I have been looking forward to the weekend of Sept 12th all year as my son and his family were coming to visit from CA.  I havent seen them in over a year and was looking forward to seeing how big (and smart) my grandson Sohan had become.  George and his wife Ali live in the San Francisco area and are both research scientists having received their doctorates from Cal Berkley.  Their careers keep them very busy so when George was asked to make a presentation at a conference in Cambridge they decided to take a few vacation days and extend their visit to include seeing Grandpa.  I wanted to get them all out on the boat and do a little fishing with them.  I never imagined what was to occur during one of these excursions.

I have had an extremely frustrated this  season with the tuna.  It seemed I could just never get my timing correct.  One day early or one day late for the bites as they occured.  Fish Stellwagen and the bite was on Jeffreys and vice versa. Use live bait and they  wanted artificials. Head way east and the fish were out west.  Day after day it seemed I just was a step behind them.  I try to explain to customers that tuna fishing is a lot different than any fishing you will ever do, it is much more like bow hunting for whitetails.  There can be hours of nothing but searching and on some days the bite never comes.  For many this is too frustrating and they give up opting to catch some ground fish.  I have no problem with that and in fact on some days when the tuna will not bite that is a reasonable request. However, every minute spent ground fishing is time that you are no longer hunting the greatest game fish alive and since this weekend was for family I was determined not to give in to the temptation when my son and I went tuna hunting.

Mother nature had shut down tuna fishing for the entire week last week as strong NE winds blew.  On Sunday, the 13th, the seas finally calmed and the fleet returned to the chase.  We decided to fish the noon tide and let the fleet do some searching on the early slack water which occured before dawn.  Gentlemen hours I call these trips and it gave us plenty of time to rerig gear at the dock and make our game plans.

We rounded eastern point in Gloucester Harbor at 0800 and headed for Stellwagen.  I received a call from a fellow charter Captain who was already on the bank who reported no bite but perfect conditions.  I was glad to hear that the decision to leave later had been correct so far.  Two miles offshore I came across a large raft of shearwaters riding the waves.  Tuna were in the area...question was had they just passed through or were they on the way.  I continued to steam east but I took one more look over my shoulder and Crash...TUNA on the surface erupted on the the bait.  Hard right rudder and the chase was on.  Back on the spot we shut her down and waited for the next jumpers but as has been happening the whole season they never showed again.  Still a step behind them but at least I knew charlie was still in the area.

We arrived on Stellwagen around 0900 and setup a troll.  The seas were perfect but a heavy fog bank had rolled in making radar a must to avoid other boats in the fleet.  As we came up the bank I marked some real nice fish and anticipated a bite at any moment,  We worked the area for over an hour but couldnt raise a fish.  The fleet had dispersed trying to locate the tuna and since the tide was still running hard I decided to work southwest in my search.  The radio for the next 2 hours was quiet..no one had fish or could find them. With the slack tide occuring around 1230 I decided to return to the corner around 1045.  At that moment the first reports of hookups were broadcast and soon my Sat phone rang with a call from my good friend who told me he had hooked up and to get back here now!

We were approximately 2 nautical miles from the bite but I decided to troll to it as the sea became full of life around us.  Numerous pods of humpback whales appeared from no where.  Birds were hitting the surface and halfbeaks could been seen greyhounding across the surface. Something was putting the fear of God in them I knew now was the time. 

We were trolling a combination of artificials and bait on both 30 and 50 class rods.  We had left the big guns home as the fish that had been taken recently all seemed to be the same 65" class of fish. On "light" standup tackle these fish give a tremendous battle and George wanted to fight one stand up.

The bite came at 11:15.  We had just arrived on a number where two year prior I had hooked a giant tuna.  He hit the starboard corner 30 class rod and the little Tiagra 30 screamed to life.  Game on, clear the other rod, steer away from the fleet, get the harness on..all this needed to be done as we watched the reel getting spooled at an alarming rate.  By the time we got on the fish we had lost nearly 2/3 of the line.  As George started to crank on him I manuvered the Lady Diane to keep as much pressure I could on the fish.  We finally mananged to get back a couple hundred yards on the spool and George started trying to put a hurt on this fish as best he could with the little rod he had to work with.  15 minutes into the fight,  big trouble . as the fish tore off in the direction of another boat who if he continued on hiscourse would cut the fish off for sure.  I radioed the capt and told him I needed to come across his bow.  George reeled as fast as he could and we cleared the other boat with less than 50 yds to spare. 

The battle continued another ten minutes and we finally got the end of topshot on the spool and now the lifting began.  The fish was tiring and so was George.  We needed to get this fish up and stuck soon but I had not seen color yet.  At the 25 minute mark he finally showed and I couldn't belive my eyes...a Giant Tuna 20 feet below the surface was beginning his death circles.  I told George to lift as hard as he could as I prepared the harpoon.  The little rod actually bent into the water...I expected disaster at any moment but after two passes I decided to take the shot the next time around.  I threw the poon as hard as I could and drilled the fish.  The dart line came tight and I hauled in as George put on the tail rope.  30 minutes into the fight and the battle had been won.  Our first giant of the season was secured to the boat and George nearly collapsed from the fatigue of such a great fight.

We bleed the fish over the side and then haul him in the tuna door.  I have a large tuna bag  and I could see that we had another problem..no way was this fish  going to fit completely in the bag  as the tuna measured 82" CFL. 

I dressed the fish and we finally managed to roll most of him into the bag and filled it with ice.  A call was placed to my broker and we steamed for Gloucester were we unloaded the fish on the commercial dock

At the dock we were met by the family and congratulations were give and many photos taken of the victorious fisherman. 

Thus ended the most exciting trip of the season so far.  It dosent get any better than having your son catch the biggest fish of his life and our season and being there  to help him do it.  I am a very proud and happy father today.

Capt George