For the recreational angler, the fishing is usually catch and release.

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

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 dressed with Ilanders or other skirts.

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 in waters 3 to 20 miles offshore, relatively shallow. The crew is looking mainly for bait that attracts them, and waters in the 50s draw the forage, along a temperature break, structure or 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, maybe two, if they’re lucky, in a morning, if the bite is “on.”

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

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

North Carolina’s coastal weather can be troublesome, 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.