According to the fishermen on Stellwagen Bank last season’s tuna gear isn’t always up to the task of landing this season’s tuna. Every year the tuna have come back larger, and this year, they are averaging between 160 and 200 pounds. It is told that the stories of busted reel handles, seized drags, hour-long battles, straightened hooks and severed lines seem to be more common than successful landings.
Fishermen are said to adjust their gear and tactics to tame a 200-pounder, a healthy supply of bait on the Bank has drawn in some true giants, like the 712-pounder caught this week by Ron Butler fishing with Captain Nat Moody. They hope that these tuna continue grow like this as they see another pulse of juveniles enter the fishery.
It is observed that heavy rains have been problematic along the Merrimack River. A few days without a downpour could turn the bite back on at Joppa, where live eels still are likely to take a few quality fish on the night tides and schoolie stripers will hit Slug-Gos and tube-and-worm rigs. From the mouth of the Merrimack down to Cape Ann, small sand eels should be attracting stripers, but the fishing has been slow.
