(Originally published November/December 2009)
By Michael Wright
There are precious few fishermen on the water today who experienced trips to the edge in the 1970s or early 1980s, when bigeye tuna were as a much a part of the regular canyon take as albacore have been in more recent seasons.
on a diamond jig.
We’ve all seen the pictures from the docks, heard the stories from older friends, or read Tred Barta’s book about the glory days of canyon fishing, when packs of bigeye tuna ruled the canyon edges; when eight-banger cover-ups were not a once-in-a-lifetime
occurrence, but once-a-day; and when boats would drop 10 or 15 jumbo ‘eyes on the dock in Shinnecock, Montauk, or Freeport
after a trip.
But for most of today’s offshore anglers, catching a bigeye tuna has been a fairly rare bonus to a canyon trip, typically only a trip or two a year, and sometimes seasons apart.
The 2009 offshore season, however, offered a rare glimpse into the bigeye fishing from those early days on the canyon scene. Boats from New Jersey and Long Island decked hundreds of ‘eyes this year from 100-pound steakers to scattered jumbos pushing 300. The vast majority of the fish caught this year were mid-size though, 125 to 175 pounds, and were caught in surges that hinted at a very large body of fish moving together along the canyon edge in mid-summer.
