The Yellowfin Tuna (Ahi)

Yellowfin are widely considered to be the most prized of the tunas among sportsman, and they are also the tuna of choice for Sushi and Sashimi. They have a much higher metabolic rate than Bluefin, Blackfin, Longfin, and Bigeye, and most of that is due to the fact that they are Epipelagic, meaning they spend most of their time in warmer tropical waters and generally in the top 300 feet of the water column where photosynthesis can occur. It is this higher metabolic rate that gives the Yellowfin more stamina, strength, and speed than other tunas. What's cool about heading outside of the lagoon, is that the international time line runs right by the entrance of the lagoon. So what that means is that when you go outside of the lagoon into blue water, you catch fish, and then when you get back to the lagoon you say - "this is what I caught tomorrow", because it's 24 hours difference - just like that. Really cool.

We set out in the morning much like we did other mornings, by taking a leisurely ride outside of the lagoon and into the blue water. The ride out to the Tuna grounds is only about a half hour. Once we started to get into the deeper waters just outside of the mouth of the lagoon, a huge pod of Spinner Dolphin appeared and started swimming, leaping, and playing all around the outrigger. It was an incredible sight - just like you see in the movies, with them criss-crossing and porpoising right in the wake of the boat at the bow and at the outrigger itself. So we finally get to waters about 200 feet deep and started trolling to locate fish. What's really remarkable is that 50 -100 lb Yellowfin tuna are swimming just offshore, and I mean at a distance that from our line of trolling, you could jump out and swim to shore. There are only a number of places on earth where you can find Pelagic tunas this close to shore. Most of this is due to the fact that the Atoll is steep on its sides and there is no other notable structure on the ocean floor for nearly 1400 miles. We were on the south side of the Atoll, where it slopes a little more gently than the north side, where it plummets thousands of feet right offshore. The tuna fishery here is incredible. Each day that we decided to go out for tuna, it wasn't even a question as to whether or not we would get into fish, and it was more a question of "what else will show up?". These very same waters we were trolling over held many species of fish, including large oceanic barracuda, Wahoo, and billfish (several types of Marlin and Pacific Sailfish). It's like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get.

While the tuna fishery here is mostly a trolling game, we did get our shot at huge schools of Yellowfin mauling bait balls on the surface. It's very difficult to do this in such a small vessel, with very fast moving fish, and the ocean swells. Now as for what it's like to catch these Yellowfin; I think Ken said it best when after a long fight with one of these he leans back onto the gunwale at the stern and says - "I don't ever wanna do that again". These fish have some kind of endurance to pump away at you for what seems an eternity. Getting them up from the depths is half the battle - when they sound, they head deep for cover. Then when you finally get them to where they're visible - about 20- 25 feet under the boat, then they start a continuous pattern of pumping their tail around in circles. Around and around and around and around. This is the toughest part and where the lower part of your back takes such a beating that it feels like a cold steel blade running between your vertebrae. Ken found it better to lean back against the gunwale as much as he could to take the weight off of his back. Most of the time, I was out on catwalk of the outrigger. I had to do that to make sure the lines kept clear, as double-headers came often. The problem with standing on the outrigger, is you have nothing but a small railing on one corner that is not suitable to lean your body weight against, and it's open in the front, so you're basically doing stand-up with these things. At some point fighting one of these beasts, I broke my Albright travel surf rod. First, let me say that it was all operator error and not the rod. My back was in so much pain on one of these puppies at the point where it was just doing its thumping thing in circles under the boat that I decided to just give it one last haul and get it over with by getting it high enough so Michael could reach it. We heard this explosion and the first section of the rod shattered. The classic "high stick", and something that I of all people preach against. Anyway, I landed that fish and one of the funny things the rest of the week was that I landed many more big Yellowfin on this rod. The guide (and even Russ) laughed at me every time I hooked up with one. I laughed back one time and said - "all I need is this reel, and I'll get him up". That wasn't far from the truth - the Fin-Nor Offshore reel had 580 yards of #80 super braid, an #80 fluorocarbon shock tippet, and a stack of dollar sized drag discs that can put a solid #65 of drag on the fish.


As mentioned previously, you never know what you're going to get out there. Ken wound up with the wild card fish - a Skipjack Tuna aka "skippie".




[Ken] I had the best time trolling. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did. As Angelo mentioned, we knew we were going to hook up so it was never boring. I used a Quantum Boca 70 and it did great. I had a blast hooking into 60 lb tuna and watching line rip off the reel. For my next Christmas trip, I would, however, move up a reel size to handle BIG GT. I don't think the 70 holds enough line even if it is braid.

The following video is Ken landing one of the Yellowfin.



I'm not a big fan of keeping fish (most people know I'm a catch-and-release guy), but we didn't have much of a choice here. Life is hard for a lot of the villagers and they keep the Tuna that the clients catch and distribute it among the villagers when got back each day. We had plenty to eat as well.