The bluefin tuna season officially closed last weekend although, in truth, it fizzled out some time ago with poor weather greatly limiting the opportunities for the skippers of the CHART tuna fleet while there were still plenty of fish around our coasts.
Adrian Molloy of tuna.ie managed to land two good fish on the final day (215cm and 225cm) to bring his season total to 143 fish – not his best season but not bad either considering the limited opportunities for the last weeks of the season.
Daryl Ewing of Ewing’s Sea Angling and Boat Charters was proud to maintain a 100% success rate for his tuna outings in 2022, but frustrated at missing out on more fish in the late season. Daryl reckons he could really see the tuna numbers dramatically increasing with the amount of feed available for them towards the end of October, but the chances to go after them became fewer and fewer. For now it’s back to the kitchen table for some of the behind the scenes work that keeps a successful tuna boat ticking over!
Irish Deep Sea Charters had planned most of their tuna trips for October and November so their 2022 season wrapped with a pretty wet, windy and disappointing end. On a brighter note they had a great fishing season overall with some really bumper days and those days they targeted specific fish worked out well. Mackerel were pretty much entirely absent but the reefs were teeming with other fish for the most part.
Skippers are taking bookings already for 2023 such was the demand in 2022 so book your place early!
