Right when you thought you have seen it all some thing happens out there at sea that has you in shock. We had trolled all day with no bites and I saw the chance to flip some live baits to some tuna under a floater. After a few passes Mat got bit. We struck the fish and we were onto something good sized. Mat thought it was a shark so we hoped the leader would hold up so our friend Wade Renfro could see his catch.As the fish neared I looked over the side and saw that it was a big tuna! I saw the outline of a tuna and saw the sign of it size, the long yellow fin sticking down in the middle of it body. Mature Ahi have longer yellowfins than the juvenile Ahi. I stopped the boat to circle the fish on the leader. Mat moved forward and circled the tuna up. As it came out from under the boat I couldn’t believe what I saw. The long yellow fin that I saw was a 3 and a half foot long gold gaff sticking out of the side of the tuna. The tuna was probably barely 40 pounds but all I saw was the shaped of the tuna and the long fin making me think we had a big one on. I gaffed the tuna with our gaff and our hook and bait came out of the tuna’s mouth. He almost got away again. Seeing that, Mat grabbed the gold gaff by the handle and we flew the tuna into the boat. The tuna had a small hook in the roof of it’s mouth. The crimp or knot the previous anglers used broke and the tuna escaped with their gaff in it side. In one of these shots you can see that the tuna healed the wound around the gaff. This tuna could have gotten rid of the gaff if it could have swam backwards. The tuna always have to swim forward to breath keeping the gaff in place. The scar tissue forming around it held it in even better. This is a good example that release is a good thing. The fish we let go do live!
In this case it wasn’t the idea but it proves that even with a gaff as a tag the fish can survive!
