Tuna

Well, there are a certain number of you who want to be notified when glimpses of yellow fins are perceived. I am one of you. We keep our tentacles spread, trying to pick up a whiff of tuna, across our sphere of efforts, and even into the neighboring spheres (am I going off tangentially?). A couple of days back we heard of commercial guys taking a nice sized tuna at the south point, and then 2 days ago of the commercial guys out of Sargento picking a couple of tuna up north. Yesterday my clients headed north to scout these reports. One boat took 5 yellow tail in the upper 20's to high 30's. These were caught along the ridge that is the sub marine northern continuation of Cerralvo Island, using the sardines that are very plentiful at the north end of Cerralvo. The other boat up that way took only one, but, they had an excuse. While playing that lone yellow tail they hooked up to something large. The long runs and deep sulking indicated that one of the rumored yellow fin tuna had decided to come out of the closet. This began a 2 hour + fight. The rod was passed around, with increasing circular velocity as the humans began to succumb to the tunas' stamina and strength, but soon there was color. Capt. Enrique was asked to see if he could bring the beast up, and he short stoked the tuna to the surface, where it continued to proscribe its' circles on the surface, just out of gaff range. He stepped to the non pointy end of the panga and urged one of the gringos to step the pointy end and attempt to gaff the fish as it circled closely. He did indeed sink the gaff, in the head of said tuna, at which point the tuna got pissed and headed away, with the gaff and 50 yards of line. They moved the boat around to pick up the floating gaff and began to once again recover line. The now holey tuna once again approached the boat and the point of this whole effort was at hand. There was a last minute exchange of rod and reel, and I'm not sure what the exact chain of events was, as different tellers tell it differently, but suffice it to say that the reel jumped out of gear, instantly back lashing the reel, only nano seconds before Sr. Tuna, sensing a moment of weakness on the part of his opponents, warped outta there and snapped the now snafued line. Well, I've certainly participated in my share of large tuna cluster fucks, but somehow I missed this one, and so am totally qualified to ignorantly comment on this particular event. I do know that the battle with a large tuna is more than a physical one. There is clearly a component of will, and you need to pound on these guys in an effort to break theirs before yours is sweated out. Enrique estimated this particular fish was in the 160 pound range, and like all fish that get away is the source for a good story. From a broader vantage point I did notice that ears of son, Capt. Chris, were quivering as this story was being sold. Dollars to churros that he'll be out there PDQ, looking for a fish with a hole in his head. Take Care Y'all, David Note: I hear some confusion from some folks about yellow tail versus yellow fin, both of which are mentioned in the report above. The yellow tail (Seriola lalandi dorsalis) is a member of the jack family, and so is without teeth. They exist in the Pacific and Indian oceans and we catch them here in the Baja generally in the late winter and early spring. The yellow fin (Thunnus alvbacares)is a member of the tuna family and exists in all of the earths' oceans I think. While both fish are fun to catch and great to eat, they are not the same animal, or even related, other than being fishes.