As told by Julian Allen-Ellis
Julian Allen-Ellis 353 Pound Yellowfin Tuna October 2, 2007
It is day two of our long planned week-long trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Ray Klefstad, Eduardo Godinho and I boated out to Corbetena Rocks in a moderate sea-state in high spirits. Peecha is our excellent panga skipper and Ben Cowley is his first-rate deck hand. This spot is known for big fish and is the location of the current IUSA world record yellowfin tuna, so fortunately, we had prepared by studying the IUSA and IBSRC rules before the trip.
Conditions were improved over day one and visibility was very good at 90 ft plus. Large tuna were jumping on the surface pretty regularly and the whole area seemed very fishy. The high spots are home to tons of natural live bait that fight for food drifting with the current. Hundreds of boobies are diving the bait on the surface, which Peecha says is a very good sign for big tuna.
On day one Ray and Eduardo had taken two shots each. Ray shot and landed two wahoo. Eduardo shot and landed a wahoo then shot and lost a 100 lb class yellowfin tuna with a tear off. I passed two good shots on wahoo while waiting for something special. I spotted a solitary 200+ lbs “cow” tuna, a truly magnificent sight, but it never came in range. We had seen large schools of tuna up to 100 lbs, huge numbers of jack crevalle cruising in the shallower places and gafftopsail pompano on the surface. There were tons of bait fish at various depths and smaller jacks hanging up current of the high spots and the tuna seemed to be just up current from the live bait. This is the prime region to be at hunting depth during each drift. The dense walls of skipjack tuna were a surreal spectacle and held out the exciting possibility of predatory wahoo and marlin close by.
The typical pattern is for Peecha to motor the divers up current, where we get in and drift down over the high spots. I got into my normal routine of two minutes breathing up on the surface followed by up to two minutes diving, aiming to be down at around 40 or 50 ft when we run into the yellowfin tuna ahead of the high spots. We did a few drifts without seeing any game fish. Ray got back into the boat and shouts out, “Guys, were going to get a big tuna within the next three drifts, I can just sense it.” The next drift nothing. The following drift is one I will never forget.
As Ray drifted nearer to the high spot, he spotted a 300 to 500 pound marlin swim by the leading edge of the bait. I dove before the bait, held my depth at 45 feet, passed on several 50 to 200 pound tuna as they swam by, and then waited in hope for a bigger fish behind the main school. There were many fish in this school and it seemed to take an age to pass me on the left. The school had nearly passed from sight over my left should when I saw a dark shape approaching steadily and effortlessly about 15 foot below me. From above the tuna’s skin was jet black in the deep water below and made it difficult to estimate range but the huge distance between the pectoral fins left me in no doubt this was a really big fish. It was either unaware or unconcerned by my presence and maintained its direct path and depth as I made myself as small as possible by crunching up and trying not to look it directly in the eye. As I slowly angled down and extended my gun to shoot I saw the long, arching sickles that are found only on big yellowfin. The gun seemed to extend and fire of its own free will. I had aimed for a gill plate shot and allowed significant lead but had underestimated the size and speed of the fish and was at a greater range that I had judged – perhaps 20ft. The shaft struck the rear third of the fish from above at 45 degrees but it didn’t look like a deep penetrating shot at all despite the forward momentum of the target. We suspected this fish could be a record contender, so I was careful to do everything myself and everything by the rules – which is not difficult as long as you know them beforehand.
I was using my Darryl Wong Ono gun (4 bands, with a 5/16'' shaft 65'' long), Aim-rite slip tip, and 100 ft of Kitto/Klefstad tuna bungie, tuna float, and trailing flag. In the time it took to watch the tuna turn a full 180 and angle my head up to look to avoid entanglement the float had left the surface, stretched the 100ft bungie to its maximum and steamed past me vertically down before disappearing out of sight within a second or two. Both the fish and the float left behind a dramatic trail of cavitation bubbles. The speed and power of the first run was unlike anything I have ever witnessed underwater before. I wondered if I was ever going to see me gear again or if I could handle such a powerful beast.
My bottom time for that dive was 1:45 and max depth 60 ft/ 18m according to the Suunto. Eduardo and Ray are yelling their congratulations from the boat but I remain very, very cautious. It isn't in the boat yet and I am going to do everything I can to make sure I don’t lose this one.
