For the recreational angler this fishing is essentially restricted to catch and release.

Recreationals are currently only allowed to bag school bluefins less than 73 inches long, three fish of certain sizes. Most bluefins off North Carolina are 80-inch giants at this time of year.

Recreational anglers come for the experience.

“It’s unbelievably exciting when you get the bite,” Trey said. The giants often explode on the baits on the surface, and no better chance exists to practice the art of fighting big game.

Landing these fish is a matter of the proper technique, the right tackle and a captain who can properly maneuver the boat, Trey said.

Over Under fishes 80- or 130-class rods and reels, and charters use the fight chair. With the proper gear, technique and crew, the fish should be able to be reeled in and released within a half-hour to 1 ½ hours.

Giants can be fought with stand-up tackle, but only the experienced should take on the danger.

A spread of five horse ballyhoos are trolled, three toward the surface, and two on planers as deep as they’ll go. Most of the baits are skirted with Islanders or such.

The fishing is hit or miss, and the bluefins constantly relocate. They’re either there or they’re not, and they might turn up one day, disappear the next, then show up another two, and so on.

The tuna hold on the grounds 3 to 20 miles offshore, relatively shallow water. The crew is looking mainly for bait that attracts them, and the forage is drawn in by water in the 50s, sometimes a temperature break, structure and other typical factors.

Waters from Cape Hatteras to Cape Fear are home to the bluefins during this time, and Morehead City is located roughly in the center.

The giants normally bite best at daybreak, and one might be hooked, or even two, and then the fish has to be fought to the boat. That often occurs during the fishing's entire peak time, so anglers can expect to battle one bluefin, or maybe two, if they’re lucky, in a morning, if the bite is “on.”

Charters--up to six people but ideally between two and four, because six anglers are unllikely to catch a giant
apiece on one trip--will
usually fish the rest of the day. They’re already on the water, and sometimes a bluefin will
be hooked during mid day.
But charters also stay on the water because they’re waiting for the end of the day, the second-best time for the bite.

Multiple bites do happen fairly often, and maybe half the time two fish attack at once, and lots of fish will also be missed.

North Carolina’s coastal weather is volatile, and 70-degree air temps might roll in during some days, and 30 degrees might arrive another, and winds and storms can keep blowing through. Booking a trip for several days is a good idea to help prevent being completely weathered out.

Where these tuna come from and disappear to the rest of the year is a question for the scientists, who are still trying to figure it out. Two different spawning stocks of Northern Atlantic bluefins are believed to exist, one from the Mediterranean Sea, and one from the Gulf of Mexico and the Straits of Florida.

Scientists have tagged giants with tracking devices and watched the tracks span the entire distance from America to the Mediterranean or from the Gulf to Nova Scotia. Charts that plot an individual fish’s ocean-wide travels are a little stunning.

The lives of these giants, tuna that can age up to 30 years, is mostly a mystery.

Maybe that’s part of the fascination.

But for anglers it’s something more along the lines of knowing that a 1,500-pounder is the world record on a rod and reel.

Nothing subtle about that.