Big fish

“GENTLEMEN, we are about to get bit.” It is October, 2002, and 30-year-old Scotty Pruner stands barefoot at the stern of Go Deep, a 31-foot sport-fisher bobbing off the southern tip of Baja.

In his right hand, held as daintily as the handle of a teacup, is a length of 130-pound-test line strung to a Shimano Tiagra 130 reel and marlin rod, the angling equivalent of an elephant gun.

Pruner is intercepting a communique from the five-pound bait-fish working the sharp end of the line. It's darting, diving, running up on the boat. Message: predator on my tail.