Tuna Fishing Charters Gloucester, MA !

August 25, 2009

Tuna trips have been going great. A very interesting season so far. There have been Tuna all over many great bites happening in different places.

There is a large abundance of bait this season. Small juvenile herring are all over the place. We sure have seen some amazing surface feeds this season. It’s very exciting to see the fish finder lit up with bait for over 5 continuous miles. It seems the mid water herring boat restriction is showing a very positive impact.

Stellwagen continues to hold up to it’s reputation as the life on the bank is amazing. As it should only continue to get better. Be sure to check back for our most up to date reports. Thanks good luck to all!

Capt Collin

Karen Lynn Charters Nice Giant Blue Fin Tuna Gloucester,MA !

August 3, 2009

I did an overnight recon trip to Southern Jefferies Tuesday night and Wednesday.

The good news is we got a 92″ 550# Giant and we saw some 60-90# BFT just 4-5 NM’s from Twin Lights. The fish gave us a really hard fight for an hour and a half as it’s stomach was completely empty and we ended up 1 1/2 miles from where we hooked it.

The bad news is the fish are really spread out, so unless you have very specific and current information Southern Jefferies does not offer the same kind of concentrate of bait and fish that the Bank does. The Whales and the bait seem to be quite spread out this year. Captain Collin is out in the Karen Lynn today looking for more Giants so hopefully he will do post an update, tonight or tomorrow. For now we are going to stick to the Bank and maybe to the east for Tuna Charters.

Captain Jim
Karen Lynn Charters
www.karenlynncharters.com

Karen Lynn Charters Bluefin Tuna Fishing Gloucester,MA !

July 9, 2009

Headed out to the Bank, with hopes of more tuna showing up north after the moon. Arrive to the corner with lots of life showing. The usual whales,birds,tons of bait with many bass still in the mix. No tuna on the screen cruised around for a bit and sure enough a few broke the surface. Worked the area for a while and sure enough we were on. About 15 to 20 min later we boated a nice 68″ fish. This class of fish will give you a good battle make sure your gear is heavy and in tip top shape. As soon as it began it shut off. Weather was no good of course and visibility was tough. Stuck it out and kept working, a while later we were on again. A fish of the same size was boat side for a nice tag and release. A great day overall our clients were very excited to say the least. Fishing should continue to improve. I hope this weather pattern changes as well. Good luck to all !. Thanks
Capt Collin
www.karenlynncharters.com

“How To Cut Bluefin Tuna”

March 20, 2019

How to cut Bluefin Tuna- Karen Lynn Charters Gloucester, MA

Quite a few people have asked for a “how to” showing cutting up and steaking a Blue Fin Tuna. As promised, we will shoot a video of cutting up a Bluefin Tuna aboard Karen Lynn Charters this summer. In the mean time I have put together a description and some pictures of how we do it on the Karen Lynn. All the pictures are of Blue Fin, but some are southern Bluefin Tuna and tuna from the Mediterranean. Some might look a little different to those of you who notice details like that.

I am sure that people on the forum who have experience cutting up Bluefin Tuna will have some other ways of doing it and I would welcome you to post your tips and idea’s. Like most things that require some practice and skill, there is probably no one “right way” to do it. There are however, easier ways to do it and I have tried below to show you one way we have found that is relatively easy. Like most things, the more you do it the better you will get. That said, we have a great resource in our BFT fishery so close to shore and relatively plentiful. Please be conservative about taking fish especially as more and more people get hooked on this fishery. Tuna doesn’t keep particularly well in the freezer. I would urge you to take only fish you intend to eat and do that with prudence.

Please post the inevitable questions and please point out parts below that need clarification. I will edit the post as I get feedback and questions from people on the forum.

Tight Lines!

Captain Collin

Karen Lynn Charters

TUNA ANATOMY 101

Basic Steps To Cut Bluefin Tuna

1. First you want to Gut, Clean and Prep the Bluefin Tuna as per my previous post “Dressing and Handling of Medium and Large Blue Fin Tuna” that you can find above in the announcements.

You also need to have a good set up to cut the fish. Big fish over 150 pounds will likely have to be cut on the deck. Having a piece of cheap carpet or some burlap sacks can really help. With last years 57″+/- BFT’s at the bank. I would often cut them on top of a large Icey-tek cooler with a cheap Home Depot walk off mat underneath them. I don’t like to work kneeling on hard surfaces if I can help it.

