Bait Big Problem In Catching Tuna

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29724, 18 January 1962, Page 12

Bait Big Problem In Catching Tuna

"The Press” Special Service

NAPIER, January 17.

The fishing boat Olwyn had no trouble finding tuna off the east coast, said her skipper, Mr D. W. Phillips, in Napier yesterday.

He said the fish were generally bigger than those caught off California. He was confident about the future of the new tuna fishing industry. The 15-ton Olwyn is the first New Zealand boat to seek tttna. She was in Napier on a bait-catching expedition which began last Thursday. Mr Phillips said a good crew could probably fill the Olwyn in a day’s continuous fishing. A boat of about 100 tons would be ideal for the job. “Bait is our problem at present,” he said, "but it will be solved with more boats speeding up the work of finding it. "As to tuna, the whole coast seems to be a fishing ground. There are indications that the fishing will be good the whole year round ” The Olwyn is owned by J Wattie Canneries, Ltd. Mr Phillips is an American who has spent much of his life fishing for tuna off California.

He said catching the live bait was a difficult job. "If we had a dozen boats we would all be able to help each other by radioing ( around the fleet when we got a good catch of bait.” he said. “As it is, with the small amount of experience which has been gathered in catching bait off the coast, much of it at present is guesswork.”

The bait required, which is caught by netting, is fish between four and five inches long. When it is caught it is transferred into a tank on the Olwyn. There it is fed on oatmeal and sometimes fish blood. It can be kept indefinitely in the circulating water in the tanks.

Pole fishing is used for catching tuna. The poles are of stout bamboo to which are attached about six feet of wire with hooks on the end. When the fish strike, the man with the pole gives a jerk and'swings th-e catch out of the water and on to the deck. The hooks have no barbs, so the fish come off when they hit the deck. Tuna up to 601 b each have been caught.