Fish boat Raven

[Steve Laume]

Okay, I am struggling with posting the pictures as much as I did with the fish. I will keep trying, Steve.

[Steve Laume]

This is one of the reasons you need a bail on the end of your boom and a good strong snatch block. Measured over 4' 6" and was much heavier than I could lift, Steve.

[David van den Burgh]

That. Is. Awesome! NICE!

No way am I posting pics of our salmon catch from this summer now.

[Dick Kobayashi]

Where, how, what kind of fish - tuna?

FANTASTIC

[Russell]

What did you do with the thing? You would need an awfully large freezer to keep that much tuna fresh. Sell it to a local sushi place?

[Steve Laume]

This was on my way home from Nova Scotia. I detoured out to Georges Bank and fished for cod a bit with no luck and the boat rolled around like crazy while drifting so it wasn't much fun. Since I was so far east I was planning to go outside of Nantucket Shoals and I caught this guy roughly in between. It is a Big Eyed Tuna.

I had planned to fish, so I brought along a separate cooler and loaded up on ice before I left NS. I didn't expect to catch anything quite this big. I cut out the four loins and chunked them up enough to fit into plastic bags and then put them in the cooler and loaded it with ice. I set the cooler on the cabin sole with a carpet under it and packed all sorts of cushions sail bags, cloths and bedding all around it for extra insulation. I was a little worried about weather I had enough ice to get all the way home so I diverted to Province Town to get another 25#. I was at the fuel dock at 9:00 AM and had topped off fuel, moved to another pier, got ice and was gone again by 9:30. I saw Liquidity and Neil's dinghy at the dock. I circled and hailed but it seemed like no one was aboard. Sorry you missed out on some tuna steaks Neil.

I did P Town to Cuttyhunk and Cuttyhunk to Noank in two days adding a couple of fresh bags of ice on the way. We cut up, bagged and froze 50# of steaks this morning. There is going to be some fine grilling going on around here.

We had half a Bluefish tonight and that was excellent too, Steve.

[Russell]

I thought it was a yellowfin (for obvious reasons), but I dont claim to know much about fish! Never heard of bigeye and googled it, guess they are close relations.

50lbs of steaks, wow, you put in a lot of effort too to keep them.

I have never fished from my boat, I have been a vegetarian for the last 20 years, but I have been aboard boats where big fish were caught and heard many fish stories, but you have a photo of a nice tuna to prove it, well done Steve!

I was hoping to hear a story of you selling the tuna to a Sushi place for thousands of dollars! Seems like every year I hear a story of absurd prices being paid for tuna in Japan, but then I guess you may have had to take a bit of a large detour to sell it! (though I bet NYC fish market would have paid handsomely).

[bottomscraper]

Wow!

I fish once in a while, one of these days I will learn how to catch!

[Oswego John]

For me, all I seem to be doing is drowning worms.

O J

[David Morton]

Curious about how you support the boom with all the fish hanging on it. Seems like a lot of weight for the topping lift. Did you move your halyard to the boom end shackle?

David

[Steve Laume]

David, I was probably about 80 miles offshore when I caught the fish. The first thing I do whenever a get a decent fish on is, heave to. This cuts my speed and stabilizes the boat in both it's direction of travel as well as it's motion. I had one reef in at the time and left everything just the way it was, while trying to bring the fish in and cutting it up into small enough pieces to fit in the cooler. I would estimate the fish weighed between 100 and 150 pounds. In reality it was probably closer to 100 but seemed more like 200. This didn't seem like an excessive amount of weight to raise on the end of the boom, supported by the sail. There is no way you would want to lower your main and attach the halyard to the end of the boom. Once the main is down the boat starts to roll and without the sail holding the boom to one side, the fish would become an uncontrollable, wreaking ball. It would have been nice to be able to lift the boom some more but I was able to lift the head over the life lines and drop it on the leeward cockpit seat.

I did a good bit of planning and a lot of work to make sure that whatever I caught was well taken care of. I obtained a "highly migratory species" permit before I left. You need this to fish for tuna or sword fish. The cooler and amount of ice I had on board was with fish in mind. When I had some doubt about having enough ice, I erred on the side of caution and diverted for more even though this made for a longer trip home.

