Capt. Kurt Christensen is a longtime veteran at catching big bluefin tuna from his 45-foot charter boat Molly Jane. But the giant tuna he and his crew of anglers caught on Labor Day morning is the biggest he’s ever seen in U.S. waters.
“We knew a good spot where the bait stacked on a 164-foot ridge top with deep water all around it about 20 miles offshore,” the 62-year-old captain tells Outdoor Life. “The wind was blowing 25 knots that night when we got anchored on the spot and turned our boat lights on.
“That brought up squid and fish feeding on them. Then we started fishing at 12:30.”
They chummed and set out 14-inch live squid baits on 10/0 circle that were rigged to heavy duty 130-pound braided line. They also used special high-end Alutecnos reels that Christensen swears by.
“Right at daylight a big mako shark took one of our squid baits,” he says. “But we lost the shark, which was okay because we didn’t want a mako. We were after big bluefins, trying to win the Boothbay Harbor Tuna Challenge.”
Shortly after losing the mako, a giant of a tuna hit and took off on a blistering run.
“We left the anchor and had to chase the fish as it weaved around and through lobster trap buoys and lines,” Christensen says. “We lost a big tuna to a lobster trap line the previous day. So it was a little dicey chasing that fish with my boat, while my angler and first mate Brandon LeBlanc fought the bluefin.”
In time, the big tuna headed offshore into open water, away from lobster traps and line-cutting buoys. In open water, LeBlanc brawled with the tuna.
“It was a full three-hour fight,” says Christensen. “When we finally got it to the boat Brandon, and my other charter boat mate ‘Big Mike’ Langton got a line around it. We tried bringing it into my boat using a heavy-duty hydraulic lift. But the fish was too big, and the boom was going to break – even though I’ve hauled 800-pounders up and into the Molly Jane that way.”
Realizing they couldn’t get the huge tuna into their boat, they just raised its head out of the water with the lift, then ran slowly back to shore with their catch.
“We knew it was big when we got it to the boat, but we had no idea how big until we got it back to the Carousel Marina for the tourney weigh in,” says Christensen. “On certified scales it weighed 1,036 pounds, with a 115-inch length, and an 86-inch girth.”
The tuna was the largest in the tournament, winning Christensen and his crew $55,000. Christensen has a commercial tuna license, and the fish was iced immediately, and sold at the dock.
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“I kidded Brandon that the easy part of catching a big tuna is fighting the fish with heavy tackle,” Christensen says with a Down East accent chuckle. “Brandon had a sore arm the next day from fighting that fish. But running the boat and chasing a running tuna through a maze of lobster buoy lines – now that’s the real skill in catching a giant bluefin.”
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