Tuna Tussle
The bite happens in a flash, so try not to blink. It’s easy to lose your focus to a wayward tuna grabbing some hang time, or to a marauding boobie dive-bombing the fray inches from the boat. Keep your eyes on that piece of plastic you flung into the madness. You don’t want to miss the bite.
The ambushes are both impressive and entertaining. The best bites occur when the tuna attacks from below — the explosion as a bullet-shaped fish as big as a 96-quart cooler launches clear out of the water. We were right in the thick of a riled stretch of water that frothed with all sorts of life. I wanted to ask my buddy if he felt as if he were standing in a Sir David Attenborough documentary, but I dared not look away.
It took but a few darts of the lure before a tuna flew in from the right, smashing the bait dead center. The fish took a treble hook to the jaw, and a rush of white water flew at me as the tuna kicked into hyperdrive. Then it disappeared. My instinct was to holler, but the pull took my breath away. Line flew off the spinning reel, and I was pinned against the gunwale.
Those first few seconds are the best. The fleeing baitballs scattering across the water like buckshot in a desperate attempt to outrun the predators. The bombing birds. The frenzied tuna. The rolling porpoises. The rush that migrates through your body like a