I grew up hunting and fishing with my dad. The lesson he always taught is that you never wasted anything you had killed. He was never keen on giving any away either. If you caught it or killed it you ate it. I don't know if this was derived from growing up as a kid during the depression, where you had to use every last bit of food or if it was out of respect for the animal. I have a feeling it was a healthy combination and for me it is a lesson I live by. At this point I think it is far more about respect in my mind. Last year I had to release two swordfish because I knew I couldn't keep all the meat fresh. This year I planned.

While it would have been interesting to know what a fish like that would be worth on the market, I didn't really want to sell it. I killed it so I should be the one to eat it. Plus it would have taken me a day to get it to P Town, I am pretty sure they want it whole and I had no way to transport it to the dock on ice in one piece.

If I had wanted to take more, there was a good chance I could have caught another fish. There were birds working once I got my fish squared away. There was absolutely no temptation to tangle with another one of these beasts. I had all I needed and only wanted to take good care of that. I don't know what tuna steaks are going for these days but I am sure that one fish covered all the costs of my trip. I didn't sell any but we will not be buying a lot of fish this winter, Steve.

[Oswego John]

Steve,

I want to let you know how much I enjoy reading your posts. They are easy reading for me. In many ways I am on the same page in life as you are on. I, too, am a person brought up during the depression. Quite often we had to live off of nature's bounty. We are none the worse for it, probably better.

So keep up with sending in your interesting posts and pictures.

Thanks for sharing with us,
O J

[David Morton]

Great story! Nice fish! I assume you were trolling. I'd be interested also in hearing about the tackle you used. Lots of tuna here in the Gulf of Maine. I've gone out with a couple of serious tuna guys and they use some hefty equipment. Usually Yellow Fin, I think. Once a fish is secured to the boat, someone calls the local tuna broker who meets you at the dock, takes a core sample for measuring fat content, and then writes a big check! A good size tuna of quality will fetch 5 figures easy! Congrats and don't forget the wasabi!!

David

[Neil Gordon]

I saw Liquidity and Neil's dinghy at the dock. I circled and hailed but it seemed like no one was aboard. Sorry you missed out on some tuna steaks Neil.

If Liquidity is on a mooring and Small Change is at the dinghy dock, that's usually a clue that I'm not on board.

Sorry I missed out on the tuna... The boat's never locked, feel free to pack the ice box next time!

[Steve Laume]

Thanks, O.J. No lack of BS being generated here.

Neil, I thought about just tossing a couple of steaks in your cockpit with a note. I had no idea when you might be returning and it could have gone badly or literally bad. Either rotted fish or a seagull frenzy would not have been a good thing to return to.

David, I was trolling a med sized lime green lure with a single hook and a long florro carbon leader. My rod, reel, line and gaff are all completely inadequate for a fish like that or the sword fish I caught last year. I am using a 1960s vintage Penn Senator reel with 40# line and a 6' Penn Slammer rod rated for 15 to 40# test line. My gaff has a little 3' long wooden handle and no way to secure it to the boat. This entire set up works great for Bluefish and Stripers. I would love to have one of those gold Penn reels spooled up with some heavier line. A stronger drag, more powerful gear ratio and a two speed retrieve would all be great features. Having a crew to help land the fish would also be a big help. I managed mostly by taking more time and planning ahead as much as possible. If I ever do a trip out, just to fish I will have some crew and a bigger rig. But then I probably will not catch any fish.

I guess selling a fish calls for one more layer of planning. I don't know where you get buyers numbers or which ports they operate out of but it is an interesting concept. Raven could use some things that a few thousand dollars would take care of very nicely. It would seem kind of like found money if you caught it. The main problem would be getting the fish in fast and fresh, all in one piece. I did see one boat come into the docks at Noank with a tuna in a body bag. Evidently this is pretty common practice. You put the whole fish in a big heavy bag and pack the ice around it. I don't know if the bags are insulated or not but I suppose you could cover it with something. The problem is that you are fishing 50 to 100 miles off shore and that means it is going to take you 12 to 24 hours to get back to a dock.

What I was really wishing I had was a gun to just shoot the fish so I could bring it onto the boat, Steve.