Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen “happy” anglers standing in line at the fish cleaning stations tending pushcarts filled with “not so happy” tuna waiting to be filleted, skinned and sliced into steaks by professional fish cutters who do with a knife as Leonardo Da Vinci did with a paintbrush. As the lines slowly move forward, anglers from different boats swap stories about their day on the water, the fish that got away and the ones that very obviously didn’t. Back in the 90’s when tuna fishing was hotter than hot, the lines at the cleaning station were an every day occurrence. But over the last decade the fish cleaners just haven’t had to sharpen their knives as often because there was just not as much business.
But things seem to be changing, particularly around the weekends many anglers have had enough time to enjoy a celebratory drink or two while they wait their turn to greet the fish cutter and turn over their catch. And it’s not because those with the knives are working any slower, it’s just that the volume of fish coming in has been at a level that things just don’t happen as fast, and that’s a good thing!
For a second year in a row an extra warm spring has brought water temperatures up more quickly than usual and the tunas that anglers usually have to wait until June to catch started snapping in early May. With such an abnormal start like that you’d kind of expect the action would be a bit precarious and not hold up very long, but it’s now been over two months and there doesn’t seem to be any hint of things slowing down. In fact, considering the recent influx of bigeye tuna landings, it would seem that a good thing is only getting better!
With such great tuna fishing off our coast you can bet that word is getting out and more and more fishermen are doing what it takes to get out there and get in on the fun. I’ve spoken to folks who haven’t had their boats offshore in years who were once again getting their rigs back to being “ocean ready,” and others who are more than just a little excited about upcoming trips they have booked with local charter captains.
With tuna fever working its way up to a level of what it was like in the good-old-days of the 1990’s, it’s not surprising to hear that some of the old tactics of that era are also being resuscitated back to life. For the last few years, tuna fishing has meant “tuna trolling” and dragging an array of spreader-bars, rigged ballyhoo, birds, green machines and so forth behind the boat at the appropriate speed that churns the water just enough to make the tuna want to come in and munch. But turn the calendar back to the heydays of tuna fishing and you also had a very sizable fleet of tuna “chunkers” out there every day bringing home the sushi by using nothing more than a couple flats of butterfish, a spool of fluorocarbon leader and a handful of circle hooks. Back in “the day” it was chunking that kept the lines long at the cleaning stations.
Back in the days when chunking was all the rage, the average angler had an easier time locating and landing tuna because the fish were in more predictable areas such as the Hotdog, Hambone, Sausage Lumps and Jackspot. Basically you only had to look for the fleet of fishing boats and you’ve probably found the fish. And since those areas were all within 20 to 40 miles of the Ocean City Inlet it wasn’t such a long run out and, therefore, well within striking distance of even some of the smaller fishing boats. Back then, tuna fishing was not reserved for those with the big bucks to buy the big boats.
It use to be that it was proper etiquette not to chunk for tuna until after the Ocean City Tuna Tournament because many figured that too much chunking would shut the trolling bite down and since you can’t chunk in that event it was just deemed the best thing “not” to do. Believe me more than just a few tempers flared on the docks over breaches of that policy!
But with the Tuna Tournament now behind us I guess that if there is anyone out there still playing by the “old rules” even they can start throwing chunks without fear of having their truck egged. So now, like then, if you see dead tuna at the dock, “how’d you catch it?” is a fair question to ask because it could have been taken by anglers who were chunking just as well as by trolling. Only time will tell if tuna chunking will again be the most popular way to land one of our favorite fish, but right now the stars seem to be aligning that way and I wouldn’t be surprised if standing in a line waiting for your fish to be cleaned becomes just a normal part of a fishing day - once again.
Captain Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
