There was a small crowd waiting when Justin Fleck backed Excel into the slip in front of Fisherman’s Landing Dec. 9 sometime around 4 a.m., and it rapidly grew until there looked to be several hundred folks clustered around the biggest yellowfin tuna ever caught. By 6 a.m., to say the place was a zoo might be understatement. The trip was a Braid charter to the Hurricane Bank with 22 anglers.

The star of the event, electrician John Petruescu, was pinned to the dock rail by reporters, picture-takers, and manufacturer’s reps, while his huge tuna resided in a cart that was about one size too small...