giants in the canal
 

the last few days i've been fishin / biken the canal in the morn .. so far i;ve seen 3 gbft bust/brake the surface. i sure it not anything but tuna , two in one day on sun and one again today.huge splash and tuna fin and guys pointing at the wake ...seams like we see um at this time every yr. i plan to troll rubber tomorrow,but dont tell the canal boat . what a site ...any one see them ?????????????

How did u do on breaking bass? I can't go till thurs. I have seen them break in the canal before. I'd hate to be the bait

Would love to see that !

a fishing buddy saw one the weekend before, along with a few others fishing where he was, said it had to be 3 or 4 hundred pounds.... right after the blues came thru

Saw at least 6-7 sunfish in the west end yesterday, too, at the end of the west/start of the east.

Yes those Sunfish are everywhere. Down the east end over the weekend people were yelling "Shark!" when a couple of them went by. I told them how to tell he dif.

So far I haven't seen any GBFT - just Mola and whales. Come to think of it.. I've seen more breaking Mola than bass lately. ;)

ive heard of them....have not seen one yet.

BFT no, whales yes - east end near the pwr plt mid day. Surreal.

png ...beleave what u want but i seen um ....whales dont have fins like that. and also the guys with me saw it too...it was moby tuna ....also i/we have saw plenty of tuna in the canal in past yrs ...also whales , sun fish , dolfins , sea turtles , sea run brown trout , and a occasional deer swimming across , oya also a squirel with a death wish swimming with the bluefish trust me i know the difference.... capt ahab and the white whale....prosf.m bass fishing the last few days was extra slow , night have been much better

I was with Ryan and he spotted a GBFT jump right out by the herring run.Maybe he will chime in and tell it.

I think PNG meant he didn't see any bft not that you didn't see them.

ya dave, what was that you were saying about everyone needing to get thicker skin :laugha:
I'm pretty sure png was just saying he didn't see any BFT, but did see whale

yes i know ...just tellin ya what i've seen in the past ...no bad intent

Least ya didn't call him 'd*ck breath'. :jester:

The only things not to go through the canal are Manatees...

would richard breath b better....you guys were to quick on the keeeeeys

You guys leave Dave alone....if anyone has #^&#^&#^&#^& breath he would know it!!:rotflmao:

:hihi:
Too funny, you guys are correct I have not seen BFT but whales breaching yes

Once upon a time I did hook into a teen lb blue while fishing just a little north of the "Haul over" (about 40 miles from the canal) when something hit it, ran, broke off. Left me standing there dazed & confused. BFT I'm thinking.

Yep I saw a Tuna come full out just west of the herring run. I happened to be scanning the area with my binoculars and saw it in 8X42 power :). Very cool and scary big.

9am Sunday between the bridges. Looked like someone dropped a small car in the water. Pretty darn big.

It's incredible when they come clear out of the water.

Smokey and I saw a GBFT jump and clear the water one time near the east end.

Swim a live bluefish out there. That would be a hoot! You might even stand a chance in landing them if you have a big reel with plenty of line...

A guy I fish with hooked a football from the beach at Race Pt a couple of years ago in October (yes, I'm sure it was a tuna, not a seal). Pretty sick. They busted in on a bunch of blues at the traps at about 9AM in the morning, then peeled off his line quicker than you could say "filler up, Fireline, please".

I would think any Tuna over 80# and you would have no chance at landing it from the banks of the ditch. Without a boat to run and gun a fish like that would spool or break off anyone not using a chain attached to their vehicle bumper! :err:

Agree?

Does anyone know of a confirmed landing from shore? Doubt that any type of gear could hold a BFT 100lb+ from shore, but i bet a football could be taken with enough line and the right gear. I've handled some smaller bluefins (around 30lbs) with light tackle from a boat and imagine that they could be taken from shore. Any regulations from land? Could we see "Bluefin Tuna Landed from The Canal" on the front of the Globe this weekend.

There have been a few school sized BFT landed from shore--notably, up in Scituate by a guy named "Striper Mike" that Van Staal used for promotional purposes.

Of course, you can't legally keep one if you land it, FYI. You need a Federal tuna permit to keep one, and they're only issued to vessels, not individuals.

My first post obviously but I'll put in my 2 cents. I absolutely saw a giant smash. I was fishing the east end Sunday night. I've heard of it but couldn't believe I actually saw it.

