Ok it wasn’t A tuna but 8 of them and 2 dolphin (not a dolphin as in Flipper, a dolphin fish as in Mahi Mahi). Being only my second deep see fishing trip (my first involved me dominating a shark), I wasn’t sure what to expect. At 530am we hoped on this 40ft boat called the ‘Nancy B’ and headed 35 miles offshore to the gulf stream w/ dreams of catching our boat limit of Tuna. We passed under the Morgan’s Inlet bridge and hit this area where the ocean water meets the bay water and 10 minutes into this trip I thought I was going to die! Our captain underestimated the size of the first swell and went over it a little bit too fast as the bow of the boat slammed into an oncoming swell. He slowed down and made it through pretty easy. It made me think of that show on Discovery Channel, Deadliest Catch, but as we were conquering 10ft swells they are colliding with 70ft swells. The rest of the hour long ride offshore was pretty uneventful. The ocean was rough early but calmed down shortly after reaching our destination, the Gulf Stream. The water was about 15 degrees warmer then it was near shore and you could feel the difference in the air.

We dropped lines and within about 20 minutes we pulled in two 40lb yellowfin Tuna’s. At this pace I thought we’d have our boat limit (3 tuna’s per person) in a matter of hours, but it slowed down for an hour or so. Cap’n Curtis trolled us around the hot spot when we heard over the radio a boat had 7 on at one time. Most boats put out about 8 lines at a time and this boat had 7 of them hooked with tuna at once. As soon as Ross says “I wonder what its like to have 7 on at a time” we heard the drag on a reel start screamin’. “Fish On!” was yelled by the first mate and I hoped into the chair to fight my second tuna of the day. Just as I sat down, 4 other lines started going nuts and we instantly had 5 Tuna’s on the line with only 5 of us on the boat (excluding the Cap’n). We managed to beat the chaos and get 3 of the 5 tuna in the boat. One didn’t stay on long and the other decided that getting gaffed by the big hook wasn’t a good idea, and bolted as soon as he saw the boat, which ended up breaking the line.

The day went on and we hit a long dry spell of Tuna, but managed to pull in some Mahi Mahi to pass the time. At around 2pm we decided it was time to head in and all of a sudden the Tuna decided to bite again. We pulled in 3 more tuna to bring our total to 8, but the last one just had to be the biggest slut ever. Ross and Joe took the first two lines and then the third line hit. The first mate, Orvis, handed me the rod and chuckled. As I began reeling this beast in, I noticed why Orvis was laughing. This tuna hit on the long line, or as they had dubbed it the WWFB, short for the way way fuckin back there line, and just ran straight down. I knew I was in for about 15 minutes of pain and I was right. The rest of the lines got pulled in, and the rest were standing around watching this tuna work me like a rented mule. I pulled and reeled for what seemed like forever and finally got this beast in the boat. It wasn’t the biggest tuna of the day but he had a lot of heart and didn’t really want to become my dinner.

Although I won and the fish spent the rest of his short life in a cooler and was quickly soaked in Teryaki sauce and on the grill, I woke up this morning and could barely move my left arm. It feels like i spent an hour in the gym with a 30lb dumbbell and didnt 6,000 bicep curls with my left arm.

In the end it was all worth it and as we sat on the porch of the Kick Back enjoying our bounty of about 300lbs of tuna and mahi mahi, we saw one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed, bioluminescence. There is a tiny plankton in the water in some areas and when in a concentrated volume these plankton put on an amazing show. If you disturb this plankton they begin to glow a bright neon blue that is truly amazing. Companies on the Outer Banks offer kayak tours to see this show on the sound side, but Ross who has lived in the Outer Banks for his entire life said he had never seen it in the ocean. So as we sat on the porch, and watched the waves crash, the whitewater would illuminate in a neon blue like nothing I’ve ever seen. The picture really doesn’t do it any justice but you can get the point. We sat there smoking cigars and drinking premium lager and watched the show for over an hour, although I could have stayed there forever watching this show. Now as I sit on the porch with a sore left arm and a belly full of tuna and beer, there is a lighting show offshore and I have determined that the Outer Banks is one of the best places on earth.