Nathan Browne’s catch could signal an early start to the season for catching giant yellowfin tuna off Cabo San Lucas.
A report from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, implies that the first “cow” yellowfin tuna of 2024 was likely caught Saturday after a two-hour fight in the Sea of Cortez.
“First COW of the season!? 270 POUND Yellowfin Tuna Caught Yesterday by La Playita local Nathan Browne on 50 lb test with live bait aboard his friend Miguel’s Panga,” Pisces Sportfishing Fleet announced Sunday via social media.
Cabo San Lucas has long been referred to as the marlin capital of the world, but giant yellowfin tuna attract international anglers every summer and fall.
A yellowfin tuna earns “cow” status if it tops 200 pounds. More rare are “super-cow” tuna weighing at least 300 pounds.
According to the International Game Fish Assn., the current world record was set off Cabo San Lucas in September 2012 with the catch of a 427-pound yellowfin tuna.
Yellowfin catches topping 400 pounds are exceedingly rare.
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.
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.
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
The catch Monday of a 310-pound yellowfin tuna off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, occurred three days after a big-money fishing tournament that produced very few quality catches.
The catch Monday of a 310-pound yellowfin tuna off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, occurred just days after a big-money tournament that produced very few quality catches.
The rare catch of the “super cow,” a reference to tuna weighing 300 pounds or more, was made at Outer Gordo Banks by angler Mike Witoshynsky and Capt. Francisco “Gachi” Castillo of Gordo Banks Pangas.
The Sea of Cortez location is where many participants in the Western Outdoor News Cabo Tuna Jackpot tournament had been fishing during an event that attracted 149 teams who competed for more than $1 million in prize money.
The tournament, held last Thursday and Friday, produced only two catches of yellowfin weighing 200 pounds or more, with the winning fish tipping the scale at 210 pounds and earning the team $80,625.
On Tuesday, Pisces Sportfishing, which served as the weigh-in center for the tournament, reported that Castillo and Witoshynsky had boated a 310-pound yellowfin in Castillo’s “backyard.”
Pisces stated in a blog post: ”It was a great tournament, but when all was said and done, crew and anglers agreed it had been a tough one this year. So what would happen in 2020 of course? A 310-lb yellowfin tuna was landed only 3 days after the Tournament.”
The catch was made aboard the 26-foot super-panga, Regina 2.
Eric Brictson, owner of Gordo Banks Pangas, told For The Win Outdoors that Witoshynsky hooked the tuna while trolling a live black skipjack tuna on 80-pound-test line, with a 100-pound-test leader.
The battle lasted about two hours, but a strong wind made it difficult for Gachi and Witoshynsky, who is from Florida, to boat the fish. However, they radioed for help and received assistance from the crew of a nearby yacht.
Only a handful of super-cow yellowfin are caught off Cabo San Lucas each year.
Theo Anest accomplished a rare feat recently by landing a yellowfin tuna from shore, while using spinning gear, on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
Theo Anest accomplished a rare feat recently by landing a yellowfin tuna from shore, while using spinning gear, on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
But as Anest reeled the 37-pound tuna toward the beach, another remarkable event occurred: Several massive roosterfish, seemingly attracted by the commotion, accompanied the hooked tuna into the surf zone.
This placed them within fly-casting range and before long, local guide Lance Peterson was battling an estimated 80-pound roosterfish on a fly rod.
Images show Theo Anest (left) and Lance Peterson with their tuna and roosterfish. Credit: Theo Anest
“The tuna was spotted and specifically cast to,” Peterson, owner of Lance Peterson Fishing, told For The Win Outdoors. “I was hoping a few of its buddies would swim in for a look as it neared the beach, and sure enough there were some curious onlookers; mostly giant roosters.”
The catches were made early last month in Baja California Sur’s East Cape region. But photos were not shared until last week, with Peterson describing the event on Facebook as “a truly rare double hookup from shore.”
Catching yellowfin tuna from shore is not unheard of, but it’s rare considering that the pelagic fish are generally found in schools several miles offshore.
