28-08-2008, 01:24 AM
I brought my good friend Bryan with me Saturday to chase some tunnies. Well, we left the Canal at 9:30 in thick fog and finally found fish around 11:00, but they were scattered and mostly pushing water. The schools were intially scattered, but started to show more and more. I heard several guys reporting multiple hookups. We moved away from everyone to give them space and found some fish pushing water, I wanted my buddy to at leqast hok up as he has never caught any tunas. I put him up front and eased in as he cast a silver sluggo in front of the fish. The sluggo was about 20' off the bow and a nice tuna blew up on it, I thought sweet, he is hooked up. I looked over but was shagrinned as there was no bend in the rod. I looked at the school adn back at Bryan to the sweet sound of a screaming drag. The battle went on for about an hour and a half before we saw any color. When I did, I was nervous about gaffing the fish. Let me back up, my buddy forgot to set his drag, so it was a touch and go situation which made things a bit more tense. After two hours into the battle the fish was nearing the end and we thought a dart would be best, as I had a harpoon in the boat. Finally got the fish under the boat and a solid shot drilled the dart deep into the fish, after that it was pretty much over. The fish was fought on a Tsunami rod, Penn 9500, and 65 lb PP with a 10' 60 lb fluoro leader attached with the slim beauty. The slim beauty worked nice as it casts better than other knots when you have the knot back in the eyes on longer leaders. Here are some pics...