Today was an exciting day for us. We went out on just a regular half day charter off Fort Lauderdale. It was a windy day, but I love fishing on days when its breezy. The fish get all turned on and hungry for some reason. Anyway, we went out and set up for kite fishing at one of our favore areas, just outside of Port Everglades inlet. We were fishing in about 130 feet of water and we had live mullet on the long baits and a couple of tasty goggle eyes on th short baits. We’ll we were about an hour into kite fishing with no bites yet, so Capt. Adam starts thinking about trying something different like bottom fishing or trolling. My brother, Rod was the mate that day and when Adam asked him what he though about trying something different, Rod yelled back up, “Let’s give it a few more minutes Cap’.”
We’ll a few minutes was well worth it, because the baits started going crazy. The left long was freaking out, swimming hard to the south, trying to get away from something. The left short was going ballisic and jmping out of the water. Just then, right where the left short used to be, we saw a tiny pop on the surface of the water. The ribbon shot down deep and fast and he clicker was singing. Rod grabbed the rod out of the rocket launcher and locked it up. This fish alreay knew it was hooked. Rod started winding and Capt. Adam put the boat ahead to hook the fish. The line popped free of the pressure release clip on the kite line and came tight right to the rod. The angler grabbed the pole and started fighting the fish. The fish felt heavy but it wasn’t until the angler said,there isn’t much line left on the reel to Rod. Rod bent over the anglers shoulder and looked at the spool. He turned ghost white an yelled to Adam, “Back Down! Back Down!” There was almost no line left on the reel and the fish had yet to even slow down from his run.
The boat went full astern and just before the end of the spool, the fish slowed down and eventually stopped taking line. Still backing down on the fish, we gained back the entire spool, one crank at a time. It was a brutal fight. The fish took several massive runs during the hour long it took the angler to get the fish up to the boat. When the fish came up within gaff shot, he was fairly tired. Its always a crucial time when the fish gets near the boat. The distance between the fish and rod tip is a lot shorter so small movements by the fish create large changes in the angle of the hook. Not to mention the fish can always dart under the boat and cut us off in the props or the bottom of the boat. We always keep the boat ahead when a fish comes up, but there isn’t any boat in the world that can run faster than an angry yellowfin tuna can if he wanted to. Rod stuck the gaff perfectly into the fishes left gill. He was really on his game with this fish.
What a beauty, it was about a 75 pound yellowfin tuna. We rarely ever see or hear about a yellowfin being caught out of Fort Lauderdale so this fish was a real treat. I have personnally never caught a big yellowfin out of Fort Lauderdale. I’ve caught them in the Bahamas many times, but never in Ft Lauderdale. This was definetly my brother’s biggest yellowfin tuna ever caught and I’ll bet Capt. Adam’s biggest as well. What a beautiful fish and congratulations guys on a great catch. The cold weather this week has brought up some very cool and interesting fishing this week so get out there if you can. The fish don’t bite like this very often.
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