What It Feels Like to Hook a 400-Pound Tuna on a Kayak - Esquire.com (blog)
In 2009, Dave Lamoureux successfully hooked and reeled in a 5-foot-6, 157-pound bluefin tuna all while sitting in a 12-foot Heritage kayak, the kind of thing most of us use to go out for an afternoon paddle. He set a world record with the catch, landing a fish that normally requires a large boat and heavy-duty deep-sea fishing tackle. A couple years later, he snagged a much larger fish and told us about his epic battle. I always fish in the tuna grounds off the backside of Cape Cod, where there are some underwater formations about a mile off the coast. But in reality tuna are freight trains — the toughest fighting fish out there. I was about a mile and a half off the coast when I hooked it. After hooking so many fish — more get away than you land — you can judge how big they are by how hard they are pulling and by the direction that they run. The smaller fish run parallel to shore, which I love. The big boys run immediately out to sea. But here's the reality: you're in a 12-foot kayak and you don't weigh a lot. You need a lot of force to set the hook. When a tuna hits, it stops your forward momentum and starts pulling you backwards and under. Within a second or two, you have to swing around and change the drag to loosen it before the kayak gets pulled under backwards. Source: www.esquire.com
