That’s a crazy story. The mental clarity to put yourself in free spool and also manage the reel so a backlash didn’t occur while being pulled to the depths by a 350 lb tuna is impressive. That guy missed his calling as a Navy Seal…or a deep cover CIA operative.
And he landed the fish. Insane.
Yeah no kidding! I first met John my first season of deckhanding. Him and his son came out on a bottomfish trip. While fishing Rockfish I ended up free netting a 47" ling that had grabbed onto his Rockfish and rode all the way up. Just as I was about to try to scoop it it let go. I reached with the net as it turned to swim down and got insanely lucky and got it. We became friends right then and there, and have grown to be close over the years.
That first day he told a lot of fishing stories from when he was younger, including the story of him going over. At first I thought he was just kind of a blow hard braggert type, but it was never that. He just loved talking fishing. That night we googled his story and found it was all true, including going on the talk show circuit afterward. Hearing the story from his mouth was something else. He very vividly remembers every detail even after being under water. To have that sort of calm and awareness of the situation in the face of total disaster is impressive to say the least. I'm not so sure I'd be able to calmly think to back the drag down instead of just putting it in free spool. He said he knew if he just free spooled it would backlash and he would be fucked. Crazy.
John has some of the most amazing fishing stories I've ever heard. He recently moved back to North Carolina. One of these years I'm going to make a trip back there and join him on his boat to target bluefin. He frequently sends me pictures to try to motivate me to make the trip lol