The quest for our first Yellow fin Tuna Everyone who loves the sport of fishing hears or reads stories of anglers that had that dream trip. That time when the boat ran well, the weather or spouse didn’t keep you from going fishing, the line didn’t break, the fish didn’t jump off, and your fish really was bigger than you ever dreamed. You wish it were you. You think maybe one day it will happen to me. Well for the crew of Sea Sickness, that day did finally occur on Saturday, June 28, 2003 and this is her story:

 The trip began on Friday afternoon with Tom, his nephew Ben, and Sam traveling from Macon, Ga. to Pensacola, Fl. where we were meeting up with Richard (SnapperSlapper when he’s on the forum). You should see the look on my friend’s faces when I tell them I’m going to meet SnapperSlapper, the guy I met on the internet  Our quarry, the Yellow fin Tuna. To some on our crew it was just another day of fishing. To me it was the continuation of a quest that began over a year ago. I had heard people actually went out of Pensacola, O.B, or Fort Morgan and fought huge beasts that spooled their reels in a matter of seconds, which later took several people to put into the boat once the hour long battles were over. They were called Yellow fin Tuna’s, or YFT’s for short. I made a promise to myself that I was going to be doing that one day myself. I came closer to keeping the promise this year when my best friend Tom and I purchased a new boat. The finest off-shore fishing machine we had ever laid eyes on. It was love at first site. Her name would be “$ea $ickne$$, in honor of that incurable illness fishermen get when all they do is think and dream about saltwater fishing. We went all out: The best Raymarine electronics we could afford from Georges’ Marine Electronics. The best rods, reels, and lures (once again…that we could afford) from Outcast Bait and Tackle. Subscriptions to at least five sport fishing magazines. We were ready to go kick some YFT butt!! 1st trip – Ran out 70 miles in the dark, in the squall from “Perfect Storm”. We stayed 5 minutes, got real nauseated from the 7 foot seas, and spent the next five hours kicking ourselves for not putting curtains on the boat prior to this horrendous trip. Had a long time to think about it as rain drops the size of 16 penny nails pelted me in the face the whole way in. We’ll get ‘um next trip. Score: YFT - 1 and $ea $ickne$$ crew - 0. 2nd trip – Drove 10 hours to Venice, La to the world famous Midnight Lumps. Lots of hungry kings, sharks and bonita. Fought a hammerhead shark posing as a YFT for 2 hours. Boy did that big shark and myself feel real dumb after all that. 1st Black fin Tuna landed, 22 lbs. Tom has something on his line making his reel scream. He gets under the boat and breaks off. Never saw what hit him. Yellow fin had to be coming soon. Heard the 3rd time is the charm. Score: YFT - 2 and $ea $ickne$$ crew - 0. 3rd trip – Overnighter to Floaters 70 miles south of Mobile, Al. More black fins, some skipjacks. No YFT. This was obviously going to be harder than I thought. I didn’t think anyone could be sea sick for 22 hours straight in 1 foot seas. Bob proved me wrong. Score: YFT - 3 and $ea $ickne$$ crew - 0. 4th trip – see 3rd trip. Substitute Shane’s name in place of Bob. Didn’t know throw up came up in so many different colors: Gator-ade blue, Tea brown and water … what color is water?? My god had all this just been a big lie. Was there really such a fish as a YFT?? Score: YFT - 4 and $ea $ickne$$ crew - 0. 5th trip – getting real good at sticking black fins. Heard they were much better game to catch than those dumb YFT’s anyway. At least that is what I told Phil on that trip. YFT’s probably don’t even fight that much. Who needs ‘um?? Score: YFT - 5 and $ea $ickne$$ crew - 0. 6th trip – Water out there looks like the catfish pond behind my in-law’s house. Now even the Black fin Tuna’s are gone. When will it all end?? Thinking we can get at least 60% of our boat money back if we sell now. Score: YFT - 6 and $ea $ickne$$ crew - 0. 7th trip – Saturday, June 28, 2003 – Roff’s report shows blue water around Horn Mountain rig. Going there. Forgot my camcorder. Who cares, you need to catch a YFT, in order to actually film one. Fill $ea $ickne$$ with 200 gallons of fuel. “Tom, where is the receipt for the gas?” “Why would I have the receipt, I thought you paid for the gas.” “Oh my God turn around! We didn’t pay for the gas” “Boy that cop sure did catch up to us real fast, couldn’t have been 60 seconds. Took ‘um 30 minutes to respond to my car crash a few years ago.” “Can see the posting on the forum now – Crew of $ea $ickne$$ busted stealing gas for their boat, SnapperSlapper posts bond”. Luckily the cop and the store owner believed us and allowed us to pay for the gas. 7 am – realize we left too late, still over an hour to go to Horn Mountain. “Why not go to the Ram Powell.” “Not again, we’ve been there done that. That place ain’t got no fish on it.” “Roff report shows it has blue water on it.” “Well we’re probably not going to catch a stinking thing anyway. Might as well not catch fish here as anyplace else.” Weather was going to be a factor. Radar showed large rain cells all around us, some with high intensities. Won’t be hear long if things get too rough. 