Wednesday, September 19, 2012

New World Record Tuna Caught Off of Cabo


Guy Yocom from Dana Point, Ca poses with what is unofficially a new all tackle world record yellow fin tuna. Weight has to be verfied between 421.5 and 427 lbs and could be worth $1,000,000.00 in the Mustad Hook a Million Contest a worldwide competition.
 
"El Suertudo", which is Spanish for "the lucky one" is the perfect name for the 61 ft Viking, that belongs to Guy Yocom from Dana Point, California and Guy is the lucky angler that hauled in a monster yellow fin tuna, which looks to be a shoo in for a new all tackle world record, the fish was weighed on two different scales, with local IGFA rep Minerva Saenz present and registered 421.5 and 427 lbs - the scale belonging to the boat was sent off to verify that it is correct and to have the certification checked. Nevertheless either of these weights would make it a new world record. Guy a contractor by trade, is also a hard core angler who knows what he is doing and along with his crew, headed up by Captain Greg DiStefano from San Clemente, went out precisely on a mission to land a large tuna. "El Suertudo" left Cabo on satuday around noon and according to Guy "we headed out looking for schools of porpoise, each time we found them we would postion the boat in front of the school and bait fish with the kites, using "bolitos" and dead flyfishing, when that didn't work we switched to drifting with chunk baits". They ended up 180 miles due south of Cabo and landed a 200 lb tuna on Monday as well as some smaller fish. It was  around 10.45 am on Tuesday, September 18th though, as they were drifting with chunk bait that the monster fish, broke from the deep and Guy got his hook up. Being an experienced angler he worked the fish like a pro and had the yellow fin to the boat and gaffed by the crew in 55 minutes. They started to head back after the fish was in the boat, knowing they had an exceptional catch, reaching Cabo at 8.00 am today, Wednesday. Guy sounded exhausted but excited when we reached him by phone earlier today when asked what his previous record for tuna was he said "two hundred and twelve pounds is my previous record, but my son did get a 350 lb'er on the boat last month". The tackle used was 100 lb test line, with a Shimano Tiagra reel, chunk bait with a mustad hook, which might just make this catch eligible for the Mustad $1,000,000.00 competition which offers registered anglers a chance to win a million dollars if they can catch a certified all tackle world record before September 30th. Way to go guys and great for Cabo, shows that we still have the best fishing in the world.
Its always down to team work shown here from left to right are Dave Poling, Daniel Alvarez, Oswaldo,  Guy Yocom,Pepe de la Pena, Todd Clarke, and Captain Greg DiStefano