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TUNA!

There was 900lbs tuna caught of the coast of Wales recently.....or was it 600lbs.
 
The Tuna were a feature of our coast just 50 years ago, and due to overfishing their food quarry they withdrew. Hopefully the commercial greed is controlled to allow the charter boats to provide much needed revenue to the area. £200 a session gear provided, with a pastie thrown in...🤩.
 
There used to be a very lucrative Tuna sports fishing industry centred on Scarborough in the 1910 to 1930 era. The modern day multiplier was developed by Hardy's of Alnwick to cope with these huge fish. The British record was/is just short of 900 lb. The anglers fishing from basically big rowing boats used to fish in the vicinity of the commercial herring fishing fleet. Tuna are on the way back. The Japanese longliners have been fishing west of Ireland for some years now. I have two books on this subject in my collection. A very interesting period in British angling history.
 
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Donegal bay has been producing Tuna for over 20yrs. IF the boats can get out. September, October is the best time with the run starting in August. November, the weather is mostly unfavorable.
 
The weather was always a problem when chartering a boat from the Atlantic ports. I used to fish with a couple of friends for the porbeagles from north Cornwall twenty plus years ago. You'd often only get out 2 days in 5.
Tuna probably down there as well now.
 
I had a small boat when I lived in Devon and the idea was to target big Skate off Dartmouth, never hooked into one but did big conger, that was a challenge in a small boat.
Would love to hook into a Tuna, that would be special.
Mind you I did have a few hairy moments in the RAF when posted to Bahrain fishing the Gulf in a Dow with very basic gear and catching shark, tiger ray, and huge grouper was very special, those Sunday fishing trips helped my homesickness no end.
BAA (Bahrain Angling Assoc:) 😀
 
Interesting posts regarding the return of tuna to our shores. As previously mentioned these magnificent fish need prey bait such as herring. My mother passed away in 2019 aged 99 and was born and brought up in Great Yarmouth. She often talked about the herring fleets that travelled down the East Coast from Scotland following the herring shoals. She was not prone to exaggeration and her stories of the sheer number of trawlers and the massive hauls of fish, all unloaded and gutted on the quayside by Scottish women, were fascinating. Man has the ability to shoot himself in the foot and the plundering of the sea and huge overfishing in those days was unreal. Let's hope the bait fish can now return and with it the tuna.
 
As well as fishing Im a bit of a birder and sometimes check out birdwatching web sites.A couple of weeks ago looked at a post from a guy who had gone out on a wildlife cruise off Cornwall.Some way out they saw a large group of birds feeding.On getting closer the birds were feeding on mackerel which had been driven to the surface by a shoal of large tuna.Some of the photos of the tuna were fantastic.Unfortunately unable to find site again!
Just as a matter of interest googled tuna fishing off Cornwall.A limited number of boats are licensed to fish for them on a tag and release basis.All appeared to be fully booked.
 
Adrian Mitchell said:
As well as fishing Im a bit of a birder and sometimes check out birdwatching web sites.A couple of weeks ago looked at a post from a guy who had gone out on a wildlife cruise off Cornwall.Some way out they saw a large group of birds feeding.On getting closer the birds were feeding on mackerel which had been driven to the surface by a shoal of large tuna.Some of the photos of the tuna were fantastic.Unfortunately unable to find site again!
Just as a matter of interest googled tuna fishing off Cornwall.A limited number of boats are licensed to fish for them on a tag and release basis.All appeared to be fully booked.
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If you can get the BT episode take a look, it features heavily on the gull activity giving away the tuna feeding.
 
I am a course angler but if on holiday have been known to get my fishing fix by booking a day or so on a charter boat.Have also had a couple of trips out of Whitby.When abroad,sun cream,hat,shorts and "t" shirt are recommended wear.From Whitby,goosegrease,balaclava,thermals and survival suit,and that was in June.
 
The Town's Dock museum in Hull features many past photos of the quayside landing fish three boats deep. The herring boats were from all down the east coast. Mainly Hull, Grimsby, Dundee and other smaller ports and also from the Netherlands and Germany.
 
I’m currently crewing a tuna charter boat running out of Fowey and licenced under the CHART ( catch and release tagging scheme) run by DEFRA.
25 licences have been granted to English boats and we’re mostly based on the SW coast until early December when the licence ceases.
So far, on our boat ,we’ve tagged and released nearly 40 fish up to around 400lb on the measure ,and the programme as a whole ,is already approaching the total number caught in the scheme last year so, it’s going very well.
Our busiest day ( it’s damned hard work) is 7 to the boat and tagged, with another 2 slipping the hook.

D68D827F-2DB8-41C7-BCEB-F62FF5265812.jpeg
 
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Paul Collins said:
Donegal bay has been producing Tuna for over 20yrs. IF the boats can get out. September, October is the best time with the run starting in August. November, the weather is mostly unfavorable.
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A pal of mine fished over there 2 or 3 years ago and I think he landed 7 tuna in about 3 trips.

At that time it was legal to fish there but not here in England (UK). The CHART scheme hadn’t started yet.

One of my brothers goes to the Scilly Isles regularly and he as seen tuna off there numerous times And at very close quarters as he has his own boat.
 
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