Blue fin tuna

[gonefishie]

Does anyone fish for them? are they hard to find/catch? where is the best water for them? does anyone knows someone that fish for blue fin tuna for a living? I saw a program on the discovery channel last night title "Tuna Wranglers", it blew my mind about how much they can sells one fish for at the Japanese fish market.

 

[Reel Poor]

Re: Blue fin tuna

I saw that show also and like you said the money was unreal. We fish for Yellow Fin Tuna quite often in the Gulf of Mexico. We have never hooked up with a Blue Fin but have heard of several people who have. From what I understand the Gulf is their winter spawning ground.

Here is my 136 Yellow Fin

 

[rolmops]

Re: Blue fin tuna

Out on Stellwagen bank,there still is some Blue fin tuna to be had although they are getting to be less each year.This summer only 3 or 4 giants have been caught.
The blue fins travel great distances in order to spawn,which they do in the Mediterranean quite openly on the surface by the thousands.There are 3 companies there, that very actively hunt them while spawning. They have spotter planes that catch the spawning places and the pilots send the ships that come racing in, in order to string a huge net around the tuna.Once the circle is closed,they close the bottom of the net and all tuna inside is caught.From the net they are herded by divers into huge floating cages that are pulled along the sea toward the Adriatic sea where the Tuna is kept in these cages for sometimes up to 3 years after they are sold to the Japanese market.
This would not be so bad ,except that these companies do not allow any Tuna to get away in order to spawn another year and the Blue fin Tuna population has collapsed.

 

[Bigjohn1]

Re: Blue fin tuna

I regularly fish for Yellowfin but have never been out after Blue Fin's. I am amazed by the size of those monsters and the stout gear the northern anglers use to tackle them.