My father, Ray Rabjohn, is 83 years old and has just gotten over a broken neck. In February of this year he and his wife Arline Rabjohn were vacationing on the island of Maui, in Hawaii. He loves to boogie board and had done it every day while they were there with no major problem. Well, the last day, he said to Arline, "Come on Arline, let me see if I can break my neck boogie boarding today." Well, he caught the wrong wave and down he went. He came out with alot of pain and off they went to the local hospital where they discovered he had broken C1 and C2 vertebraes. So, after two weeks there, finally he got to go home to Los Angeles and then his doctor put him in a halo apparatus. Well, finally, after nine months, everything healed and he wanted to come fishing with us here in December. The doctors said it was fine, just do not lift anything over 30 pounds. Oh, yeah, sure thing.
We took him fishing the first day and targeted at first some rock fish with the butterfly jigs that are fabulous. Right away we had very large red snapper and pargo. We got enough to go back with for that day, and everyone was happy. The second day, we did the same thing and again landed red snapper, pargo and grouper. We then put up the balloon with a google eye bait and drifted. Down went the balloon and we had a good sized tuna on. My father strained and fought, and we were worried, but he seemed fine. He landed his tuna of 130 pounds and was beaming with joy! He said that this made his trip. So, the third day out we went with no pressure. He had his tuna, he did not hurt himself and was so happy. We again targeted the rock fish and again got two nice pargo before we went to the drifting with the balloon. We drifted along with about seven other boats doing exactly the same thing as us in the same area. Well, the fish gods were with us this day. BOOM, Down went the balloon and GAME ON, BIG TIME. We knew this was a big tuna. My husband handed the rod to my dad and he began to fight the fish. We tried to help him and he would not let us at all! Two hours and fifteen minutes later we saw color. WOW! What a fish. Easily over 200 pounds! And my 83 year old father pulling on it! We got it along side the boat and gaffed it with the flying gaff and the regular gaff. Then was the problem of pulling it over the rail of the boat. We got it on the swim step in back and I decided to call on the radio to another boat for help. It was just too big for the three of us to pull over, but we decided to give it one last try before calling for help. We all pulled with all of our might. I think we had so much adrenalin flowing, it came over the gunnel and into the boat. What a fish, what a catch. It weighed in at 284 pounds!! So much for not pulling on anything more than thirty pounds. My father will never ever forget this one and neither will we. Thank you fish gods for giving us this wonderful tuna.
