My husband and I live in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and have a Bertram 28' that we charter. Lately the fishing has picked up so much, it has been wild out there. Yesterday we took a family member out with us to a place called La Corbatena also known here as 'Cow Town' because of the huge tuna that are caught there. We left the dock at 5:30 a.m. and passed by the small panga to buy our bait (google eye) and off we went. By 8:30 a.m. we were fishing for our bigger bait (skip jack tuna) which we need to get the giant tuna. The Corbatena was very active with lots of bait boils all around. We caught three skippies on the first pass. Two went out and the third went into the tuna tube for later. We began to slow troll with our skippies and got hit almost immediately by a big tuna. Our deckhand 'Lora' set the hook and handed over the rod to our cousin, Jorge. Jorge began to reel in, with alot of pull and boom it was gone. It broke the Spectra 135 # line! Unreal! We then put out the other skippie and kept on. Again we were hit, and again we lost it. Ugh! Now, we had to go and get more bait.
As we were getting bait the whole ocean began to go crazy. Birds everywhere, tuna jumping like crazy, it was wild! Got bait, two on, two in the tubes and we are hit big time!! GAME ON!! Lora passed the rod to Jorge and we were fishing! I was driving the boat up on the fly bridge and my husband Coco was in the cockpit. Jorge asked for Coco to take his picture, so Coco grabbed my digital camera and did so, and then left my camera with the lens open on top of the ice chest. Well, you can imagine what happened next. Yes, the boat rocked and down came my camera which is now toast. I was not very happy at that point of the day. It took about 15 minutes max, and Jorge was out. He could not even begin to pull on this monster tuna. So, Coco, my husband went at it. Well, he fought for two hours, and finally we had color. It was a monster! We landed him and it took all of us to pull it into the boat. What a tuna! It weighed in at 287 pounds.
Now, Lora wanted to go back and get more skip jack bait. I said, “NO, we are putting the balloon up with a google eye.” It was my turn now, and I did not want to pull on that big of a monster. So, we got the balloon up and the google eye was out there on the surface bouncing up and down and BOOM! Another tuna boiled on the bait and took it. HERE WE GO AGAIN! I reeled and reeled as fast as I could to take up the slack line. This was not a small tuna. Forty-five minutes later, I landed my 196 pound tuna!! I really did not want to pull on such a big one, but it was fun and I was dead. 
Out with another google eye on the balloon and BOOM, we got hit by two tuna. The first one missed the bait and the second got it. Off we go again, this time it was Jorge's turn, but alas he could only last about five minutes and he passed it over to Lora who had it on the deck in 10 minutes. It was a 90 pounder. What a day! Too bad about my camera, but we did have the normal camera and the photos are to be here tomorrow.
We began the two-hour ride home, and on the way we saw some water bottles floating and came about to see what it was. Well, there was a poor green turtle wrapped up in yellow nylon rope around his neck and flipper floating there with the water bottles all tied together. We backed down on him and picked him up and put him on the gunnel. I think he figured he was a goner at this point. Poor guy. The ropes were embedded in his neck and flipper. When Lora cut loose the one around his neck, he let out a sigh of relief! Then very carefully I kept ahold of him and Lora cut the tighter rope, which was dug into his flipper. Now, free, I really wanted a picture, but I also wanted him back in the water as fast as possible. I think he had to have been there for days. Just waiting to die! I slid him off the side of the boat and he swam away!
Now, the clincher of this day was when we got into port and were filleting out the tunas. Lora opened up the stomach of the bigger tuna and there was our bait and our other bait from when we broke the Spectra line in the morning!! We could tell by the hooks and how we tie our small bait hook to the circle hook. We had hooked the same tuna twice! Unbelievable! What a day in Cow Town!
