A 365-pound yellowfin tuna was landed after a marathon struggle Tuesday off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, but the real battle was wrestling the massive fish onto the 22-foot skiff.
“I actually told the guys to make sure the bilge pump is on,” Eduardo Aripez, captain of the vessel Nicole, told Rebecca Ehrenberg of Pisces Sportfishing. “When we started pulling it onboard the boat almost tipped over and took on a lot of water, but we managed.”
Aripez and two other locals, Franciso Beltran and Inocencio Pina, landed the tuna after a 3.5-hour battle that lasted into the darkness at Outer Gordo Banks, north of Cabo San Lucas in the Sea of Cortez.
It’s at least the third “super cow” yellowfin tuna – weighing 300 pounds or more – caught at Gordo Banks in the past three weeks.
On Nov. 9, a 310-pound yellowfin tuna was landed just days after the end of the prestigious Los Cabos Tuna Jackpot competition, which produced only three fish topping 200 pounds.
On Nov. 12, a 370-pound yellowfin tuna was caught at Gordo Banks after a 60-minute fight aboard the vessel Hard Efforts.
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All three fish were caught on live skipjack tuna.
For the sake of comparison, the all-tackle world record for the yellowfin tuna stands at 427 pounds. That fish was caught by Southern California angler Guy Yocom in 2012, 180 miles south of Cabo San Lucas.
The 365-pound tuna, caught on 80-pound-test line with a 130-pound-test leader, was weighed at La Playita, which provides close access to Gordo Banks.
Eric Brictson, owner of Gordo Banks Pangas, told For The Win Outdoors that the same fishermen have been targeting giant tuna in late afternoon, often returning in the dark. They also caught two black marlin this past week.
“I think we’re going to have a good December, with warmer conditions than usual,” Brictson said. “We had that about 10 years ago, when the cows bit all through December.”
–Image showing Eduardo Aripez, Franciso Beltran and Inocencio Pina posing with the 365-pound yellowfin tuna is courtesy of Pisces Sportfishing