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Hot Tuna's Current Events
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Hot Tuna recently made another Giant
Bluefin Tuna catch off the coast of North Carolina. Capt. Bob Gerkens
and his mate were the only two people on board for the fight which took
three hours and 6 miles of backing down. The fish was 95” and a
little under 500 lbs. It was auctioned in the Japanese market. |
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Hot Tuna won the Beach Haven Marlin &
Tuna Club's Mako Shark tournament with a brute weighing
in at 186.5. The crew for the trip consisted of off-shore mate, Rich Stracensky, its junior mate in training, Ryan
Kellogg, and Barry Thomas from Allentown, PA. Capt. Bob Gerkens was
unfortunate enough to be near the pole when the Mako hooked up on a
whole mackerel and did its first of two spectacular back flip jumps, so
had the duty handling the pole to the end of the battle. The
fishing team did every thing correctly, including having to fire-up the
boat for a spin when the Mako near the end of the fight made an attempt
to get under the boat. Two gaffs were used to hold the fish
for the bang stick to the head before hauling the fish on board.
There were 3 other hookups for the day, one of which resulted in a
release of what appeared to be a 75 to 100 pound juvenile thresher shark.
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The Hot Tuna boat made its first Giant Bluefin catch of the season in North Carolina. It
weighted in at 421 lbs and was 87" long. The three persons on
board: Capt. Bob Gerkens, mate [Capt] Rich Strancensky, and
[Capt] Bob Earl fought the fish for approximately 45 minutes and then
swam it for half an hour before bleeding and boating it.
Bob Earl is owner of South
Chatham Tackle [www.southchathamtackle.com]
located in
Sanford, NC . He has developed a swimming hook (seen in some of the pictures)
which is similar to a flying gaff, but has a clip on it. The swimming
hook is attached to the lower jaw of the fish after it is brought to the
boat and lets the fish regain its color and lose lactic acid before the
fish is bleed and boated. This procedure makes it much more
valuable to Japanese market and worked well with the
pictured fish. Captain Earl has selected the Hot Tuna and
its crew as one of his demonstration boats for field testing of his
equipment.
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