About 18 years ago I read about the International Game Fish Association’s recognition of the Royal Slam of Billfish; the capture of all nine billfish species in one’s lifetime while following the IGFA’s angling regulations. I made the completion of that achievement one of the early priorities of my big game angling career and was fortunate enough to successfully complete that goal in 1991. It turned out I was only the fifth angler to complete the billfish slam and apparently the first non-professional or truly recreational angler to do so. Then in the last few years I was made aware that one could apply for repeat recognition upon capturing all those “long-nosed” species a second time and completed my second billfish royal slam 2 years ago. And currently I lack only another swordfish to complete my third billfish royal slam.

Within the last two years the IGFA began recognizing a royal slam of tuna which included catching all of the recognized tuna species while following the IGFA rules. At that time the eight tuna species recognized by the association included the yellowfin, bigeye, blackfin, northern or giant bluefin, southern bluefin, longtail, skipjack, and dogtooth tuna. Naturally I immediately developed an interest in completing that potential goal as well, since I had previously already caught a number of those species. Like most big game anglers I had landed innumerable skipjack tuna all around the world primarily to utilize as live bait for blue or black marlin. The one I remembered most though was an otado or large 35-pound skippie I caught during the filming of a TV show with Mike Sakamota in May of 1991 off the Kona coast on the island of Hawaii and that catch was of course by definition well documented. I also, like so many other saltwater anglers, had previously caught many various sized yellowfin tuna ranging from school-sized to nearly three hundred pounds. The most impressive yellowfins I had been fortunate enough to capture included a 220-pound fish in Venezuela many years ago as well as 250-pounder and 280-pound fish off Ascension Island in the south Atlantic in 2004. After moving from San Diego to the east coast 15 years ago I had the opportunity to catch a number of blackfin tuna in the Virgin Islands, Venezuela, and the Gulf of Mexico although none of any significant size. Still they were blackfin tuna and count toward the royal slam! I also had already captured a large number of sizeable bigeye tuna while fishing for huge Atlantic blue marlin in Madeira during 1996 and 1997 with the largest weighing 316 pounds. I caught five other bigeye tuna there during those years ranging between 220 and 258 pounds in addition to a 212-pounder taken at the Bom Bom Island Resort in Principe-Sao Tome, West Africa in the summer of 2000.

Two Otado and a Wahoo from Kona, Hawaii	280# Yellowfin Tuna from Ascension Island

The final tuna species that I had caught prior to the IGFA’s announcement of the tuna royal slam and by far the most exciting was the giant bluefin tuna. My good friend from Valdosta, Georgia, Ian McTurk and I ventured to Morehead City and Hatteras, North Carolina in January and February of 1997 to participate in the incredible giant bluefin tuna bite they were experiencing there. The water was rough, the wind was blowing over 25 knots, and it was extremely cold but the 1997 northern bluefin bite was red hot! As this represents purely a release fishery we labored mostly from the chair utilizing the original Australian “stump-puller” Jack Erskine 180-pound rods, special 130-wide International reels with beefed up drags done by Cal Sheets, 200-pound spider-wire for line, and 100 to 120 pounds of drag! These extraordinary efforts were all undertaken in attempt to minimize the time taken to catch a fish and hence minimize any potential release mortality. We literally caught one giant bluefin right after another with most fights lasting only 10 to 15 minutes due to the very heavy tackle and the shallow water in which the fish were feeding on loads of local menhaden. It took all of one’s strength just to stay in the chair as the 300 to 600-pound bluefin would pull out 300 yards of line at 35 miles per hour against more than 100-pounds of drag on their first run! I caught 21 of these incredible fish that first morning alone. I obviously had no trouble sleeping that night! Fortunately I had brought along my Ian Miller 80-pound stand-up stick armed with an 80-wide Shimano Tiagra reel rigged with 80-pound tournament line and caught three giant bluefin with this outfit, the largest being estimated at about 450 pounds. These fights were somewhat longer in duration and more in the range of twenty minutes but by virtue of the equipment utilized were IGFA legal and therefore could count toward my tuna royal slam.

