Midcoast fisherman lands a bluefin tuna too big for his boat

Sam Cassida was fishing for striped bass with clients from Utah on Wednesday. What he caught was a 576-pound bluefin tuna.

The average tuna weighs 550 pounds and the record bluefin weighed 1,496, according to American Oceans.

Cassida, who is captain of Waterdog Charters in Belfast, had his tuna gear with him in the charter boat when some fellow striper guides alerted him that there were bluefin in the area.

It happened that tuna fishing was on his clients’ bucket list, so they were happy to fish for stripers for a while and then go check out the bluefins.

Cassida said that although he has caught tuna before, he’s never hooked one in Penobscot Bay.

It took a lot of teamwork, including help from the other striper charter boat captains, and two hours to land one of the big fish. The tuna had to be tied to the side of the boat and towed to the dock, he said.

It was too big to bring into the 22-foot Great Lakes Cruiser his father bought in 1972.

The tuna yielded about 300 pounds of meat for Cassida’s freezer.

The lucky catch had special meaning to Cassida. His father, who died a few years ago, was never able to catch tuna from the boat. Cassida fulfilled his father’s goal.

“It was a bucket list event for my clients. It kind of was for me too,” he said.