This giant 1,116-pound bluefin tuna just made fishing history in New Hampshire, outweighing the current state record by more than 100 pounds. But it won't gain record status because of a technicality.
Angler Brandon McGirl landed the enormous bluefin tuna during an overnight fishing charter with Captain Jamie Savage of Savage Charters.
“We motored out and put lines in right at midnight (Sunday, October 3),” Savage tells Field & Stream. “We fished all day with no bites. I probably rigged 50 different tuna baits just trying to find out what they wanted.”
Then, at 7 p.m. after a full day of fishing, one of their reels started running. “He ran fast and peeled off about 800 yards of line,” Savage recalls. “We could tell he was a big fish.”
Savage followed the fish for a half mile and anchored out. McGirl fought it for 10 minutes before bringing it boatside.
The bluefin was too big for Savage’s tuna door, so they towed it through the water all the way back to Rye Harbor to have it weighed.
At 1,116 pounds, it outweighed the current bluefin state record by 154 pounds. But Savage would find out later that the fish still didn’t qualify for the top spot.
“We were less than 10 miles off the New Hampshire coast,” he says. “But because we were a couple miles beyond the state water line, it won’t make the books.”
Official record or not, the bluefin sets a new benchmark for off-shore angling in New Hampshire. Congratulations to Captain Jamie Savage and Brandon McGirl on an oustanding catch.
Full Story By Travis Hall for Field & Stream.
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