About 10 years ago I started hearing sketchy reports of large blue tuna sightings off our coast. Georgia and South Carolina aren’t’ known for having a blue fin tuna migration or let’s just say, “Not until Now.” According to my records we have had for at least 13 to 14 years a blue fin tuna migration off of our coast. So I am declaring that after years of records and some actual landings during this migration period that we are now have what I call the “South Carolina/Georgia Blue Fin Tuna migration.”
This is just a few of the blue fin tuna reports that I have received over the years!
Over the years I have heard on more than one occasion talk over the VHF radio about large tuna sightings. You would hear fishermen start to talk about it and then a couple more transmissions would take place owning up to the same thing. In this case even actually seeing a blue fin tuna especially in our area doesn’t make a believer out of you.
A Sea Two vessel while towing a disable boat called me from his cell phone to report that he had spotted quite a few of these magnificent fish. His first report was that he had seen the fish from a distance, but could still correctly identify them. However, his next call was even more unbelievable. The school actually surfaced right where the boats were putting them right in the middle of all the action. The two vessels moving at 5 knots didn’t seem to bother the tuna at all. According to the captain it was a sight he won’t long forget.
A charter boat while heading to the snapper banks saw quite a commotion on the surface. They decided to put a few lines and troll around for a few minutes basically on what we call a “Fact finding mission.” They put out 4 surface lines. For bait they pulled various surface to semi deep pulling lures. They weren’t really prepared for trolling especially at this time of the year. What happened next was unbelievable. They had 4 hits resulting in 4 fish on at one time. The two baits that they had out the furthest were the first to go. The fish that t