Hi I am Thunnus the Tuna, catch me if you can.

Good day boys, my name is Thunnus, I am a yellow fin tuna and I can be recognized by my silver heavy body with blue-black back, white-spotted belly and bright yellow dorsal and anal fins. I sport saw-toothed rows of yellow finlets from those fins to the tail on top and bottom, as well as a broad yellow stripe from eye to tail on my side. I am almost nine feet long and weigh just short 400 pounds.

I love swimming in the warm waters near the equator, I swim as far north as the warm waters between the US and Canada border and as far south as Australia and I often swim as deep as 600 feet,

I often win eating competitions as I am an eating machine and love a buffet of squid, skipjack tuna, smaller yellowfins, mackerel, pilchards and crustaceans.

At 18 months old, I already weighed eight pounds; at age four I weighed 140 pounds. Most of my siblings only weighed between 90-100 pounds. So yeah, I was the daddy.

Although I am mostly caught by commercial fishermen which I personally find insulting, I don’t mind being out witted by an angler. I love pitting my strength, speed and fighting spirit against a 150 pound weakling, testing his determination and endurance. My biggest challenge is to keep away from hooks baited with all my favourite delicacies, I am literally attracted to it like a moth to a flame. Perhaps I shouldn’t give out all my secrets here, but anyway if you want to catch me I would suggest you get some serious tackle as I will challenge your little human body to the nth degree.

Your Gear and Bait
First, let's discuss tackle, you'll have to equip yourself with a 50-pound class, two-speed trolling reel (such as a Shimano TLD 30 II or TLD 50 II LRS), a broomstick-thick rod, and line in the 25-50 pound test range at least. You can expect me to test your gear's mettle, and yours as well. You'll need to use strong leaders, and if you opt to use live or dead bait (I prefer live), you'll need huge No. 9 or No. 10 hooks (about 3 inches long, and wickedly barbed) baited with squid, skipjack, mackerel, balao, or other baitfish. I might also go for artificial lures, some of which are larger than most freshwater fish.

Some daredevils actually fish for yellow fins with fly rods, but that's a story for another day..

If you're serious about catching me, you'll need to head out well off shore, I rarely venture any closer in than about 10 miles. I am easy to find though, simply because I like coming up to check out boats, yachts and so on. Although I am a bit of a loner, I like to eat family style. A whole bunch of us come together in a large school and just gorge ourselves on whatever is available. You’ll often see sea birds hanging about waiting for a morsel, so there is an important tip if you want to find me. Another trick I can tell you about is to look for dolphins, I quite like the company of those little sassy mammals, I like using them as decoy blockers against the nets of commercial fisherman, much like the running backs will use blockers in the NFL. Problem is commercial fishermen have wisened up to this and rarely use nets these days.

Another little trick is to catch me late in the afternoon, I don’t like bright sunshine too much. There are two methods commonly drift fishing or trolling. Drift fishing uses cut bait, some of which is thrown into the water as a "chum line" to attract our attention. This is called "chunking." You can also cast with live bait. Whatever your method, if you decide to go with live baitfish, hook us sideways through the nose, under the dorsal fin, above the anal fin, or through the breastbone. You can also try trolling at slow speeds (5-9 mph) using either live bait or artificial lures, such as strip baits, large spoons, skirted lures, and plugs. Don't worry - we are more than fast enough to keep up with the boat. When you troll, you should let out a quarter of your line behind the boat; a hundred yards or more is excellent.

When we hit, we hit hard, usually hooking ourselves with no help from you, and yanking the line off the reel at a rapid rate. If the line becomes slack, I am most likely swimming toward the boat; reel in the slack rapidly, and make sure the hook is set. Always keep the line tight. I the tuna is as big as I am we’ll give you the fright of your life, we could battle each other for hours until either I snap the line or leader ( my record is 17-0) or you get me onto your boat.

If you catch one of my smaller cousins, you could probably lift them over the side yourself, but someone like me you will a gaff, a stout curved hook on a heavy pole. You might want to hook the gaff into my gills, sometimes it might take more than one gaff.

I have only one request, if you do catch me and are going to eat me, put me on ice immediately. You should bleed me by making six-inch slits on either side and let the blood drain out before icing me. Please just make sure you honour me by having a proper feast.

Regards Thunnus.

biltongbek wrote:
Some daredevils actually fish for yellow fins with fly rods, but that's a story for another day..

I'd like to hear what you say about this Thunnus, otherwise I am left feeling a bit sorry for you with all those hooks and commercial fishermen after you.

Link if you want to see the full article and photo's

http://www.twooceanssportfishing.com/extreme-fly-fishing-yellowtail-tuna

Astonishing - especially that chap who got two in one day of 80kg and 45kg, but I wonder whether I'd get bored with playing a fish for longer than about 45mins. I like a tussle and don't like reeling in kippers, but my chief joy in fishing is hunting and hooking.