The float surfaced after a nervous 5 or 10 minutes wait on the surface. The trailing flag Ray had made for my trip to Guadalupe made it very easy to spot when it did resurface - even from the water - as it stands a good three feet above the waterline. This is a wonderful piece of equipment and the Kitto/Klefstad divinycell float and bungie floatline was instrumental in capturing this trophy. Ray credits Ron Mullins with developing this entire big-game fighting system for landing big tuna. I also thank Ray for showing me how to rig the shooting line properly so that it will not fail. I crimped this shooting line myself using the techniques he had taught – using two thick-walled cable crimps per connection, not one mono crimp as some use.
I worked the cable-stiff bungie up using the retrieval clip attached to the float a few inches at a time. The fish ran at least 5 more times, some runs lasting up to 10 minutes. I was very nervous about the holding quality of the shot. I tried to swim with the pull of the fish to reduce drag as I held onto the rear of my float and was towed along with each run. Several times I had to let go of the float as I judged the pressure on the slip tip might be too much and had to swim after the float and trailing flag. The runs at first were fairly vertical as the fish dived for the bottom (around 150 ft) but became more horizontal as the fish tired and the bungie was effectively shortened as I clipped it off to the float. Ray’s tuna floats give 60 pounds of floatation, which seemed to be plenty for this fish. I climbed on top of the float several times to ease my retrieval of the bungie.
When I had retrieved all but about 3 feet of my bungie, I dove down the 30ft of 1/16” 49 strand shooting cable to inspect the quality of the shot. I could see the slip tip just under the skin and I knew I needed to get another spear in. I called to the guys on the boat for a second gun. Ray handed me his unloaded five-band tuna gun as he shouts “shoot it right in the brain!” At this point, the fish was visible from the surface, so Eduardo jumped in with his camera to take some video and stills.
I was so exhausted from the fight and worried about getting too close which may cause the tuna to run again that I rushed the shot and missed! Fortunately, the fish was pretty tired by now. I reloaded again, dove and intended to hit the brain, but I just got worried that I might lose this monster fish, so I shot it mid-body near the first shot – I did not want to miss again. Once I had secured the entire second gun’s floatline to the float I felt the fish could only be lost to the sharks now and was motivated to get it boated. I had lost my first yellowfin at Guadalupe Island to a great white shark and did not want to repeat the experience.
At this point, the fish as still about 30 feet down, but he is very tired. It was time to kill it. It had been a long fight. I had lost my dive knife on a Guadalupe Island trip the year previous and had no chance to purchase a new one. Fortunately, Ray had a brought spare dive knife that he lent me for the duration of this trip – one of those that has no plastic handle – just a solid piece of stainless, which turned out to be ideal for this purpose. I dove to the fish and was shocked by the huge size! I just couldn’t get the knife into him on that dive. I dove again, and this time, I delivered the coup de gras with a knife into the tuna's head and then pounded the knife in with my fist to get it deep enough into the tuna's brain to finish him off. I saw one more powerful twitch and that was the end. A stream of blood poured out of his head area.
I pulled the fish up towards my float and clipped it off . I got the required three meter teather from Peecha and tied the tail of the fish off to the boat. I climbed into the boat and was dying of thirst. Gaitoraid has never tasted so good!
Peecha tied another rope through his mouth. It took four strong guys to pull the fish into the panga. My dive buddies were convinced this could be a world record contender and insisted on heading back immediately to weigh the fish. Eduardo had read a fish can lose ten percent of its weight sitting on a boat all day which could mean the difference between a record or no record. My buddies gave up a whole day diving in prime season to get this fish back before it lost too much weight. We had a bumpy ride home, but were eagerly anticipating the weigh-in. It took five strong men to manoeuvre this fish from the panga 100 yards up the beach to where my very understanding wife Rebecca and our son Tom were waiting for us with ice cold beers. Peecha and the crew raise the tuna up on the scale. A massive 353 lbs and the new world record. It was 35 pounds heavier than the previous IUSA world record speared by Dr. Craig Petersen the year before. It turns out that saving the ten percent in weight loss was critical.
It took 1 hour 30 minutes from the time I shot this tuna to the time I finally killed it. The end of my shaft has a 30 degree bend about 8'' back from the tip and will make a nice memento of this magnificent fish. The adapter of the slip tip was also bent and is testament to the power of the fish and its initial run.
Thanks to Ray, Eduardo, Peecha and Ben. This was a team effort and the realisation of a life-long dream.
