| AN EPIC BATTLE
We landed a really nice Tuna last Sunday, Nov. 9th, after a 5 hour battle that lasted well into the night.
SteveD and Shadi flew down on Saturday to fish the last weekend in PV aboard the Boomer for the 2008 season. We are leaving for Panama before the end of the week.
We left La Cuz Sunday morning about 7:30am and headed straight for the bank. Fishing reports from Sat. were mediocre at best. As we arrived at the Bank I called JT on the radio to get the "Skinny". He was hooked up to a 265 lber that he would soon land. He also told me that cows were boiling around their boat when they first arrived...Did we miss the bite?!!?
I metered around for a little while and set up for our first drift. John Harbour(LilArcher's Dad) drew first blood with a 45lber on a Cabbie. Perfect chunk bait! Next drift, SteveD catches a 60 on the Balloon. A few drifts later produces a double. A 70 lber on the chunk that beat Shadi into a nap and a 40 lber on the Ballooon. SteveD was really on point with the chunk mid day, getting a bite almost every drift. John caught another decent fish and then we went cold for almost 2 hours.
I metered around for almost 10 minutes and set up for a drift over a different school of fish. SteveD picked up an ATD topless 12 with 80 flouro/80 spec and a 7/0 super mutu. Hoping that the lighter leader would draw another bite, he pitched his chunk of Yellow Fin Tuna over the side. After a long soak and not seeing any more fish on the meter I called down to the guys to "watch their lines". No sooner than I had finished my sentence, SteveD locks up on a nice one. Hookup!!!! Our cold streak had officially ended at 4:45pm.
Shadi had just awaken from his power nap and jumped into the harness. We followed the fish around for almost 30 minutes until we were clear of the high spots. It was now time to go to work. Shadi bumped the drag up to 25lbs and he began to take in some line. After another hour we stopped gaining line and had to bump it up again. This time to 29lbs. We were starting to move the fish again, but I was cursing it for having bitten the small rig. I had no idea where the fish was hooked and was worried that the extra drag was going to break the line. One more hour and the fish was starting to swim around on the surface. We chased him down, got on top of him and bumped up the drag again. 33lbs baby. "Please little flourocarbon leader, do not break"!
At 7:45pm I got to see the fish for the first time as he passed below the underwater lights. "Come on guys, lets get this demon fish", I exclaimed from the tower. "A couple more turns of the handle and we got him". Yeah right! The tuna was still really green and swimming upright along side the boat as I pulled ahead at 7 kts. It pulled off 40 yards of line like nothing just before coming into gaff range!!!!!
Shadi got a chance to start lifting the fish again when the bullet shaped handle on the Accurate 12 sheared off at the connecting bolt. He was done. 4 hours had passed and now he didn't even have a handle.
Steve put his gloves on, grabbed the rod and put it directly to the rail. He could lift the fish if he locked the spool with both hands and then he would take a 1/2 crank with the handle"less" reel. This went on for about 20 minutes. The fish was still 100 feet away so I climbed down the tower to look for a solution to our problem. I replaced the bullet style from the ATD with a ball style from the Boss series. We were back in business.
20 more minutes and the second handle breaks as ball bearings bounce all over the deck. We had all had enough at this point. Steve would not give up though. He held the handle on the reel with his right hand, locked the drag with his left and planed the fish back to the surface.
Bishop and Chuy sunk simultaneous gaffs into the Tuna's head and the cockpit roared with noise. 9:45pm and it was finally over.
Last edited by Adam Cargill; Nov-13-2008 at 12:12 AM.
Reason: spelling and grammar correction
| 
Love it wet, Love it bloody!
Bogii
Linear Mode
