Single handed victory

 A few days late on this report, but beter late than never.  Last week I had Mike Fitsula returning to fish with Crimson Tide Charters.  On thier last trip a few weeks prior we just couldnt get the tuna to bite- they seemed to have lock jaw, but Mike got his redemption this time out.   We schedualed this trip on short notice, due to the the winds being forcasted to kick up later in the week. Mike couldnt get his buddies to call out sick for the day, so he manned up and showed up in morning by himself. And to top it off my mate was home with pneumonia, so it was just me and Mike. Talk about being short handed!

   
A quick ride out in calm seas brought us to where we we have been fishing for the last few weeks and we were immediately greeted by whales......birds.......and TUNA!  Tuna busting the surface in every direction.  Mere minutes into the troll the right short rigger snaps, and were tight. Mike helps me clear the remaining 6 lines and gets into the harness.  After a little huffing and puffing, and a few beads of sweat, 56" of sashimi is bleeding out on the deck.  

The tuna were still showing themselves everywhere, so we quickly got the cockpit organized and sent the lines out again.  Not 15 minutes later  another rod goes down and were tight to tuna # 2....and its only 9 am- god I love days like this. We repeat the proccess of clearing lines and Mike settles in to battle his opponent.  We got the fish boatside and pulled him in through the tuna door. Took a qiuck measure and photo, inserted a tag in his back, and swam him for a few minutes before sending him back to rejoin his school.     

Mike looked at me still out of breath, and said  " how about we eat lunch and turn this boat around"?  No problem Mike.... I had had a pretty good workout myself.  We hung out for a little while and watched neighboring boats fight fish for a little while before turning AKULA west end heading to the dock.