316# Bigeye Tuna from Madeira, Portugal	258# Bigeye on 80# Stand-up Gear, Madeira
212-pound Bigeye Tuna from Bom Bom Island	Small Pacific Bluefin Taken Off San Diego

Having already caught these five tuna species before the availability of the IGFA tuna royal slam was announced, at this point I needed just three more species to complete my first tuna royal slam. The fun I found however was just beginning as all three of these remaining species are found only in fairly isolated areas of the world. The first species of this group I sought was the dogtooth tuna as it could be found in much of the south Pacific as well as the Indian Ocean. I called my good friend Jean-Luc Liaut in Raiatea, French Polynesia and he told me they caught dogtooth tuna there most of the year in front of the passes through the reef particularly early in the morning and at dusk. I immediately made flight and hotel reservations and my wife Teresa and I went back to Raiatea seeking at least one dogtooth tuna in July of 2006. As luck would have it the third fish I caught that first morning after playing with a few skipjacks was a small dogtooth taken with a deep-diving lure on a down-rigger. Although this was the only dogtooth tuna I caught during that trip, things seemed to be going my way!

My next target was a longtail tuna. These are small fish that tend to be virtually ubiquitous and present year-round in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. I couldn’t get away to go fishing again until April of 2007, but as soon as it was possible Teresa and I headed to Phuket, Thailand in an attempt to catch at least one longtail tuna. We fished the islands off of the west side of the peninsula for five days and caught a lot of fish but no longtail! The water temperature and for that matter the ambient air temperature were at record hot values and the longtail, yellowfin, and marlin had “skipped town.” There were a few scattered sailfish, giant trevalley, skipjack, and Kawakawa to be caught but none of my targeted species were anywhere to be found.

Dogtooth Tuna from Raiatea, French Polynesia	Nice Longtail Tuna from Phuket, Thailand
Terry With First Southern Bluefin	Another Nice School-Sized Southern Bluefin

After striking out in April, Teresa and I returned to Phuket just three months later in July of 2007, still targeting the surprisingly elusive longtail tuna. On this occasion we found the water temperature to be much more typical and the trip proved to be far more successful as I caught not only one but a number of nice longtail. We actually were eventually quite pleased to be forced to return to Thailand since I had mixed in some lay days on this trip giving us an opportunity to ride elephants, go to the monkey school to play with the monkeys, and visit the cobra farm. Teresa absolutely loved this part of the trip!

Finally just one more species of tuna to capture to complete my slam! The remaining fish was the southern bluefin tuna isolated to the Great Southern Ocean between Australia and Antarctica beginning to the far west and extending over to Tasmania as well as the area between New Zealand and Australia. These fish appear earlier in the year and in larger numbers to the west although usually somewhat smaller in size and then move eastward toward Tasmania, New South Wales, and eventually New Zealand. There are often fewer fish to be found to the east but they do tend to be larger later in the year. Being interested in completing my IGFA tuna royal slam I was more interested in catching any southern bluefin regardless of size so I convinced Ian McTurk to join me in my trek to the very isolated Fowler’s Bay in southwest Australia early in January of 2008. As is fairly typical there we were only able to fish a few days despite chartering the boat for a week due to the heavy southerly winds. We did get into the southern bluefin though and I caught five between 20 and 35 pounds. Ian and several Aussie anglers we met while there and had invited along had similar success. I had finally done it! My IGFA Tuna Royal Slam was complete! I was the third angler to be successful at this quest!

Medium-Sized Northern Bluefin, Hatteras, NC	Small Skipjack Tuna, Phuket, Thailand
Terry With 160# Yellowfin Tuna, Indian Ocean	Small Yellowfin Tuna, Andaman Islands, India

This year the IGFA has recognized a new tuna species, the Pacific bluefin tuna which I suspect they will be adding as a ninth species to complete the tuna royal slam. Fortunately I have already caught several Pacific bluefin on three and five day trips during my 14-year tenure in San Diego and have adequate photographic documentation for confirmation. I now lack just another dogtooth tuna to complete my second tuna royal slam and I am headed to Vanuatu in the south Pacific in September to try to remedy that problem although that attempt now by necessity will be from a wheelchair.

The upcoming Vanuatu excursion was necessitated by my recent unsuccessful attempts to catch a dogtooth in the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean in April of last year before I suffered my strokes and in Raiatea, French Polynesia just last month. I did catch a 160-pound yellowfin while fishing the Andaman’s however and released a small black marlin; so that trip could hardly be considered a failure. And the recent Raiatea trip afforded my daughter Melissa and me the opportunity to scatter my fiery wife Teresa’s ashes there after her sudden and unexpected death this past March. Raiatea was her favorite place in the world! As was true during the many trips we took there during her life I am sure she is once again keeping busy selecting the very best and probably the most expensive black pearls the South Pacific has to offer!

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