That thing is almost as big as the Jet Ski it came in on. Photo: Hunter Hicks
Some people are just not content to do things the easy way. Over Easter weekend, Hunter Hicks of Outer Banks, North Carolina managed to catch a 212-pound bluefin tuna. However, the feat was made all the more impressive (and quite frankly insane) for the fact that he did it on a Jet Ski.
The ordeal took place Easter Sunday, in the waters off of Hatteras Island. According to local news reports, Hicks was alone and facing rough conditions when the fish got a hold of his lure. What’s more, the life and death struggle that ensued would drag him several miles farther offshore.
“I’m telling you right now, the Jet Ski was getting dragged underwater a couple times,” he said. “It wasn’t going to go bye bye, especially with that size of fish, but you could feel the fish actually pulling the Jet Ski under.”
When all was said and done, it was a two-hour ordeal, during which he faced 30- to 40-mph winds. “Everyone’s calling me on the phone, making sure I’m alright,” Hicks told 10 On Your Side. “A couple of my buddies said to cut the fish and just go home. But in my mind, I’m like, ‘no one is going to believe me.’”
In the end, though, he was glad he stuck with it, as he was rewarded with the catch of a lifetime. “I would say the hardest fish I’ve ever caught in my life, by far, the way I did it,” Hicks told WHSV. “On the Jet Ski, holding the rod solo, no fighting belt. I didn’t have it in a rod holder. It was just me or the beast.”
On the other hand, Hicks didn’t emerge from the encounter completely unscathed. “It literally felt like I fought Mike Tyson, and then I lost,” he added. “Woke up the next morning, my arm was stuck like this the whole day, I couldn’t move it.”
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