By Capt. Bob Pisano
I have been fishing for giant bluefin tuna since the 1960s and have caught well over 700 in my career. I have boated the last five state-record fish, including two on the same day, and have boated as many as five giants in one day. I pursued these fish from New Jersey to Maine with my anglers Jack Cashman and Darren Berry. For me, it is the most exciting fishing there is; there is nothing like it. But it can also be the most boring and tedious. It requires a lot of patience, persistence, and dedication.
September 11, 1980 was one of the most exciting fishing days I have had. With Chris DiStefano as crew, Al Ristori and Roy Parsons as anglers, we fished Monster Ledge in the New York Bight. We anchored and began chunking, and an hour later I spotted three giants at a depth of 10 feet, swimming very slowly back and forth from bow to stern. With the working line, I threw a bait to them, but they showed no interest for 10 minutes or more. I then worked the line down to 80 feet and within seconds the the line ran off the reel. I threw the lock and the fight was on with Roy in the chair. An hour and 20 minutes later, Chris gaffed the fish and it was ours. This was a very large fish, so large that we could only get its head into the transom
