Heart warming TUNA! story ...

[fish assassin]

Well, maybe not heart warming, but it WAS pretty funny ...

We were out on the pond fishing TUNA! on Saturday. Not catching a lot, but a few.
Kinda hard to come by, YaKnowWhatIMean??

So anyway, we happened into a quadruple hookup!! Yeehaw!! Three of the four
fish hit the deck. Into the bleeding bucket they go, without being bled yet
as we were fighting a fairly nasty ocean and trying to get gear back in the water.

So I run forward and turn the wheel back towards where we had just gotten our
last hookup (dutifully marked on the plotter with a brand spanking new "X").

The fish in the garbage can ("bleed bucket") are busily doing the "happy
tail slap". The boy (my 19yo son) is putting out gear. El Capitan is feeling
pretty good. All of a sudden I hear "OH, Shoot", or something to that effect. :grin:

I turned around real quick to see two of our TUNA! swimming across the back deck
for the open door leading to the swim platform!! "NOOOOOOOO!!!" Through a
heroic effort on the boys part he grabs one of the fish by the tail. The fish
does the "happy tail slap" again and it's all said boy can do to hang on to the
fish!!

I watch in total disgust as the other fish swims right off the swim platform and
takes off like a silver bullet!! "Hey" says I "those fish are comming way too
dear to let 'em go like that!" "Yeah, no shoot" says the boy (or something simalar :grin: )

SLAM!! Another fish on almost immediatly!! So I say to the boy "Wow, will you
look at that? That fish that just went off the swim platform bit another hook".

"Yeh, riiiighhhht, Dad".

"Holly Crude, dad" or words in that vein, "this fish must be HUGE. It's
fighting like mad!! Woah! It almost pulled me over-board!"

So the fish comes up to the back of the boat ... but something looks *real*
strange! Hmmm, I've never hooked a *tuna* in the tail before! Salmon, yes.
TUNA!, NO.

As the fish came up on the swim deck it became obvious what had happened ...

In the excitement of trying to land four fish at the same time one of the
blue tuna cords had flipped a half-hitch around the tail of one of the three
fish in the bleed bucket. Sure enough, *THAT* was the fish that had made it
back out of the boat! I think that maybe that fish *really* wanted to be
caught as we got to land it TWICE! [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

-assAssin-

[Miss B Haven]

Mark- it's just as funny in print as when you told me this am. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]
Good thing those Tuna tails make good handles huh? If that was a big Chinook he would just slipped right through that knot. Don't ask me how I know that! :shocked: [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]

PS- I'll bet that Tuna didn't think it was heart warming AT ALL !!!

[ 09-10-2003, 05:28 PM: Message edited by: Miss B Haven ]

I spike and blead before reseting gear. It only takes about 5 seconds per fish.

BUMMER!!!!!I HATE TO LOSE FISH!!!!

[skein]

So now you're gonna go to the Pendleton Roundup as a goat, er...tuna roper! YeeeeHaaaa!!!

Toooo funny. (or something similar to that) [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

Skein

I gave my velcro chaps to a friend that need them

[Miss B Haven]

Speaking of giving up Tuna, this isn't nearly as bad as having the bleed bucket on the swim step and having it tip over with 4 dead and bled Tuna in it. Just happened to have a BIG blue shark at the boat at the time too. We were done fishing and I was about to throw a herring on a steel leader to him when the can tipped and the crew informed me that 2 Tuna "got away". Funny, I lost my enthusiasm for shark fishing and the shark apparently felt the same cause he disappeared in the depths with the 2 Tuna (talk about an easy meal).
They don't float real well ya know. Neither do Salmon but don't ask me how I know that! :whazzup: [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]

[Mello-Yello]

If there is a 'parallel universe', that tuna and I are somehow intertwined....