Tuna Fishing

The tuna were running of the coast of southern California and JG gave me the call “It’s on, we’re leaving tomorrow night - you in?” Next thing I know I’m 60 miles off the coast with a huge fish running me around the boat. The fish were biting huge and the day was epic

Chuck & JG

It is all becoming a hazy now as if it couldn’t have been real. Jumping on a boat at 9pm, sleeping with 30 guys in the bunk room overnight and waking up in the middle of no where to the biggest fish I’ve ever caught. I was still quite hazy from 5 hours of sleep in a strange bunk that rocked all night long when reality hit hard in the form of 29 guys all yelling that there was a tuna strike. Mass confusion followed as we all got our rods, pulled out a live sardine out of the bait tanks, put it on our hooks and tossed them overboard. As I was marveling in confusion and huslte the real insanity hit in the form of a 12+ pound tuna on my line. First it hit so hard that the rod almost flew out of my hands, then it decided to go all the way around the back of the boat causing me to go over, under or around just about every other person fishing. To make it even more fun about 5 of them had fish hooked as well and we were all scrambling to get around each other while fighting the fish frantically. It was probably just a few minutes but it felt like it had been forever when I finally landed my first tuna. The school had passed us by at that point and the atmosphere on the deck returned to one of hopeful anticipation that we’d see more tuna soon.

Mike

This cycle of lulls waiting for fish punctuated by 10 minute bursts of activity continued throughout the day. At first the lulls seemed like forever with guys smoking and pacing like guilty men hoping for an innocent verdict. By 11am we’d had enough bursts of frenzied activity to make the lulls almost something to hope for, maybe you’d chance stopping to grab some food and a drink. The mood had lifted with most of the boat having already caught a tuna or two and people talking excitedly about “getting their limit” in hushed tones as if they were worried merely uttering the words might break their streak. By 5pm we’d caught enough fish that people were downright giddy with happiness. Even the most grizzled and bitter guys were smiling like 5 year olds eyeing a piece of birthday cake. Permanent grins were stuck on the sunburned faces as we bought each other beers and laughed about the different stops we’d had through the day.

There were a few special things that really blew my mind:

  • The bait. As we left the harbor we stopped at the bait “store” which was something straight out of Mad Max. It is a large patchwork raft of smaller rafts lashed together. Bare bulbs waving in the night with one guy in rubber boots smoking a cigarette. Each section of the raft has an underwater cage filled with anchovies. The raft is surrounded by pelicans, gulls and sea lions all trying to get some scraps of bait. They open the top fo the raft and scoop up out the small anchovies into our holding tanks. The smell is pretty amazing and the scene is totally amazing. Buying biomass under bare bulbs in the middle of the night.

  • The rugby scrum of fishing that was 29 guys all fishing at the same time trying to get around each other without trying to get tangled. The tense waiting followed by minutes of mass hysteria are pretty amazing. When those fish hit they hit they fight so hard it is amazing and when they pull you sideways down the boat you have no choice but to run down the side dodging everybody else as best you can.

  • Mike and JG catching every fish that came their way. They caught more fish than anybody else and made it look easy.

  • The blueness of the water. The water is a color blue that I’ve never seen.

  • The speed of the fish. The tuna swim under and around the boat so fast that it is hard to believe.

  • The blue whale that we saw. It was amazingly huge