On their third day we raised what I think was probably the biggest fish we saw the all season.
We had started the day live baiting but after being sharked for the fourth time we decided to switch to lures. Just before 10 we raised a nice one on the Apollo Evil but did not get a take. There were two massive schools of small YFT and skipjack mixed together. I was keeping away from them as we would hook Yellowfin anytime we got a bit closer, but still kept myself in the area tacking back and forth between the two. The sea was flat calm and the tide had just started to push, the water was an absolutely beautiful electric deep blue color. I was doing a tack from deep to shallow when she appeared behind one of the long lures.
She appeared just after 11am.... twice as if in slow motion and dissapeared! I had goose bumps and the hair on my arms were straight up. I knew she could very easily be that fish that John and Chrissie (and everyone else) are after. It was very tempting to turn around after she faded for the second time. But somehow my instincts told me she would be back and I maintained my tack. And back she did come, this time with a much better attitude and we all saw her enormous mouth inhale the small lure. She was a real beast and it seemed everything happen in slow motion after that – the clip opening, I accelerated and John got in the chair. The only thing that was happening very fast was the line coming out the reel!
But all of a sudden it stopped, the fish simply come off...or else she was never hooked and just holding on to the lure – has we were retrieving the lure back she once again come up behind the lure close to the boat, but this time she faded never to appear again!
Ohhh well, nice to see one that size anyway!
Life´s not so bad when you chasing 1000 pound fish for a living and the view from your Office looks like this........
