LAST UPDATE: 12/14/2004 2:27:03 PM

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. - A fisherman discovered an empty boat cruising off the North Carolina coast with its harpoon line in the water. When he reeled in the line, he found a live bluefin tuna speared on the end - and the captain's entangled body.

The captain, Bruce Bartlett of South Plainfield, N.J., apparently harpooned the fish, then got his left leg caught in the 200-foot line, Coast Guard officials said. When the tuna swam away, Bartlett was pulled into the ocean off Morehead City on Tuesday and drowned. Bartlett was a commercial fisherman who traveled up and down the coast, Guard officials said. He was alone in the 35-foot boat, named Flat Calm, fighting a fish that can weigh from 200 to 500 pounds.

"They're not easy to handle by yourself," said Ensign Andy Greenwood of the Coast Guard.

- Raleigh News and Observer


DOH thats a rough way to go!!!

 

200 to 500 pounds?? That sounds like some of the largemouth bass I've been catching out of the pond down the street.

 

Don't worry Hoss, someday you'll hook into a big one

 

Hoss,
I thought those were the ones you used for bait.

 

I live in morehead city, several years ago a group of men were fishing for blue marlin right off the coast. They hooked one(several hundred pounds) spent alot of time reeling it in,got it to the boat and one man reached down wraped the line around his hand to try to get the fish aboard but the fish had alittle more kick left and took the man down to the bottom. I think it took a week or two to find his body washed up on the beach. They always wash up somewhere. Every year we loose at least one good sole to a fish.

CRIS

 

If you find a boat in the water, do you have salvage rights?

That's an OOPS! alright...

 

Begle1

If you ever plan on building a deck on your house just come to coastal N.C. right after a hurricane. You can get enough treated lumber to last you a lifetime, and its all FREE for the picking. Every dock along the coast breaks loose and then its free for the picking. "no kidding"

CRIS

 

Good idea... You can probably get all kinds of stuff after hurricanes. Yugos, jewelery, clothes, tires. That stuff all washes up shore up there?

Are you being sarcastic? If you find a boat abandoned in international waters you still get salvage, don't you? I don't know about coastal, though. Was this just a thing of 200 years past or what? IT'S HARD TO TYPE WITH EMOTION, DARNNIT!!!

 

Is it considered "abandoned" if the owner is still attached?

NOT a good way to go!!

Score is Fish 1, Fisherman 1 and no, that's not a tie in my book.

 

I would think that if your a Sea Cap'tn......that is the *best* way to go..

 

This is why we wear a knife at all times on the ocean. when sprts fishing.

 

Good point on why to have a knife... I usually have fingernail clippers. D'oh!

Then again, I don't think an albacore or bluefin where I live can pull my fat butt into the water.

Ahh, fishing stories come to mind. Like the one time with the huey duey lewey rod and the 90 pound bluefin...

 

A knife isn't going to do you any good when theres 10 feet of steel leader and your hand is in the middle.

NOT A GOOD PLACE TO BE

CRIS

 

Unless you use the knife to part with the hand, but better be quick and not in shark filled waters!