By Nick Carter
For Matt Metelsky, daddy-daughter time with his 17-year-old is a little more involved than a trip to the ice cream parlor. Matt’s daughter Lily is a rising high school senior. She loves nothing more than waking up at 2 a.m. to run 85 miles off Virginia Beach and troll the edge of the Continental Shelf with her dad.
In late June, the duo fished the Virginia Beach Tuna Tournament, where Lily placed second in the Lady Angler division with a yellowfin that weighed 39.9 pounds. But that’s not her biggest tuna to-date. Her heaviest yellowfin weighed 44 pounds. She caught it last summer, and at 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds, it took her about 15 minutes to haul it in stand-up with a belt.
“I don’t know. We do wood work on the side, so we load wood, and I guess that gives you some back strength,” Lily offered as explanation for feats of fishing strength. “We always stay active. With Dad, it’s work hard, play harder.”
Lily’s strength and stamina are a given considering she qualified and is working as an oceanfront lifeguard at Virginia Beach this summer. Matt, however, has another explanation for his daughter’s skill, as well as her love for this hard-core style of fishing. Lily was 5 years old when Matt purchased his Contender 25 with twin 150s. At a tender age, Lily cut her teeth going toe-to-toe with hard-pulling spadefish in 50 feet of water, 20 miles offshore.
“I’m thinking the technique she picked up with those spades when she was little just kind of morphed over into the tuna,” Matt said. “It really amazes me she is able to battle those things stand-up.”
Lily began joining Matt for long days offshore when she turned 13. She was 15 the summer of 2019 when she was first physically able to handle a yellowfin—a 26-pounder—by herself.
But pumping and reeling aren’t Lily’s only deck duties. She helps rig and bait and steers the boat while her dad deploys an eight-rod spread on the Gulf Stream. Last Jan. 11, she manned the helm while Matt battled a 550-pound bluefin. When the handle on the 50w reel broke under the stress, it was Lily’s idea to improvise with a screwdriver and electrical tape to eventually land that fish.
The peak yellowfin season is June and July out of Rudee Inlet. Matt and Lily make five or six trips a summer, often with friends. Normal days consist of two or three tuna, some bonita and mahi, and occasionally a white marlin.
Two or three times a year, January and February bluefin trips are just for the two of them. There aren’t many people interested in waiting on one big bite in brutal mid-winter conditions, anyway.
“She’s just tough as nails,” Matt said of his daughter. “I don’t know how else to describe it. She’s just tough.”
Lily doesn’t seem to perceive any hardship. She considers herself lucky to be able to spend time with her dad on the water.
“When we’re out there on the boat, it’s just so peaceful,” she said. “I pretty much sleep the whole time. When that reel goes off, that’s my alarm.”
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