1st pass around rig – FISH ON! “Wow I didn’t know you could catch a hard tail trolling.” “It probably tastes better than that stupid ‘ol YFT.” 2nd Pass – FISH ON! “What are the chances of catching 2 hard tails, while trolling, in a row? Probably a record of some kind.” “That’s it! I’m never coming back. I hear the speckled trout are biting in Steinhatchee.” “What are all those Yellow fish jumping out of the water for?” “Where??” “Right over there, at that rip, see.” “Oh my God!!! Turn this boat around, get that stinking hard tail off our boat and get the spread out.” FISH ON! Young Ben wrestles with the beast for several minutes and gets him right beside the boat. He’s got to be a 70 – 80 lb fish. Gaff ready, wire man ready. “We’ve got leader. There he is. Oh man! He’s huge! Our 1st YFT. Oh no!!” He got off”. What a disappointment. We have YFT busting out of the water all around the boat. Teasing us as if to say, “That must be $ea $ickne$$ and her crew, we have nothing to worry about”. “That’s it, it’s all out war. Get ‘em back out! No one makes fun of my boat or my crew.” Ben would later get a chance to redeem himself and landed a sturdy 20 lb’er. FISH ON! A gentleman always lets his guests go first. Thankfully there wasn’t a gentleman anywhere in site. “Give me that rod SnapperSlapper! He’s by the boat. Don’t lose ‘em or I may die right here.” SnapperSlapper leads him with his left hand and gaffs him with his right. Didn’t know his shoulder could bend back that far. YFT in the boat. My 1st!!! A 44 lb beauty. My dream of catching a Yellow Fin Tuna HAD finally come true. Was it worth all the money, time, pain, humiliation? All for 1 fish. Let me think about it …. Heck yea!!! That’s the most fun I’ve ever had with my clothes on. Tom’s next. FISH ON! That fighting harness he bought the night before sure came in handy. Tom was fighting a bruiser. He looks like he is in labor. Face all contorted, moaning every time he gains on the fish. After a long, hard fought battle, Tom was victorious. 58 lb YFT. That’s the biggest fish most of us had ever seen. His quest for the YFT was now complete. The owners of $ea $ickne$$ were now bonafide YFT anglers. The guys at Outcast Bait & Tackle would no longer look at us so pitifully each time we came in there to buy more ballyhoo. That had to be the biggest fish in the Gulf of Mexico that day. Didn’t know Tom could smile so big. This was a good day. SnapperSlapper, the veteran was batting cleanup. FISH ON! “That line is screaming off the reel too fast! Turn the drag to strike mode.” “The drag is all the way up.” “Oh my God! Could the navy be conducting submarine surveillance in this area??” 20 minutes pass, “Hey Snapper hurry up, some of us would like to fish too.” 40 minutes pass, “ Snapper, its raining cats and dogs, put some backbone in it.” 60 minutes pass, “Snapper, this is not a dance, get on with it.” 1 hour and 10 minutes pass, “Hey Snapper, it’s called Pump and Reel, not stand there and cry.” “I can see it, I’ve got leader, there he is. That it ain’t no fish, that’s a killer whale! We need a harpoon!” Luckily we had a second gaff on the boat. SnapperSlapper was whooped. We later found out his trophy would go 135lbs. An all time best. The veteran scores! You think he can dish out advice on the web forum now, they’ll have to buy another server just for his “YFT - Quick Tips”. Later that day. FISH ON! I get the reel, the center-line, old faithful, been getting nailed all day long. “Lines going out awful fast.” Drag sounds like a weed eater on full throttle. “Hey guys did you know the braid under the 300 yards of mono is yellow. I’ve never actually seen it before.” Better back down on this fish! Didn’t know lower back could burn this bad. Guess I shouldn’t have made so much fun of SnapperSlapper. 30 minutes pass – That’s it, back is nearly broke, arms feel like they may fall off my shoulder’s, guys are questioning my manhood. I can’t do this much longer. “That’s it Mr. YFT, you’re going to break my line or get in this boat!” Locked the drag down. Just switched to 80lb mono with 130lb Power Pro 2 weeks ago. Shimano TLD 50 was doing all it could do. 40 minutes pass - Thank God, I can see the swivel, there he is!! Looks like a Volkswagen with fins. Two gaffs and one heave ho and he was in the boat. My goodness he was huge. Just a little tip, YFT’s don’t really like being hooked in the mouth and being dragged into boats with strangers. He ran me out of the back of the boat and onto the transom. I’m still walking with a limp.

The fish tipped the scales at over 152lbs at Fort Morgan Marina, on certified scales. Never dreamed we’d catch such a big YFT. Overall we landed over 10 YFT’s and 1 skipjack. The total catch for 6 tuna’s at the dock weighed 426 lbs. It was the best day of fishing I’ve ever had. If I never catch another YFT, it doesn’t matter. Because one day in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, everything went right. Three of us on the boat, caught our 1st YFT’s. The 4th guy, a veteran out did his best YFT by over 60 lbs. It was truly our day. Score: YFT - 6 and $ea $ickne$$ crew - 1. The story you have just read was true. The names were not changed to protect the innocent. Any similarities between this story and others are purely coincidental. Please don’t try this at home (you’ll have a better chance of it happening to you on the water). God Bless, Sam Martinez