Maine Bluefin Tuna & Cod Fishing Report August 6th, 2009

The midcoast Maine "nearshore" Bluefin Tuna fishing has been rather unimpressive lately...most of the Tuna being landed locally have been coming from Platts Bank and other offshore areas...way too far for me to go safely...I've done a few tuna trips this past week with poor tuna results...the groundfishing however has had decent action...lots of cod have been boated lately...On 08/06/09 I had Brooke & Sewall Lee aboard with their sons...despite my lack of confidence in the Tuna Bite...they insisted we try anyway...so off we went...we couldn't locate any surface activity but there were bait balls holding deep. Whales were rolling all around the boat, which was pretty cool...also we had a rare encounter with an enormous Basking Shark. We spotted it's huge Dorsal fin from a distance so we slowly idled to intersect it...and it curiously turned to intersect us...we were directly alongside this massive fish for several minutes as it cruised under the boat several times...we estimated the shark to be at least 25 feet as it was clearly longer than the boat...probably in the 4000 pound range...simply amazing. I wish I was able to get better pics to show its collosal size.

We ended up giving up on the Tuna and dropping Butterfly jigs to the bottom...resulting in instant and many, many hook ups. At least we came home with a few fresh filets!!! Great guys that I hope to see again next season.