Due to its incredible love of fishing, I happened to fish in many places on the globe.
By a fluke, I was with two of my comrades on the Mediterranean coast, near
from the border with Gibraltar. The port town with the original name La Linea is located in a very beautiful place on the Mediterranean coast. Among the strait proudly towers a rock with the state of Gibraltar on it. Behind a wide beach with gently-yellow sand stretched the town itself, gradually creeping
on a high hill, which is already a neighboring state. The picture becomes especially gorgeous when the sun quickly rolls right over the horizon, in an indescribable shade of Atlantic water. The first few days were spent studying the local fishing features. What kind of fish was not on the coastal market of the local Aborigines. But most of all I was amazed by tunas, their backs and belly, neatly laid out on the counter, impressed with their size, and I immediately had a desire to hold such fish on the hook. After a short survey of local fishermen and having received the relevant information, I went to the port to look for a fishing Guru for tuna, about which everyone was talking to me.
Professional tuna hunter
It was not difficult for me to be on the dock where there was a thirty-meter professional tuna with an intriguing name «GRANT DEL MAR». On the deck, as it became immediately clear to me, the same «sea wolf» appeared, and as if waiting for all this time of my appearance, he turned in my direction and intercepted my look, asked: «Can I help you than that?». So, the next day, my two friends were on a professional fishing boat, in the company of a professional team of fishermen and crew. On board, apart from us there were three more not professional fishermen, who, as it turned out, arrived specially on this fishing trip from Russia, they booked it a couple of months before and just kindly agreed that, that we will join their group on this day. The boat slowly left the port, and we enjoyed the sea breeze, the noise of the wave overboard and the beautiful scenery that opened our eyes.
Tuna fish — predatory
They trade with the prey of smaller fish, feed on various shellfish. Their diet includes anchovies, capelin, sardines, mackerel. So it became clear. We catch tuna with live fish, that is, live bait. A thick nylon cord, gloves made of motorcycle rubber, so as not to injure hands and live mackerel on the hook. Seemed calm until this moment the team completely changed. The fishermen looked like predators preying on prey. As the captain later explained, professional fishermen call tuna fishing hunting, hunting for tuna. They never say-fishing. The name of the fish comes from the ancient Greek «thyno»
that means «to throw, rush». Tuna fish has a rare property — they are able to maintain a high body temperature, relative to the external environment. Due to this, the tunas can develop an enormous speed (up to 90 km / h), spend less energy on it .. It is not easy to capture such fish. Suddenly a shadow appeared in the water-a tuna-torpedo, and the cord began to go underwater with great speed.
Description for photo
An unforgettable experience
While I was numb for several seconds, the cord stopped. With shaking hands, I tried to haul a tackle. There was a feeling that a multitude of loads was tied to the other end. Literally after a few moments the cord began to move as lightly as possible under the water. I was ready and tried to sweep. Nothing helped. To make the cord even slow down was impossible. It was like pulling a tightly tied rope. Adrenaline went off scale. The end of the cord was already close and the fear of missing it together
with the fish, and also the running officer who came running to the noise and splash, helped me.
I allowed the tuna to pull almost the whole cord, since even with gloves it was difficult to restrain the jerks of the fish raging on the hook and we started to bring tuna to the ship’s side.
We were able to bring the predator closer to the board, the cord again ruthlessly unwound and went deep into the bottom. As it turned out later, the struggle
with fish lasted fifty-five minutes. And now a powerful rope-lasso is thrown on the tail of a huge fish, a couple more deft movements of the team and a tuna with a weight of 280 kg on board.
To say that everyone was happy is not to say anything. We took with us unforgettable impressions, experience, and also hope to return to GRANT DEL MAR at least once.