About My ABU Friend's Fishing
Recently CO Ericson has shared this story abut his wife Vi who was an accomplished fisherwoman herself!
Hi Wayne.
Sorry Wayne, I do not know nothing about changing format on this computer, I barely know how to open and close it. Since I have not much to do and the articles are both very short I type it to you instead. Here we go with the Yellowfin. By the way, please correct any typing and spelling errors and other errors as well.
Next will be the Red Char capture.
Vi's Y
The year was 1976 and my wife Viola (Vi) and
I were on our way from somewhere in Asia to somewhere in USA. We had included
a stay on Kona, Hawaii and also booked a days deep sea fishing. This time with
Jeff Fay.
A few years earlier I had got a Black Marlin
outside Kenya. Not very big. May be some 150 kilos. But a fish Vi meant was for
her. Since Vi was rather small the skipper thought this would be too much for
her to handle so he asked me to take the rod. Vi did not like this and was quite
cross. To avoid further argument over who should take the rod we always agreed
on fishing order. This time the first fish was VI´s.
The morning went without much excitement.
The sea was calm and the noise from the motors a made you sleepy. Soon after
lunchtime this changed. There was a take and Vi took the rod, hooked the fish
and sat down in the fighting chair. All according to good order.
Vi was small but a very capable fisherwoman
but this turned out to be a tough fight even for her. In its first run the fish
took almost all line on the reel, A brand new ABU 30, Vi worked it as best she
could and got it almost up to the boat when it took a lot of line again. And so
it went on for what seemed to be an eternity. Not only the fish tired so did
also Vi and after about an hour I asked her if she wanted me to take over. The
answer was short and concise. "Yes, when I faint!"
This went on for almost
three hours before we had the fish, a Yellowfin Tuna, on board
Time to head back to
the harbour. Jeff called the harbour and told them about our luck so, when we
arrived we were met by quite some crowd, the press and photographers. Vi was
interviewed and photos taken. The Black Marlin was, at least for the time being,
forgotten and both Vi and I were very happy.
The fish weighed 160
and a half pound and was well over the at that time by IGFA registered world
record on 30 lb line. Jeff knew that only a few days earlier another women had
caught a still bigger tuna and was going to claim it so we did not do that.
We both enjoyed the
success very much and now Vi had go for the Black Marlin. Next day
we left Hawaii and were looking forward to next fishing trip.
If you are a person that has significantly had an effect on design/development/testing of ABU equipment over the years please contact me wayne@realsreels.com if you wish your contribution documented for posterity and the immediate interest of the ABU fans worldwide!