There is nothing that gets an angler's blood pumping harder than being in the middle of wide-open surface crashing tuna. Everywhere you look the water is boiling; bait is leaping out of the water, birds are circling and diving into the water as far as the eye can see.

A few weekends ago, my dad and I had an unbelievable opportunity to fish an epic tuna bite on one of the best-equipped fishing boats around. We were fishing an area south of La Paz, Mexico, out of a development called Bay of Dreams. It's an absolutely beautiful place that was named the third best fishing destination in the world by Fly Fishing in Saltwater Magazine this year. We fished hard for three days, and everyday was the same, with full frothing yellowfin. There was not a single time when we had anything less than a double hookup on our hands.

Every day we woke to a bright orange and pink sunrise over the ocean, and walk to the marina, where we met our good friend and captain Gary Wagner. Wagner operates a 38-foot center consol fishing boat powered with three supercharged 275 horsepower Mercury outboard motors.

Cruising out to the tuna grounds at dawn, your anxiety is matched only with the deep the roar of the motors. Out of nowhere, the water suddenly comes alive with tuna on a feeding frenzy. We are smack dab in the middle of all the action. Everybody races to their fishing rods and hooks up a lively sardine as bait.

Compared to trolling, casting, or chumming live bait fishing is by far the most exciting. I click my reel into free spool and let my terrified sardine swim out to join the action, slowly peeling off line as he moves away. In an instant my line starts tearing from my reel, still in free spool. There is no mistaking a tuna when you have been picked up.

I give it a good six or eight second count just to make sure my fish has swallowed the bait. I slam my reel into gear and crank up the slack. A couple good hard tugs on the rod later, before the fish even knew what hit him, and my rod is bent to the water with 45 pounds of tuna on the other end. Bolting away at 60 miles per hour, all you can do is hold on for the ride.

Typically tuna will dive down deep when hooked and take a hard first run. Then it's at leas 20 minutes to an hour of hard pulling before you even see deep color on the fish. Once at the surface they will do big circles until brought within gaffing distance, this is know as the "tuna death circle."

At one point, I made the mistake of pulling out my 10-weight fly rod and threw out a sardine deceiver. My fly was slammed within seconds. When I finally got this fish to the boat, a dinky 20-pound tuna came over the rail. The pulling power of these fish is unbelievable. For two-to-five pound tuna, I would want nothing less that a seven or eight weight rod.

Throughout the entire trip, my dad and I boated around 80 tuna, four roosterfish, three Dorado, and two Jack Crevalle. We saw one huge marlin Wagner estimated at about 630 pounds, but we couldn't maneuver the boat in front of him before he dove. All in all it was an unforgettable trip, and some truly phenomenal fishing.