The Tuna from Hell

For the last two months the offshore boat has been beached with all of the tropical activity. With Grand Isle, LA. back and open for business it was time to move everything back home. The offshore boat made the trip this past week but knowing that I had some structure damage, everything else stayed in BR until we could get a handle on the damage and get the material to get things rolling again.

As the cleanup came to a close Saturday evening, the Hydra Sport just seemed to be begging to get its freshly waxed hull dirty. Throw in my neighbor who owns a kayak charter business and has no brains and another neighbor who needed to reward some of his help and it was not long before I was scrounging up a few rods and planning a Sunday morning scouting trip.

We got a late start Sunday morning as the Marina workers slept in but once we had bait and ice we were off to see what the canyon would have in store after the storms.

Thirty nine statue miles from the boat slip we found a nice rip that was dirty brown river water on a decent blue green. There was a lot of current push and bait everywhere. There really was no pressure as this was a fun trip to see what was there. As we cruised the rip, looking at the debris we noticed splashes with bait being assaulted on the clean side. A little chum and in short order, big blackfin tuna were coming over the side of the boat.

Danny decided that he was ready to perfect his open water kayak skills so we splashed the kayak that had been strapped to the console and when the next rod went off, Danny jumped in the yak and he was off with rod in hand. The only problem was that this was not one of the 20 pound blackfin, this was the real thing and a man at that. Danny got pulled around for the better part of an hour with the Hydra Sport playing mothership and chasing. Luck was on the side of the fish on this one as the fish was destined to get free. Danny stayed in the water with the 1 foot rollers and it was not long before he was hooked up with a more managable bonita. We had more fresh bait and we had a blast watching Danny get pulled around the Gulf.

Things slowed down after that. We had planned to call it a day about 2PM and get back to the business of cleaning up. We decided to make once last effort on another school of bait and at roughly 1:20PM one of the 50s went off and doubled over. Little did we know that we had the Tuna From Hell on the other end of the line. This fish took off, taking us to the backing on the 50. Off we went on the chase. Joe (a tuna virgin) was on the rod when it got hit and it was not long before you were hearing comments such as ... I love to watch this on TV but I have a new respect for it now.......

Joe went on and on with this fish for a good two hours, giving up backing then getting it back. Finally he decided that he had had enough and his back could not take any more. Danny, who had been giving chase in the Kayak and taking some very good pictures from outside the boat, decided that he wanted to give it a try but knew that this fish was too much for a Yak. He climbed back in the HS and took his turn. About 1 1/2 hours later we finally got a look at this fish in the murky water and he got a look at us. Where he got the strength, I don't know but he decided he liked the bottom better. With well over 20 pounds of drag and Danny pinned to the side of the boat, the fish sounded again. Having given all he could, I was handed the rod. and the fight continued.

Now keep in mind that we hooked this fish at about 1:20PM, we have now gone through a total of 4 anglers and we have watched the sun go down. At exactly 7PM Danny had recovered enough to sink the cold steel of the Aftco into the should of a 150 pound yellowfin.

I have caught bigger fish in my life but I have NEVER encountered a fish that had so much fight and heart as this fish did. Over 5 hours of fight and we had drifted over 12 miles from the spot where we originally hooked the fish.

The fall tuna bite has arrived early in the canyon and this makes for very nice trips. We burned a total of 93 gallons of fuel and I had the throttles burried a significant part of the time.

I was hoping to have the pictures from Danny already but will definately post them as soon as he emails them to me.

Grand Isle is open, we are rougly a 5 hour drive from the La/Tx line and the tuna are close. We may even do more CRAZY Kayak trips in the near future and for the lump season.

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