Fish Stories - Jet Ski Ahi

My name is Louie Gamiao and this is my story.

I have always been interested in fishing my whole life. I started off diving with my friends for tako, papio, uhu and other reef fishes. Then I started accompanying my girlfriend’s brother-in-law, Edgar Nacnac (Ed) on his boat to troll. I became more and more fascinated in fishing.

One morning my family and I were at Sand Island eating breakfast. We parked right in front of the water and watched people ride their jet skis. My son, Christian watched in amazement and said to my girlfriend, Madeline and me, “I want to try and ride a jet ski someday Dad, can you buy one for us?” Two weeks later, I drove to South Seas and bought us a jet ski.

I started hearing about guys using their jet skis for fishing. My co-workers, Jessie and Reed, who are skilled fishermen, kept on giving me advice as to what I should do, what lure to use, and where to go. Reed was generous enough to make me a fishing lure. Now, I had the jet ski, new reels, new poles and a new lure. I still had to do something to make it easier for me to hold my fishing poles on the jet ski. I asked my friend, Lincoln if he could help me weld some pipes together to make a pole holder. Everyday after work I worked on the pole holder, painting and doing whatever it took to make it work and trying everyway to avoid drilling it down into my jet ski. With all my hard work, I was able to do it.

On the night of June 13th, 2009, I stayed up late to prepare for an upcoming day of fishing. I woke up early Sunday morning and headed down to the West side of the island. I remember feeling ashamed when I arrived at the harbor, seeing all the bigger boats there compared to my little jet ski. I set my shame aside and unloaded my jet ski and fishing gear into the water at exactly 7:30 am. I decided to head straight to the barge. When my fishfinder read 100ft, I let out my two lures and started trolling from there. To help me stay on the same speed, I usually stick a scissor in between the throttle. After 20 minutes of trolling, I had double strikes and unfortunately nothing hooked up. I kept on going and a couple minutes later I heard one of my reels screaming! I got very excited and at the same time started to panic. As I turned around to start reeling it in, I had accidentally pulled the kill switch off the jet ski. I then realized that my reel was getting spooled. I remembered what my friend had told me that if that happens, I can always choose to chase the fish. So, I took his advice and was about to chase the fish, but my jet ski wouldn’t start. As excited as I was, I was even more concerned about being stuck in the middle of the ocean than landing the fish. I decided to lock my drag all the way to stop the fish from swimming further even though I knew that by doing so the fish might break the line. Then I remembered the scissors in between the throttle. I immediately pulled it out, turned on my jet ski and started chasing the fish. I noticed the fish diving down and thought to myself that the fish I am fighting may be a Tuna because of the stories I’ve heard. I turned off my jet ski and started reeling in the fish. I was getting very exhausted and knew that it was “A BIG ONE”. At times, I thought of giving up. The back part of my jet ski was even going into the water. I kicked back, took a break and started talking to myself and prayed to God for help. I looked around hoping to find someone nearby to help me, but not a boat in sight. Then, I started to hand line with one hand, reeling in with the other and took a few rests in between. After about 20 minutes of doing that, I finally saw the leader line and was shocked as hell to see a massive Yellow Fin Tuna circling under my jet ski. I was stoked and couldn’t believe my eyes. I took my gaff and pulled the leader, wrapped it in my hand pulling the fish towards me. The fish kept on fighting and its tail hit the main line causing it to snap. Luckily, the leader was wrapped around my hand. I had to act fast! I wrapped the leader around the pole holder and when I had it secured, I pulled the leader line towards me bringing the fish closer so that I could kill it. I stabbed it 5 times in its head. There was so much blood I was getting terrified that sharks might be nearby. I acted quickly, tied the fish to my jet ski and headed back towards the harbor.

I still couldn’t believe what I had just been through. I called my girlfriend to share the good news and she was in doubt. I told her that I caught a yellow fin tuna possibly weighing 100 lbs. She advised me to call her sister, Rona and her husband, Ed to come by and help me when I docked at the harbor. They came immediately and was there waiting for me when I came in. I was feeling very proud with my fish in tow. As I got nearer, I noticed other fishermen I had seen earlier that morning looking at me and talking about the fish. I really liked the attention I was getting. Edgar was cheering me on saying, “Yeah, you the man, Louie! That fish is an ANIMAL!” We both tried to get the fish out of the water and into my truck. But, it was so intense. Luckily, there was a boat that came in behind me and asked if we needed help. It took 5 of us to carry the fish into my truck. “Thank you, Dr. Jon and crew for your help and the blocks of ice.”

The Yellow Fin Tuna weighed 174.7 lbs. – A BIG BOY! My dreams had finally come true!