Having at least one really good large knife is crucial. We have a large 16″ butchering knife we bought from a restaurant supply house. I also like to use relatively inexpensive mild steel fillet knives (those ones with the wooden handles) as they hold an edge better than the stainless knives.

Bluefin Tuna Gloucester, MA

2. One of the keys to making it easier to cut up a Bluefin tuna is too get it really cold before attempting to cut it. Ideally we will leave it in a brine of sea water, kosher salt, and lots of ice for a couple of hours before cutting it. The firmer the meat the easier to cut and by minimizing bacteria the longer it will keep and taste really good.

3. First you have to remove the head, tail, and fins. It is my understanding that this is prohibited by HMS regulations to do at sea. This should probably be done in your harbor, or if you are in Gloucester, maybe at the breakwater. You should make sure you understand the regulations as the penalties for even minor infractions can be severe.

Gloucester, MA Tuna Fishing Landing Restrictions

Atlantic tunas, Bluefin, bigeye, and yellowfin tuna must be landed round with fins intact, or eviscerated with the head removed, but with one pectoral fin and the tail remaining attached through offloading. Tunas harvested from the management unit cannot be filleted or cut into pieces at sea.”

You want to cut off the Pectoral Fin on the side you start on with a “scalping” shallow cut like you were peeling off the skin on a piece of fruit so you do not cut into the meat below it.

You should now have a clean carcass ready to cut up.

Bluefin Tuna First Cut

5. Next you want to make the first longitudinal cut. You need to pay careful attention to cutting on the blood line and right down to and along the Bluefin Tuna’s backbone.

Bluefin Tuna Second Cut

6. The Second Cut is when having the right knife will really help. Cut along the Bluefin Tuna’s backbone into the stomach cavity to create a large “quartered” chunk.

After the second cut you should be able to cleanly remove a quartered section of the Bluefin tuna as below.

Bluefin Tuna Third Cut

7. What I am calling the third cut, actually requires two cuts to complete. First Cut down the middle of the Bluefin tuna’s belly just missing the gristle where the ventral and anal fins attached. Then fold the tuna carcass open as in the picture below and cut along the spine to remove the second quartered section. It will be hopefully a little more clear when you are actually doing it than it sounds here.

Bluefin Tuna Fourth Cut

8. The fourth cut is again one where a big sharp knife really helps. You now have essentially half a Bluefin tuna carcass and you are looking down at the backbone intact as below in the picture.

You want to carefully cut out the backbone in one large piece if possible, taking as little meat with it as possible. Below these guys have just made that cut and have lifted off the entire backbone very cleanly.

9. You now have half a tuna carcass with hopefully no backbone. For your last longitudinal cut you simply split the half carcass into two quarters by cutting through the indentation where the backbone was. This will result in you know having four quarters that look something like this.

Bluefin Tuna Final Step

10. Now for the easiest part which is steaking up the Bluefin tuna quartered carcass. There are many ways to do this but the way I prefer is to cut across the quartered section through the meat but not through the skin, then take a smaller sharp knife and make a perpendicular cut to free the steak from the large piece of skin on the quartered carcass.

Keeping the quarters in the brine until you are ready to steak each one will real help with fighting bacteria and maintaining freshness. Left in the hot sun for only a short time will really speed up decay.

You now can bag the Bluefin tuna steaks, and then have some Sashimi

and Cold beer!

Giant Bluefin Tuna caught fishing off the coast off Gloucester, MA.

Dressing and Handling of School and Medium/Large Blue Fin Tuna

August 28, 2008

Bluefin Tuna Fishing Gloucester, MA Karen Lynn Charters

I have been asked in person and on the marine radio by others about how to best kill, care, and handle Blue Fin Tuna. I thought it might be helpful to some of the newer Bluefin Tuna fisherman on this site to post how we try to do it. This is by no means the “only” or “correct” way, it is simply one method and the way we were taught in the commercial Bluefin Tuna fishery where the difference in caring for the catch in the first 30 minutes, can be worth thousands of dollars. The same routine is used on all of our Bluefin Tuna fishing charters. I hope it is helpful.

