The giant bluefin tuna was a prized catch for the four friends.
Courtesy of Adam Irino
This has been a good year for bluefin tuna in some regions of the world where the species has been in decline for years. And that now includes California, where a Bluefin tuna weighing over 200 pounds was recently caught by a group of anglers fishing with live bait just 10 miles off the coast of San Francisco, according to a Newsweek report.
Adam Irino, 30, and three friends headed off the coast of San Francisco on November 17. They first caught live bait and then ran 10 miles further out to start fishing. Shortly thereafter they hooked a heavy fish, something much larger than they had ever seen or caught.
“At that moment we thought it was a tuna, but we weren’t 100 percent sure, and we had no idea how big it was,” Irino told Newsweek.
Finally, after regularly passing the rod to each other because the fish was so strong, they dragged the tuna to the boat 35 minutes after the strike.
“The fish was very strong and almost pulled me in, and it took three of us to lift it into the boat,” says Irino. “I’ve never seen a fish that big in my life. I was struck by the size of such a massive fish. I didn’t expect it to be that big.”
Back at the marina, the fish weighed over 200 pounds and was over five feet long.
“It was just an amazing experience — one that I will definitely never forget,” Irino said in a YouTube video the crew made of the fish fight. “Just the sheer power of this fish, the effort it took to not only find the fish but fight and land it.”
Before catching the tuna, Irino’s largest fish was a 30-pound sturgeon.
“It just blew that fish out of the water,” he said of the sturgeon. “I didn’t catch it personally, it was more of a team thing, but the sheer size difference – 200lbs versus 30lbs – was a crazy jump for me. It’s one of the most epic experiences of my life that I will never forget.”
Irino is a seasoned angler in the Bay Area and says that until recently nobody gave much thought to bluefin fishing.
“There was no bluefin tuna — or at least no one knew there was bluefin tuna in the Bay Area until about five years ago, when they started trickling in,” he says. “Now it seems like they can almost be counted on to be here at some point every year. I’ve seen some old black and white pictures of people bringing bluefin tuna to various ports in the Bay Area. So it seems like they have been here historically.
“It seems like a new thing that bluefin tuna, this warm-water species, is being caught in the dark, colder waters that we have here in the Bay Area.”
Some anglers believe bluefin are moving to this area of California due to an influx of baitfish like anchovies. Other fishermen believe that strict restrictions on bluefin tuna catches around the world have helped the tuna population.
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