Blown Up and Busted
Posted by Pete Robbins on Apr 12th 2021
Having traveled to some of the far corners of the world to chase fish, I didn’t think anything could beat the topwater strike of an Amazonian peacock bass.
I was wrong.
Nor did I think that I’d ever encounter a species that pound-for-pound could pull harder than Brazil’s finest.
Once again, I was wrong.
With apologies to the two peacock replicas we have on the wall, and our three epic trips to Brazil, I have seen the topwater mountaintop, and its name is popping for tuna. Until you have seen a big yellowfin inhale your surface lure, then you have no license to make any of the clichéd comparisons – a toilet flushing or a Volkswagen thrown off a 10 story building.
I’ve yet to catch GTs or Golden Dorado, but if they can beat a tuna mano-a-mano or fin-to-fin, then I need to eat my Wheaties before I go to the Seychelles or Argentina, because a big yellowfin can absolutely kick your butt. And yes, I will go back to Brazil – that’s a trip every bass angler should make once, if not six or eight times, but tuna are my new obsession. As with the Amazon and Guatemala and even El Salto, I figured my trip to Panama would be a one-time deal, but now the biggest issue in my life is figuring how to get back ASAP.