Must be a pretty cool sight. Mike, thanks for the info. That is pretty impressive. I have a permit for the boat and certainly don't intend to fish for BFT from shore. If I do see them and one of my casts happens to land near them, MY BAD hehe.... Although I really could go without the spooling and busted drag.

I am sure this is why some of you get spooled thinking its a trophy bass when its probably a tuna and you just brought a knife to a gunfight .Bang bang owned :laugha:

2 big seiners off Sandy Neck, east end of canal, on Sunday. I would think they are there for a reason.

I know of a kid fishing in Montauk at Hither Hills State park that landed about a 30-pounder two years ago. It made the local paper and I think I heard that he got a summons. :(

We had a couple customers come in (with the fish) and ask "What's this fish, I caught it on a popper from shore?" back in '05 when the little 20# bft went nuts off Rhode Island. If there's a couple I know about there must have been a whole lot more. The tuna were simply suicidal that year and people were catching them on everything everywhere so in the end it's not that impressive since they were so small but it can happen.

In hindsight, I wish I had taken the time to hit a few from shore, for bragging rights if nothing else. It would have been VERY easy at several locations in Newport. You probably could have jigged one from Newport Bridge on a couple of days.

I know of a spot on Monday (not in RI) where shore anglers had a real good shot at giving 100+ # BFT from shore a try.

well i saw one {gbft} again today at about 7am cape side pole 80... some bass?blues braking early ,but no hits ..droped the plug right on them too. only sm fish on tins.east end ....fishin inhaled [sucked] today, slow 4 everyone i talked to ..day or night .... soon very soon ????????? i hope

Saw one tonight a little west of there--it was the highlight of the night. :wall:

I did have a bass hooked for about 2-1/2 seconds :doh:

Pete, I did hit those fish back in 2005 from a boat. They were great on light gear, but even the 20lbers required some chasing when using my bonito gear. I was amazed at how close they got to NPT and Sakonnet Point. It can certainly be done. I guess I was saying I'd be more impressed with one landed in the Canal, none the less that would be pretty f-ing cool. Lets hope they come back next year.

Oh yeah. It would be quite the feat. I think a 100 to 150# fish can be done with standard canal gear assuming good rigging and the angler was real good at riding the limits of his gear. But you'd probably see tears at some point during the fight.

Complete hypothetical, lets say you had the chance to get somthing in front of a tuna in the canal. What would be the bait to cast to them, and what would be the tactic once they started peeling line.

I would guess to get up to the service road and take chase, but at some point you would have to apply the brake to turn them. What can you do to stop a tuna?

I trust my gear with stripers, I know what I can and can't do, but that is bass in current to 30 lbs. My PB in canal to date is 32.

What would you do if hooked to a tuna? I have never caught a tuna, be it boat nor surf.

if it were me i would toss a gibbs mackeral pencil popper in frout of it and pop the hell out of it, also have 300yds of 65 pp for line , fast feet to run the rocks ,a good rod with a "stiff tip" a top end reel , a bottel of jack-d , strong back big balls and a good PRAYER ...and u still wouldn't chance w/ a 100 lber

Thanks Stiff Tip for posting what needed to be said...there is no way on God's green earth anyone could land a 100# BFT in the Canal with the very rare execption of a "stunt" that cut the fish so it bled out and then just the dead weight would be hard to pull in...nope...no way...fun for a fantacy but unrealistic on so many levels.

Now a 20# fish is a different story...that is possible on Canal Gear.

After landing a lot (and I mean a lot, like a gross, possibly unethical but entirely legal number) of 20# bft on 10 weight fly rods and also light spin rods with 14# Fireline (neither of which results in a excessively long fight) I'm guessing a 20# fish would just about skip across the surface on heavy Canal gear.

Obviously this all all speculation as the scenario is rare on multiple levels, but a slack tide, a heavy surf rod, 300 yards of braid, some good luck, and 100 pounds of tuna has a chance of coming to shore. I wouldn't want to hook it at the very end of a hero cast though. Crank the drag into the upper teens, palm the spool when you can, and you'll gain ground. Someone call me when you see a school of them raging in there at slack tide and I'll prove it. ;)

What a lot of guys are landing that size fish with from the boat just isn't that far away from a heavy surf rod. I've seen personally and had too many friends beat 100# fish quickly without chasing the fish with the boat to think it's not possible. If the tide's moving, well, that's a whole different ball game. Almost no chance then.