Massive Tuna Fight!

Nice Yellowfin Tuna!

Rob and I love to fish, but usually it is spearfishing. While we were in Panama, I bought Rob a new two speed Shimano Reel for his birthday, since the rods and reels we had were outdated. We also have handline equipment to use when we are sailing and cannot easily stop or back the boat down. I was hoping that this equipment would make Rob more likely to fish with hook and line while we were underway across the Pacific. It only took one fish to pay off that investment!

While we were sailing along at 6-7 knots, I heard the exciting zip of the line going out as Rob yelled "Fish on!" and went to grab the rod and reel. That meant it was my job to get the other line out of the water and try to slow the sailboat down. We immediately knew it was a massive fish but hoped it was not going to be another 200-400 pound marlin that just straightened our hooks or broke the line and took another lure. I got Rob the fighting belt and settled in at the helm for what turned out to be a three and a half hour ride! After about an hour, I furled up the genoa since the fish was trying to swim far away from the boat and I was trying to keep boat speed under three knots. This was an easy thing to do. as Rob continued cranking and waiting.

GPS tracks following the tuna for over 3 and a half hours

Just as we would get him up a little, he would turn and run the other way, and I had to turn the boat to follow him. Our tracks look like our autopilot went wonky! Often the fish made us go back onto a downwind sail at 6 + knots, so I had to somehow get the mainsail down myself to be able to use engines to maneuver. There was no way I wanted to lose this fish. Rob continued the fight as it was starting to get dark and we both wondered how we would get this behemoth onto the boat. I kept repeating "Don't worry, Rob, he's getting tired, too", and then the fish would take off and pull out 100s of yards of line. I told Rob "the fish is fighting for his life".

Rob got the fish to the surface a few times and we were delighted at how big it was, but shocked when it would again make a run straight down. It was on the third and final run I told Rob, "Perhaps a shark is after it". It was after that final run that Rob was able to quickly pull it up onto the back of the boat with no fight at all. It turned out that he had had some assistance from "Mr. Grey".

Mr. Shark took his 5# tax

Rob fileting after dark.

35# of Sushi grade yellowfin Tuna!

Filet and Release!

So the moral of the story is that we were actually helped by the shark that took his fair tax of tuna belly meat, and bled the tuna out underwater for us. Thank you Mother Ocean for providing for us and our friends in the anchorage!

Short, sweet blog this time, I will try and get some photos off the drone and Insta360 camera for the next blog. I am running out of time before Starlink starts charging an arm and a leg for data!