Joshua Fulton of the Big Island of Hawaii has done what no one else has. On March 16, 2017, he hauled in a 162-pound ahi (yellowfin) aboard his stock Hobie Mirage Revolution 13, setting an unofficial state record in the process.
“It’s unreal to bring such a big one up. I’m so stoked,” he said. “No assistance of any kind, no amas, no mothershipping, no help period,” he added in an Instagram post.
Fulton had already caught 38- and 58-pound shibi (yellowfin) and a 20-pound mahi mahi earlier in the day. He’d paddled in to stash them in his cooler and headed back out to his favorite fishing spot. It was late in the day, nearly time to head in when his short line was picked up and the line started screaming off.
He hurriedly reeled in his long line, then picked up the short rig and started to carefully feel it out. “It took over half the spool in the first run. I couldn’t slow it down. I took my time; I run a light setup,” he said.
He let the fish run and run – four bull rushes in total – and carefully worked his Penn Squall 60 LD matched with a Penn Mariner Standup rod. It was spooled with just under 400 yards of backing, tipped with an 80-pound fluorocarbon topshot.
An hour in, Fulton finally caught a flash of color. It looked grey. Paired with the angled fight, he instantly concluded he had a shark. He wasn’t disappointed long.
“It came up and breached. I saw it, an ahi. The adrenaline kicked in. I was so excited. I saw the sickles. The sheer size was huge,” Fulton said.
For the next thirty minutes, he and the tuna were in a stalemate. It made wide circles around the Revo, rolled on its side, pulled Fulton backwards. “It was a back breaker for sure. I couldn’t get a good gaff shot so I was biding my time,” Fulton said.
Finally, the moment arrived. When Fulton sunk the gaff and laid into the fish, it thrashed wildly, nearly flipping the ‘yak. Fulton pulled its head out of the water so it couldn’t go back down, and rode it out.
Now he was two miles offshore, alone, it was nearly dark, and there was no way he could lift the beast of a tuna onto his boat. Rightfully worried about sharks – “Anything that would eat it would be twice as large,” he said – he pedaled for all he was worth, the tuna tied alongside and occasionally kicking its tail.
Once on shore he flagged down a passing car for help getting the tuna into his cooler. He weighed it on the certified scale at Honokohau Harbor in Kona the next day: 162 pounds. “A catch of a lifetime,” Fulton said.
In Hawaii, the kayak fishing community generally considers kayaks either “unmodified” or “modified.” Boats outfitted with amas (outriggers) are considered modified. There’s a second informal consideration: assisted versus unassisted. Unless an angler paddles out from shore and back again, with no other help, any record catch is considered assisted.
While a few larger tuna have been caught aboard paddle and pedal craft in the past, Hawaii’s kayak anglers consider all of them assisted. Whatever the category, they are all stupendous catches worthy of celebration. Fulton’s is the only one of the widely known top four to be caught on a kayak without amas, thus the unofficial state record.
Victor Hadar of Israel leads the overall pecking order with a 189.6-pound bluefin tuna caught aboard a Hobie Mirage Adventure Island in January 2017.
Nick Wakida of Hawaii is second with an 187.6-pound ahi caught in July 2016 aboard a Revolution 13 outfitted with an optional Hobie Sidekick ama kit for extra stability. His rod snapped during the fight, leaving him to hand-line it in. Upon landing the fish, he was towed in to shore by lifeguards.
Devin Hallingstad’s July 2011 Big Island ahi weighed 176.5 pounds, and nearly sunk his Revolution 13 outfitted with amas. The catch was unassisted.