Photos: 1045-Pound Bluefin Tuna Caught in North Carolina

On Jan. 20, Scott McCoy, Clarke Merrell, and Chris Garner caught a 121-inch, 1045-pound bluefin tuna while fishing out of Morehead City, North Carolina.

by OTW Staff

On Jan. 20, Scott McCoy, Clarke Merrell, and Chris Garner caught a 121-inch, 1045-pound bluefin tuna while fishing out of Morehead City, North Carolina. The trio was trolling 11-miles out of Beaufort Inlet when the fish struck a ballyhoo rigged behind a Bluewater Candy Jag Crystal Skirt with a Red Head. The fish was too large to fit into the crew’s 26-foot Sea Hunt, and had to be towed back to port.

Though nearly 200 pounds heavier than the current North Carolina state record bluefin, the fish is not eligible for the record book because it was sold commercially after the catch.

 

16 on “Photos: 1045-Pound Bluefin Tuna Caught in North Carolina”

  3. Henk van Gerwen

    Why not catch, photo & release? You’re killing your own resource! Such a beautiful animal degraded to just a piece of death junk!

      1. Spider Goat

        That’s true. But we don’t need to kill endangered species to make the nut. This is unsustainable greed, nothing more.

    2. Speargun

      After an 8 hour fight, they’re usually gassed out. He’d most likely die after being released.

    3. Kai

      That’s there living, the money from that feeds there family and helps the economy. People eat food and it’s a fisherman’s job to catch food. It’s not going to waste

  4. Joan Z. Cronin

    WOW! That’s SO AMAZING! Wish I could have been there! My best was only 45lbs : (

  5. John Hilton

    Tuna being likened to elephants. It’s a harsh judgment but it just might ring lightly on the truth. How old would a fish like that be anyway?

    1. Bill

      According to the internet, that fish was probably around 18 years old. Also, according to the internet, it probably wouldn’t have lived more than a handful of years longer. They typically live around 10-15 years, but typically not more than about 26 years.

  6. SurfCat

    Yeah but also, after the length of fight that a fish this size undergoes before coming boatside, what are its realistic chances of survival if brought to the boat, photographed, and released? Slim? I do not know.

    1. Derron c

      After a fight lie that theyre pretty much done. They heat up during the fight and the lactic acid I n their muscles actually starts to cook them from the inside out. It cost loads of money to go fishing commercially, the only way we make any money to feed our families is to keep the legal sized fish?

  7. NotNaked&Afraid

    Awsome catch of a lifetime!! To all you bleeding hearts; Takes nads to go to do such a thing; made the captain, fisherman, buyer, and restaurants money; wasn’t wasted and stayed in the US.
    Nothing like offshore deep sea fishing, license in hand and watching an Asian trawler scraping the sea floor taking everything on the edge of the 12 mile line.

  9. Richard

    Once in a lifetime better them than the japs who have no rules

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *