The excitement continues with the bluefin tuna off the Crystal Coast. We had the experience of a lifetime – a quadruple hookup. Here is the story as told by my mate Rick Evans (in his own words):
We left the dock a little late, one of the charter guys showed up late. Little chop, about 4-6 ft when we reached the fishing grounds. I put the planer lines down and the riggers last, less chance of tangles. I check the lines a little later and the left rigger got the right planer. We decided to put out one of the guys 50 Avet with a marauder and that tangles in the right planer. I pulled it out and stuck with 4 lines. No tangles all year and 2 this morning, things ain't looking good so far.
One of the guys comes out of the salon and says his buddy is getting sick. We heard of a couple hook-ups between 9:00 and 10:00. I didn't like the way one of my lures looked when I put it out that morning so I cranked it in and switched it out and dropped it back down. When I turned back to the crowd I heard the pop of the planer, fish on, every one crank in a line and clear the mess. I hear, “I can't - I've got a fish on”, “me too”! Shane we got a triple header, “NO WE DON'T,” SHANE SAYS “WE GOT 4!!! “
I got my planer in and by then the reels were about spooled. BACK HER DOWN SHANE! One man grabbed the 30 ft planer and got it out of the water. We got enough back on the reels and settled down for the battle. Then the fish decided to switch sides of the boat. I was holding off lines so they wouldn't cut each other off. We did the gunnels to gunnels rod transfer a few times, over and under drill and after about an hour I think we had our first fish up, still green as grass but we had to do something to reduce the odds. We got leader on the reel and I grabbed a hand full of leader. He porpoises, dove and side to side, I had my knees locked under the gunnels and wasn't going to let up. I had the gaffs by my side and told one of the guys when I get his head up slide it over his nose and lift, stick him in the nose. I’ve got both hands full of leader and can't let go. About that time, you got it this fish gets p-o’d for the beating he has took and dove, got his head under the boat and surged forward and cut the line un the bottom of the boat, @!#$%!
Back to the fight, 3 more to go. Now we got (2) 80's and a 130 out. One of the guys can't crank anymore so the seasick guy takes over on the port 80, he was looking mighty green, I looked at him and said, just keep the line tight and don't use 2 hands, if you hit this lever it will cause a back lash. By the time I got back to the starboard corner I hear, “Rick we got a mess”, I look back to see the 80 looking like a sprung roll of barbed wire. I spent about 10 min trying to get it free when I hear, “I got leader on the ree”l. I grab the leader and start trying to bring up the fish. I've got one wrap on my left hand looking at the spro in front of me when the mainline snaps. I quick put 2 more wraps on with my left and got my knees back under the gunnels. This fish was coming in or pulling off. After about a 5 minute battle and a half a skein of 220 leader he met the steel at the back of the boat and was tied off.
Two fish left, we still had the one on the birds nest line just following. I decided to splice the line on to one of the 130's, we dumped a bunch of line off the 130, got my gear ready. I put about 5 wraps on my left hand and made the splice to the 130. We moved the 130 to the port gunnels and were back in action. The fish swimming of starboard was a hog, 110" plus, we had leader on it about 8 times. All the sudden I hear !@#! the rod broke. The 130 Penn rod broke off just above the reel. About that time, he decides to swim over the starboard fish and the lines are touching. I grabbed the broke rod and held it up enough to keep it off the other line. I hear “We've got leader on again” so I go back to try to leader the beast, not happening. Back to the other rod, I strip off a bunch of line from the 130 we landed the first fish on and do the splice thing again. I didn't strip enough off so the line wedged again. One more time with the stripping and splicing. A couple more drills with the beast, but still not ready to come to the steel. Then I hear “We can't get anymore line on this one” and the fish was still 130 feet behind the boat. Screw it, I'm going to hand line it, someone just keep the line tight as I bring it in the boat so I don't get tangled in it. It was about a 10 minute process to just get to the leader and when I got that I wasn't giving it up. I know now just how much pressure that stuff can take, all I could give! We finally got him up and put a gaff in him, I went to put a dart in him but didn't have the strength left in my hands to hold the harpoon to shove it in him, so I hollered for one of the guys to push and we had him secure. While all this was going on the BEAST managed to pull off. We brought the second fish onboard, high fives all around and had a cigarette. These are the events as I remember them.”
Capt. Shane Brafford 
