UK Spearo's, whats wrong with you guys??

[Old Man Dave]

First off I must say what I know of this is through reading fishing mag's etc. As I understand it lots of people knew these tuna were there, it isn't a new thing. However, despite lots of talk and some half hearted attempts no one was catching any on the rods. Then the Irish tourist board (I think) advertised for an experienced tuna skipper in the USA. Some guy takes the job goes to Ireland and about 5 minutes later starts bringing in hundreds of pounds rod caught tuna. Since then local skippers have seen what to do and have landed fish too.

So my point is despite years of trying it took someone with experience to lead the way. Similarly the idea of spearing one has done the rounds but what it needs is an experienced tuna spearo to show how its done and land one. Until then it's likely to be half hearted at best and bullshit at worst.

That's what I think anyway.

Dave .

 

[dave]

So my point is despite years of trying it took someone with experience to lead the way. Similarly the idea of spearing one has done the rounds but what it needs is an experienced tuna spearo to show how its done and land one. Until then it's likely to be half hearted at best and bullshit at worst.

That's what I think anyway.

Dave .

I see what you are saying, but I dont think there is anyone in the world with experience of shooting huge bluefin in 10c water with 10ft viz Very few really big bluefin have been speared worldwide, and I think all of them have been in warm, clear water (Azores, Guadaloupe Island, Mediteranean) Hunting Donegal bluefin would be a completely different ballgame (most of the time it wouldn't be possible to even see the end of a bluewater cannon!)
cheers
dave
www.spearo.co.uk

 

[Huan]

First off I must say what I know of this is through reading fishing mag's etc. As I understand it lots of people knew these tuna were there, it isn't a new thing. However, despite lots of talk and some half hearted attempts no one was catching any on the rods. Then the Irish tourist board (I think) advertised for an experienced tuna skipper in the USA. Some guy takes the job goes to Ireland and about 5 minutes later starts bringing in hundreds of pounds rod caught tuna. Since then local skippers have seen what to do and have landed fish too.

So my point is despite years of trying it took someone with experience to lead the way. Similarly the idea of spearing one has done the rounds but what it needs is an experienced tuna spearo to show how its done and land one. Until then it's likely to be half hearted at best and bullshit at worst.

That's what I think anyway.

Dave .

What happened was Alan Glanville , a friend of mine who is in his 80's knew that there were these fish around Donegal from sporadic captures by the pelagic fleet, and a local boat rigged up for surface longlining back in the 90's
Alan has done a lot of work for various different bodies including the FAO, and he knew what was needed to catch them,he chartered a small boat from Killybegs and rigged himself up with a heavy tackle setup (130lb class IGFA), trolled some spreader bars and caught the first giant bluefin tuna since they were fished in Scarborough.
There have been no American skippers here, all the skippers have been local.
We brought some american wiremen over to deal with the fish when we were trying to tag and release them (bear in mind that these fish have to be brought on board cut open, satellite tag inserted and stitched up and then released again)and they were able to give some first hand information on methods for catching them.
Unfortunately the methods used in other parts of the world do not seem to work here, (I guess a case of matching the hatch.)
Then the Irish department of The Marine decided that Ireland had no quota for these fish and stopped all commercial fishing for them, but allowed the charter boats to continue fishing as a catch and release fishery.
The Irish Tourist Board (Bord Failte) decided that the charter boat men couldn't even advertise in angling shows because it was "illegal" to fish for these fish.
So thats the state of play at the moment.
But as dave says the biggest obstacle is the North Atlantic in Autumn.

 

[Tim1]

20 - 25 odd years ago I used to fish (angling) SW Ireland every year. Then we were aware of the tuna run and the evidence (then) was from the catches made by the Portugese deep water fleet. We tried to establish an angling operation from Kerry (which would have targetted the tuna, amongst other fine inshore and pelagics) but having given a strong indication of comittiment the Bord Failte pulled out at the 11th hour...

I have mountains of aged research tucked away so if anyone is interested, let me know.