He Called The Shot
Like Babe Ruth pointing toward the outfield when he stepped up to the plate, Mark Oliver of Poway called his shot just before an experience that resulted in the biggest tuna (313 pounds) on the lightest (60-pound) line that Bill Roecker could remember in the past 16 years.
“It was about two pm,” remembered Oliver at the Fisherman’s Landing scales November 14, “and I was on a long soak with my sardine. I told everyone around me I was gonna get bit, that I’d need a backup rig, and about four hours later I was gonna have a big fish on the Royal Star.
“When I did get bit we were down to our last 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave. I pushed the lever on my Accurate 12 into strike position, and the fish left. He damn near spooled me before we could get the backup. The guys thought I was fooling when I called for the backup, maybe because of what I’d said.
“We got the backup connected while the fish was still going. He had all but 50 yards of the original rig, and he took out over 300 yards on the backup. At one time we had about 1,000 yards of line out.
“I had the fish almost close enough to get the first rig back four times. He took a final run of about 10 minutes. We had a second backup ready, and that’s when we figured therer was about 1,000 yards out.
“I started bringing the fish back. When I was about 100 yards from the buoy on my rig, the fish died. I got my reel back, locked it down and pulled steady until we pulled him off the bottom. Half an hour later, I saw color. Then we got four gaffs into him and it was over.”
Mark Oliver’s fish was the first cow from the Baja coast this season. It weighed 313 pounds on the boat’s scales. It was gilled and gutted and stowed in the refrigerated seawater tank. Oliver wanted to tank Greg Tanji and the other deckhands who helped him during the ordeal. He won first place in the jackpot.
Skipper Tim Ekstrom was impressed with the performance of Oliver’s small Accurate ATD 12.
“The water just poured out of it and it still worked great,” noted the captain. The trip was ten days, with 24 anglers aboard including chartermaster Fred Fukanaga.
Mark Oliver said he used a 7/0 Mutu hook with his sardine bait, on Yo-Zuri 60-pound pink fluorocarbon and 60-pound blue Izorline with 80-pound Izorline Spectra on his Accurate ATD 12 reel, with a Calstar 660 H rod.
Report by Bill Roecker of FishingVideos.com
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