Chasing Tail

[Kevin James]

That's awesome that fish!

Horse of a thing - congratulations to all involved.
It's hard gauging the size without it being held up, but with that girth my estimate would be 55kg's or thereabouts give or take. Hard to pick tuna at times. Any measurements etc mate? Short length, girth ......
Was it IGFA legit and has a claim been made?

There have been much bigger 'fin weighed on non-IGFA rigs.
Late 80's in Hawaii there was a guy who specialised in monster 'fin on fly.

I remember when Trev did get that fish of his in 2006, there was a bit of a hoo-hah about the butt length. From memory they changed the rules shortly thereafter. I'm not sure if I still have an E-mail from IGFA on this subject somewhere in the computer.

Damage, where you involved in this mate?

Please pass my congratulations to the woman and more importantly crew.

[jock0]

Awesome fish, but I dont think it's a modified shimano spinning rod?

Trigger on the grip, small first eye, eyes on the wrong side of the blank etc are all a problem for a spinning setup etc It would probably be a modified casting rod or boat rod used with a conventional reel.

Rod aside it very impressive landing a fish that size on 20lb class. What does the rig look like closer to the fly i.e. what prevents leader chaff? I know when guys bait or lure fish for big tuna they often have a funny looking tube (no clue what the technical name for it is) that sits just in front of the bait or the lure to protect the line from chaffing in the corner of the fishes mouth.

[damage]

Its a shimano variable rod (ment to be able to be a spinner and take a penn)
it has a reel seat that clamps down on the rod and you can slide it to where you need it

as far as tippet protection is concerened you may not have anything that protects the class tippet
its a butt of 6ft 100lb mono bimini albright to15in 20 lb class and bimini albright 6 in 120 lb flouro bite tippet to the fly rapala knot

the rules state that anything that gives the angler an advantage is excluded


I was not involved in this at all it was off dave christies boat "obsession "

it was a pending claim and was just short of 50kgs


/d

[jock0]

Its a shimano variable rod (ment to be able to be a spinner and take a penn)
it has a reel seat that clamps down on the rod and you can slide it to where you need it

as far as tippet protection is concerened you may not have anything that protects the class tippet
its a butt of 6ft 100lb mono bimini albright to15in 20 lb class and bimini albright 6 in 120 lb flouro bite tippet to the fly rapala knot

the rules state that anything that gives the angler an advantage is excluded


I was not involved in this at all it was off dave christies boat "obsession "

it was a pending claim and was just short of 50kgs


/d

Cool. I should've asked what protects the bite tippet? Like I posted earlier I've seen guys using a weighted black plastic tube that slides into the tunas mouth to protect the bite tippet from chaffing when using live bait or chunking - I'll ask my deep sea mates what it's called as I know my description is well dodgy

[damage]

igfa is harsh on fly fishermen
no protection allowed at all !!

Most of the conventional guys just use super heavy flouro
tuna can be way picky sometimes

/d