Bluefin Tuna Part 1

Part 1. Killing and bleeding the fish This sounds simple and obvious but how you kill a Bluefin tuna greatly affects the quality of the meat. With fish that are in the 47″-73″ size range, we will usually bring them to the boat and leader and gaff them in the head area. I know it can be scary but try to wait and don’t try too gaff them to early and then get them swimming along the boat at 1-2 knot speed. They will often lie on their sides, exhausted and present a very easy target.

Immediately after gaffing the tuna we will slip a tail rope over the tail using a second gaff to hold or pick up the tail. We will then cut the leader or remove the hook, and sink a head hook through the lower jaw and starting swimming the fish from it’s head behind the boat, slowly 2-3 knots, secured by the head hook and keeping the tail rope on the fish and cleated off. But not so tight that the tuna can’t swim somewhat naturally. We will try to swim the fish for 10-20 minutes. Until it seems to have really come back to life and gets some of it’s natural vibrant color back.

Bluefin Tuna Fishing Gloucester, MA

Always Gaff through the head and never in the throat where the heart is located or it will bleed out while you are swimming it. We will then pull it back to the boat by the tail rope and bleed it out. NOTE: We have found that on the 50″-60″ fish that instead of using the rubber coated wire and carabiner tail ropes we use for giants, that a 3/8″ nylon braid dock line with a spliced eye loop gives us a more secure grip on the smaller tail of these fish. First we will pull the fish up high on the transom by it’s tail rope and make a cut approximately 2″ wide and 1″ deep behind one or both pectoral fins which taps into major arteries. We used to also make a bleed cut on the tail but found it wasn’t necessary and cutting too deeply, makes real problems.

Then towing the Bluefin Tuna by it’s tail, we will rake it’s gills with a gaff or more preferably a harpoon iron while towing it. This should fairly quickly bleed out the fish. Once the blood flow slows down and the fish does not appear to have much movement, we haul it onto the deck by the tail rope and take some very quick pictures with the anglers then immediately start to dress it. Leaving the fish on the deck in the sun for even 15-20 minutes can really shorten the refrigerated shelf life of tuna steaks. High Core temperature of the fish is your enemy and you want to get it cooled down as quickly as possible.

Bluefin Tuna Part 2

Part 2. Dressing the fish With the fish on the deck, we use a basic short handsaw (Stanley 15″ Fat Max, $16 @ Home Depot) to cut off the head of the fish. I would suggest that if you are new to this you do this in a few cuts versus just lopping the head off which could case you to lose good meat. See the drawing below.

Next you want to carefully cut in a circle around the fishes anus so you can pull the main intestine out of the body and carefully cut it free. This allows you to remove from the head cavity, the stomach, organs, etc… in one shot. After you get all these parts out we wash out the cavity with a high volume, salt water wash down. You can also scrub the cavity with a stiff round boat brush with a 2′ handle to get rid of any coagulated blood. Don’t forget to cut open the stomach to see what the tuna was feeding on before throwing it overboard. You can also remove fins, except one pectoral fin and the tail for easier handling.

Bluefin Tuna Part 3

Part 3. Icing and Storing the Bluefin Tuna. We cram the body cavity with as much crushed ice as we can carefully packing it in. Next we place the carcass in a bed of ice in a 4′ cooler and pack it as tightly as we can with ice around it and fill the cooler. The heat from the fish will quickly melt out the ice around it. So packing the cooler with lots of ice to the brim helps to not have warm air pockets around the fish. We then put the cooler in our below deck fish hold or in our big, on deck ice box to help keep it cold and to keep the sun off of it.

For those of you in smaller boats consider putting it under the T top. Another great alternative is an insulated bag. We recently bought a good tuna bag for Giant Bluefin Tuna. We also used the bag when a scientist on a Bluefin tuna fishing charter on the Karen Lynn was sampling other boat’s catch, to help with a study for the Large Pelagic Research Lab. And the bag was incredible in keeping ice and cooling down multiple fish before we gave them back.

This all may seem a bit obsessive and extreme. But try it once and you will be amazed at the quality of the fish you are grilling that night! After you have done this procedure a few times it is easy and goes very quickly; for our crew it is almost automatic. As I said before, this is just one way to do it and there are always good alternative ways and improvements. Good luck out there tuna fishing! Thanks!

Captain Collin MacKenzie

Karen Lynn Charters