How to interest newcomers to Tuna fishing.

The day starts at 5 in the morning, I get up to prepare a large breakfast spread, it will be a long day. At 6 the clients arrive for their first day of Tuna fishing, not really knowing what to expect; They have seen photos in the press and on TV and three of the party have never been on a yacht before. Most of my everyday clients are newcomers, except when we have fishing competitions or when they are just mad about fishing, when more often or not they have their own boat, We are not many boats on the coast, introducing people to this great way of life!

By 8 we are already some 30 miles to the South of St Jean Cap Ferrat (South of France) . We have a briefing so that everyone is on the lookout for signs of fish and the different type of whales and Dolphins we could see on our route; We have a beautiful day and we are lucky to see two Turtles swimming on the surface, one of them has a seagull drying off on its back, a rare and beautiful sight. We have put on the autopilot and we are continuing the our route south, I am on the aft deck preparing the lures.

Questions are flying around, why the red and blue lures? what are those side outriggers for?

Can you show us again how to tie off the hooks.

I am happy to answer these questions, often the clients are content to lie on the sun cushions on the bow. Action stations, the boat is set up for fishing, everyone is put on duty to looking out for signs of wildlife, watching through 360°; We see a whale, a fine mammal of some 20 meters, at almost touching distance, everyone is shooting pictures, some proof that there really are whales in the med, for when they get back home.

Suddenly the first rod goes off, you hear the singing whine of the reel, the boat carries on her course in the hope another line goes off. The excitement on board is intense, people rushing from port to starboard, we are slowing down the motors, one fish is well hooked, then another, then another and we need to calm everyone down. Two guests are sat in the fishing chairs and I hesitate to giving a play belt to a third., to avoid tangles the empty line are pulled in, and I carefully explain how to pump and reel the rod. The fish hooked are the Blue fin tuna (around 30 Kilos) for a first catch this is quite a size; One of the guests starts to get tired after 10 minutes of playing the rod and would like to be replaced, I explain that he must fight on, the fish is often lost during change over, it would be too much to loose this catch. Over to port the guest is pulling hard on his rod without pumping, his muscles are straining, but he is strong, I explain he must pump then reel, pump then reel, it will be much easier. His fish is the first to be landed and I lift it with the gaff into the fish box. Everyone crowds round to take photos, then the second fish is gaffed in, luckily for it, the third fish gets away. Oh well Happy fishermen

Everyone onboard is excited, fantastic, how big they are! Are they not afraid of the whales? No the answer is they are often together as they hunt the same food. After a while everything calms down and goes back to normal aboard, we are again joined by whales. We continue our route south, some 42 miles from the French coast . Over the VHF radio I hear the voice of an old friend Jean6louis from the boat Janus saying that he has seen albacores, he is about two miles from us, effectively, yes, we can see seagulls and the guests come up onto the flybridge to watch with binoculars, a mix of jumping fish and seagulls, everyone is excited again as we motor into the area, the rods go off one after another, the first fish are gaffed in, suddenly a tuna jumps vertically out of the water hooked, surprised the fisherman franticly tries to reel in his line, the fish is gaffed into the boat. With this type of action we use 100/100 line, so that the guests are happy to join the ranks of “sportfishermen”.

Even if it would be more sporting to use different lines, when I fish , I like to use 20lbs rods, with high speed reels 4/0 and 50/100 line. But that is another story, another day on the Mai Mai.

Skipper Bernard Lacosta