Julian Allen-Ellis
It is day two of our long planned week-long trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Ray Klefstad, Eduardo Godinho and I boated out to Corbetena Rocks in a moderate sea-state in high spirits. Peecha is our excellent panga skipper and Ben Cowley is his first-rate deck hand. This spot is known for big fish and is the location of the current IUSA world record yellowfin tuna, so fortunately, we had prepared by studying the IUSA and IBSRC rules before the trip.
Conditions were improved over day one and visibility was very good at 90 ft plus. Large tuna were jumping on the surface pretty regularly and the whole area seemed very fishy. The high spots are home to tons of natural live bait that fight for food drifting with the current. Hundreds of boobies are diving the bait on the surface, which Peecha says is a very good sign for big tuna.
On day one Ray and Eduardo had taken two shots each. Ray shot and landed two wahoo. Eduardo shot and landed a wahoo then shot and lost a 100 lb class yellowfin tuna with a tear off. I passed two good shots on wahoo while waiting for something special. I spotted a solitary 200+ lbs “cow” tuna, a truly magnificent sight, but it never came in range. We had seen large schools of tuna up to 100 lbs, huge numbers of jack crevalle cruising in the shallower places and gafftopsail pompano on the surface. There were tons of bait fish at various depths and smaller jacks hanging up current of the high spots and the tuna seemed to be just up current from the live bait. This is the prime region to be at hunting depth during each drift. The dense walls of skipjack tuna were a surreal spectacle and held out the exciting possibility of predatory wahoo and marlin close by.
The typical pattern is for Peecha to motor the divers up current, where we get in and drift down over the high spots. I got into my normal routine of two minutes breathing up on the surface followed by up to two minutes diving, aiming to be down at around 40 or 50 ft when we run into the yellowfin tuna ahead of the high spots. We did a few drifts without seeing any game fish. Ray got back into the boat and shouts out, “Guys, were going to get a big tuna within the next three drifts, I can just sense it.” The next drift nothing. The following drift is one I will never forget.
As Ray drifted nearer to the high spot, he spotted a 300 to 500 pound marlin swim by the leading edge of the bait. I dove before the bait, held my depth at 45 feet, passed on several 50 to 200 pound tuna as they swam by, and then waited in hope for a bigger fish behind the main school. There were many fish in this school and it seemed to take an age to pass me on the left. The school had nearly passed from sight over my left should when I saw a dark shape approaching steadily and effortlessly about 15 foot below me. From above the tuna’s skin was jet black in the deep water below and made it difficult to estimate range but the huge distance between the pectoral fins left me in no doubt this was a really big fish. It was either unaware or unconcerned by my presence and maintained its direct path and depth as I made myself as small as possible by crunching up and trying not to look it directly in the eye. As I slowly angled down and extended my gun to shoot I saw the long, arching sickles that are found only on big yellowfin. The gun seemed to extend and fire of its own free will. I had aimed for a gill plate shot and allowed significant lead but had underestimated the size and speed of the fish and was at a greater range that I had judged – perhaps 20ft. The shaft struck the rear third of the fish from above at 45 degrees but it didn’t look like a deep penetrating shot at all despite the forward momentum of the target. We suspected this fish could be a record contender, so I was careful to do everything myself and everything by the rules – which is not difficult as long as you know them beforehand.
I was using my Darryl Wong Ono gun (4 bands, with a 5/16'' shaft 65'' long), Aim-rite slip tip, and 100 ft of Kitto/Klefstad tuna bungie, tuna float, and trailing flag. In the time it took to watch the tuna turn a full 180 and angle my head up to look to avoid entanglement the float had left the surface, stretched the 100ft bungie to its maximum and steamed past me vertically down before disappearing out of sight within a second or two. Both the fish and the float left behind a dramatic trail of cavitation bubbles. The speed and power of the first run was unlike anything I have ever witnessed underwater before. I wondered if I was ever going to see me gear again or if I could handle such a powerful beast.
My bottom time for that dive was 1:45 and max depth 60 ft/ 18m according to the Suunto. Eduardo and Ray are yelling their congratulations from the boat but I remain very, very cautious. It isn't in the boat yet and I am going to do everything I can to make sure I don’t lose this one.
