Agosto 2009 - Gibraltar - Recuperación fallida atún 400kg

[Izand]

Aquí el relato (en inglés):

The action took place in August in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar, on the Med Sea side. We spotted a small bluefin tuna school at about 100ft depth.
They usually do swimming there from 500ft to 900ft depth, unless they hunt sardins closer to the surface. Sardin school are drifting there all the year.
I jumped from the deck while holding a S.Alexander style tuna gun equiped with 4 high power rubber bands 20mm (3/4"), a 75 ft bungee, 2 R.Allen + 1 T. Botha bodyboard floating system.
I did a couple of dives at about 60ft : strong current (usual there), dirty water++ and poor visibility During the third dive I saw an huge shape swimming suddenly in front of me, then an other under my fins: Luckily for me I was diving among the tuna school!
Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s every time the same amazing feeling while observing these fish : the magnifiscent stout massive body dark steely blue above wich seems to be completely immobile while doing 20 knots and the fish doing as usualy as if you do not exist...
Ií¢â‚¬â„¢v been freediving several times among these monster fish and I can estimate the fish size by 100lb or so:This small school was made of massive fish from 800lb to over 1000lb/ from 9 to 12 ft long!!
Great fish use to swim in the same pack, so that you never encounter a 100lb tuna among these about 25years old fat giants
Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s also well known that bf tuna is the toughest of all fish to fight and to land I can confirm!
An over 1,000lb/ 500kg bf tuna strength has nothing to do with the power of 500lb x 2 fish or 200lbx 5 fish : ití¢â‚¬â„¢s a different creature, a kind of top gun
I have been taking part to several fishing trips and it could take 4 to 6h, or much more to land these fish. Sometimes you have after several hours to give up the fight and cut the line
How long will they stay there? probably ten to fifteen min or less they move all the time.
Suddenly a huge shape came slowly on my left side, then in front of me at about 12ft range: A 500kg "thunnus thynnus".
The girth was huge, the baily fat. The shape occupied my whole visual field as if it would be a small fin back whale. I aimed and shot instictively in the middle of the shape. The fish vanished in a spilt second in taking the bungee. I grabbed it, and got brutally bumped in the back by the floating system. The bungee slided in my left hand in a couple of sec. before I got bumped by the buoies and pulled to the depht. An incredible power explosion you cannot not imagine. If the fish kept on swimming to the depth, I must leave all the stuff and was pretty sure I never saw the fish again. But this tuna was taking off at about 40 miles per hour in swimming to the depth and in taking me and all the stuff!!
I instinctively dropped the weigh belt, the gun hold my mask on! Luckily for me the fish changed its path quickly and swam to the surface. So I was back to the surface half suffocated. I first quick exhale, then took a long breath. I yelled to the boat cpt: í‚« tuna.. gun..! "while observeing the bodyboard wich stayed vertical on the surface.
But the break was pretty short and I took off strait away towed by the fish wich was now swimming at about 40ft depth.
So the tuna towed me (and the buoies) during about 3 hours at a speed of about 4 miles per hour and it never slacked. I tried sometimes to carefully pull the line... but in vain, because of the extreme tension of the bungee. I Tried also to dive along the bungee but the water resistance was too strong. During the towing the tuna swam briefly a couple of times just under the surface The captain told me he saw the caudal fin. An hooked bf tuna has sometimes the same behavior during the fishing fight.
From the boat the cpt yelled me a deadline:the nightand the gas : after 3 h we boated about 12 miles in all the directions!!
I felt exhausted by the "rodeo" and I got back to the boat. My arms/ shoulders were numbed and painfull.
We grabbed the floating system and I played the fish from the deck during one hour while holding the bungee. The boat followed carefully the fish wich seemed to have the same strength and stamina than 3 hours ago.. I could feel sometimes less resistance but as soon as I tried to bring the fish closer to the boat, it accelerated again with an incredible strength and I have been very nearly thrown overboard.
I did a short and last dive at night but the fish power was definitively bountyfull and exceptional. Impossible to get closer to the fish and to shoot again the "coup de grace"
The 12ft long and 1,100lb / 500kg bf tuna got free from the spearhead at night late.
I recovered all the stuff and on the spearhead a little piece of tune meat that I instintively swallowed in one gulp... felt tired and frustrated
We headed on to the coast
Thank,s for your feedback!

[acc]

depende. suelen tirar para abajo. alguno capturado a caña se ha empotrado contra el fondo y ha muerto asi

Mi abuelo me comenta que un atún grande que sacaron también se estampó contra el fondo y no les costó nada sacarlo, sin embargo uno de 70 Kg. les dió el día. Un saludo.

[XFins]

Otra pregunta, sin animo de ofender... nos gusta saber los detalles...

 Como es posible que una mole de ese peso no hunda unas boyas tan peque;as?
 Acaso estaban ya bajo el agua las grandes?
 Que longitud tenia la goma? Se sabia que el atun no descenderia mas de cierta cota?
 Un  amigo mio tuvo LA SUERTE de que le ocurrio eso con un yellowfin tras pegarle con un abellan con carrete y todo, sin boyas.
 Tuvo la suerte de que no bajo mas de lo que daba el carrete, si no, habria perdido el fusil sin remedio...
 Hasta donde les da a los cimarrones por bajar? Si hay 500m de agua, cual es su comprtamiento?

Saludos!

me preguntaba yo lo mismo, muy pocos elementos flotantes. Por naturaleza tiran hacia el abismo y si fuese una zona somera (que lo dudo mucho) se verían las boyas.

hay detalles que no cuadran bien