Tuna catches were far from uncommon in bygone days
Mackerel weighing over 5lb are extremely rare to the point of only three such being accepted by the British Record Rod-Caught Fish Committee in 50 years.
The first was caught by a junior angler Steven Beasley who took his 5 lb 6½oz fish at the Eddystone reef in 1965. The late Maurice Kemp set the shore record of 5lb 11oz 14dr at Berry Head in 1982 and two years later Bill Chapple established the current boat record of 6lb 2oz 7dr with a fish taken off West Cornwall's Penberth Cove.
I know of two commercially caught fish, the biggest weighing 5 ½lb, taken on a hand line off Mevagissey in the 1970s which resided in my freezer for over ten years, and the other caught off Southern Ireland that was said to weigh 5lb.
The fish probably lighter than the impressive claimed by its captor as its exact weight was not substantiated at the time.
Mackerel have taken such a commercial hammering in recent years that even 2 ½lb fish have become almost non-existent. Tuna have been noted and a few caught in South West waters for well over a century.
During the early 1930s well-to-do members of the British Sea Anglers' Society and the British Tunny Club were dedicated to fishing for tuna in Mounts Bay where large numbers were spotted each year between July and as late as December.
Judged to be in the 100 lb class the fish were almost certainly Bluefins. Despite many methods and baits being tried none were actually caught althought two were hooked; but the tackle being used proved woefully inadequate.
Much detail about the exploits of these Cornish tuna pioneers were recorded in articles contributed to the BSAS quarterly publications.
The sighting of very much larger examples, possibly weighing 500lb or more, were frequent in the 1960s and 70s in the vicinity of Rame Head, and I write from personal experience.
Bluefins of immense weight provided the most exciting rod and line fishing in British waters between the late 1920s and 50s with the exception of the war years.
The last two, both weighing over 600lb, were caught on the morning of August 17 1954 off Scarborough by H.E. Wetherley, who had 32, all of great weight.
During the 1980s Bluefins in the 1,000lb class were a by-catch of purse seining for mackerel off Devon and Cornwall and were landed to markets at Brixham, Plymouth and Newlyn.
British boat records have been established for the long fin tunny, a fish of 4lb 12oz caught in the Salcombe estuary by the late Brian Cater in 1990.
A bonito of 8lb 13oz was taken by John Parnell, then crewman on the Torquay charter boat Girl Alison in Lyme Bay in 1969. A unique catch was t a big-eyed tunny weighing 66lb hooked from the harbour wall at Newlyn in 1985 by junior angler Andrew Pascoe.
It has been anticipated that varieties of tuna would in time become commercially available off the western tip of Cornwall, but this has still to happen. There has been a level of success in the Bay of Biscay, which is no great distance from West Cornish waters.