The float surfaced after a nervous 5 or 10 minutes wait on the surface. The trailing flag Ray had made for my trip to Guadalupe made it very easy to spot when it did resurface - even from the water - as it stands a good three feet above the waterline. This is a wonderful piece of equipment and the Kitto/Klefstad divinycell float and bungie floatline was instrumental in capturing this trophy. Ray credits Ron Mullins with developing this entire big-game fighting system for landing big tuna. I also thank Ray for showing me how to rig the shooting line properly so that it will not fail. I crimped this shooting line myself using the techniques he had taught – using two thick-walled cable crimps per connection, not one mono crimp as some use.
I worked the cable-stiff bungie up using the retrieval clip attached to the float a few inches at a time. The fish ran at least 5 more times, some runs lasting up to 10 minutes. I was very nervous about the holding quality of the shot. I tried to swim with the pull of the fish to reduce drag as I held onto the rear of my float and was towed along with each run. Several times I had to let go of the float as I judged the pressure on the slip tip might be too much and had to swim after the float and trailing flag. The runs at first were fairly vertical as the fish dived for the bottom (around 150 ft) but became more horizontal as the fish tired and the bungie was effectively shortened as I clipped it off to the float. Ray’s tuna floats give 60 pounds of floatation, which seemed to be plenty for this fish. I climbed on top of the float several times to ease my retrieval of the bungie.
When I had retrieved all but about 3 feet of my bungie, I dove down the 30ft of 1/16” 49 strand shooting cable to inspect the quality of the shot. I could see the slip tip just under the skin and I knew I needed to get another spear in. I called to the guys on the boat for a second gun. Ray handed me his unloaded five-band tuna gun as he shouts “shoot it right in the brain!” At this point, the fish was visible from the surface, so Eduardo jumped in with his camera to take some video and stills.
I was so exhausted from the fight and worried about getting too close which may cause the tuna to run again that I rushed the shot and missed! Fortunately, the fish was pretty tired by now. I reloaded again, dove and intended to hit the brain, but I just got worried that I might lose this monster fish, so I shot it mid-body near the first shot – I did not want to miss again. Once I had secured the entire second gun’s floatline to the float I felt the fish could only be lost to the sharks now and was motivated to get it boated. I had lost my first yellowfin at Guadalupe Island to a great white shark and did not want to repeat the experience.
At this point, the fish as still about 30 feet down, but he is very tired. It was time to kill it. It had been a long fight. I had lost my dive knife on a Guadalupe Island trip the year previous and had no chance to purchase a new one. Fortunately, Ray had a brought spare dive knife that he lent me for the duration of this trip – one of those that has no plastic handle – just a solid piece of stainless, which turned out to be ideal for this purpose. I dove to the fish and was shocked by the huge size! I just couldn’t get the knife into him on that dive. I dove again, and this time, I delivered the coup de gras with a knife into the tuna's head and then pounded the knife in with my fist to get it deep enough into the tuna's brain to finish him off. I saw one more powerful twitch and that was the end. A stream of blood poured out of his head area.
I pulled the fish up towards my float and clipped it off . I got the required three meter teather from Peecha and tied the tail of the fish off to the boat. I climbed into the boat and was dying of thirst. Gaitoraid has never tasted so good!
Peecha tied another rope through his mouth. It took four strong guys to pull the fish into the panga. My dive buddies were convinced this could be a world record contender and insisted on heading back immediately to weigh the fish. Eduardo had read a fish can lose ten percent of its weight sitting on a boat all day which could mean the difference between a record or no record. My buddies gave up a whole day diving in prime season to get this fish back before it lost too much weight. We had a bumpy ride home, but were eagerly anticipating the weigh-in. It took five strong men to manoeuvre this fish from the panga 100 yards up the beach to where my very understanding wife Rebecca and our son Tom were waiting for us with ice cold beers. Peecha and the crew raise the tuna up on the scale. A massive 353 lbs and the new world record. It was 35 pounds heavier than the previous IUSA world record speared by Dr. Craig Petersen the year before. It turns out that saving the ten percent in weight loss was critical.
It took 1 hour 30 minutes from the time I shot this tuna to the time I finally killed it. The end of my shaft has a 30 degree bend about 8'' back from the tip and will make a nice memento of this magnificent fish. The adapter of the slip tip was also bent and is testament to the power of the fish and its initial run.
Thanks to Ray, Eduardo, Peecha and Ben. This was a team effort and the realisation of a life-long dream.
Julian Allen-Ellis
Thats amazing, they can who believe they can or is it chance favors the prepared mind!
Till next report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!
Tone
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