morning started off with a little excitement as we approached a fleet of about 30 boats, and a few were fighting fish. We dropped anchor, and in went the chum. Within 20 minutes we started marking fish..a lot of them. They were streaking all over the screen eating all the hunks of bait we tossed in, except the ones with hooks! I tried everything, including freelining baits with very light leader. After a half hour of torture, the school of fish moved on to the guy next to us, and off he went with a bent rod. Moral went down a notch, but Tom brought to our attention a variety of creative baseball analogies and Red Sox references reminding us not to give up hope! So we kept jigging for the live bait which finally came in in the bottom of the ninth. After 6 hours of hard labor, the curse was broken, and our flat line rod started screaming, and I mean screaming. The fish took a huge run, well into the dacron before I could even get the boat moving. Oddly enough, the wind picked up instantly, and soon we were backing down into 4 to 7 foot seas, taking waves over the transom on a regular basis. The fish actually broke the surface a couple of times, which is pretty rare, but a neat bonus. After about an hour the fish was just beneath the boat circling hard. We were pulled 3 miles around the point, and out into the deep water by this fish! This tuna was by far one of the toughest fish I have ever encountered. It literally wiped out three of the four guys on the charter who took the rod. I watched in a panicked anxt as the Race Point light grew smaller and smaller, and the seas grew larger. When it came to the wire job, Kid and I had our hands full as the fish made fast bolts toward the transom, surfing across waves and sounding just when we thought it was time to throw the poon. I finally nailed the fish only to have it take a nutty and race off to the bottom with lightening speed, pulling the dart, dumping the spool, and bestowing another 20 more minutes of panic to all of us. Mother nature worked hard against us as wind, rain, and seas pelted us continuously. It was hard to gain line. My heart stopped each time I saw a 6 footer toss the stern up and double the rod over. I've been around plenty of these fish. This battle was special. For a second I even felt a bit of remorse when we finally had the fish tail wrapped. The thing was an absolute beast that commanded respect. We were all beat up after this event...too tired for high fives. I feel like I just ran a marathon! The kicker was none of these guys had ever gone face to face with a giant. A trip like this is a home run as far as charters go, even if it was in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and noone on. The ride in felt good, and the cold beer at the dock felt even better. A great bunch of guys to have onboard.