Roosterfish, however, are a coastal species prized by East Cape anglers because of their exotic appearance, size and power. Anglers typically release their catches to preserve the vulnerable fishery.
Peterson was searching for roosterfish when he spotted the yellowfin tuna feeding on forage fish. He texted Anest and told him to bring spinning gear.
Anest, a sales representative for Scott Fly Rods, arrived with a long spinning rod and cast a silver metal lure toward the tuna.
“They never quite came into fly range but we could see waves of them passing through an area 40 to 100 yards off the beach,” Anest recalled. “As soon as I hooked the tuna, 100 curious grande roosters that were lurking in the vicinity followed that tuna in.
“However, when Lance made that cast we were still certain they were all tuna until about 20 giant combs [roosterfish dorsal fins] came out of the water.”
Added Peterson: “We had sighted several tuna that day, but they were lock-jawed. Eventually Theo stuck one. The commotion brought in several fish to investigate, among them a pack of giant roosters.
“I was convinced I had managed to hook the smallest specimen in the group, which makes me wonder how big the others were!”
Anest kept the tuna, while Peterson released the roosterfish after posing for a quick series of images.
Any roosterfish over 50 pounds is considered a prize catch, especially on a fly rod. The all-tackle world record – a 114-pound roosterfish caught off La Paz, north of the East Cape – has stood since 1960.
The 236.6-pound yellowfin tuna caught by Michael McElroy III four days before Mississippi’s shelter-in-place order took effect was certified as a state record last week. If only his timing had been better.
The 236.6-pound yellowfin tuna caught by Michael McElroy III four days before Mississippi’s shelter-in-place order took effect was certified as a state record last week. If only his timing had been better.
“If he had caught it during the 2018 Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic, it would have broken the state record and won a half-million in cash,” Bobby Carter, director of the fishing tournament, told the Sun Herald.
The state Commission on Marine Resources confirmed the state-record yellowfin tuna, which shattered the old mark of 205.8 pounds by Robert Landingham on June 9, 2001.
McElroy, who lives in Hattiesburg, launched from Pass Christian on a 29-foot twin V boat on March 30 and returned the next day to have his fish weighed.
It took him 5½ hours to land the yellowfin tuna. It was unknown how many fishermen were with him.
“It’s the biggest keeping fish I’ve ever caught,” McElroy told the Sun Herald.
He also told the Sun Herald there wasn’t much of the fish going into the freezer, saying, “We’re eating a lot of it” and sharing with family and friends.
After hooking two enormous yellowfin tuna and losing both, a group of anglers out of Cabo San Lucas boated the fish of a lifetime.
After hooking two enormous yellowfin tuna and losing both – one after a 4-hour fight – a group of anglers out of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, boated the fish of a lifetime.
Steve Hammerschmidt, of Huntington Beach, landed the 365-pound ‘super cow’ after a battle of 2-plus hours last Tuesday in the Pacific, 30 miles north of the resort city on Baja California’s tip.
Veteran anglers often refer to yellowfin tuna topping 200 pounds as “cows.” Tuna topping 300 pounds are “super cows,” and catches of these giants are quite rare.
However, even larger yellowfin tuna exist within their range in the eastern Pacific. The world record yellowfin – caught south of Cabo San Lucas in 2012 – stands at 427 pounds.
Hammerschmidt was fishing aboard Castigo with owner Larry Jacinto, Capt. Sean Sadler, and mate Adam Cargill.
According to Rebecca Ehrenberg of Pisces Sportfishing, which posted about the catch on Facebook, the anglers had received information about the presence of large tuna from the crew of the San Diego-based Red Rooster III.
After arriving at the spot, they hooked a tuna estimated to weigh 380 pounds and lost that fish after 4-1/2 hours, in the darkness, just 15 feet from the boat.
Cargill told Ehrenberg: “We were devastated after we lost this fish, but we were ready to get right back on it first thing in the morning. The next day I rigged the line with a natural flying fish I had, and immediately had an explosion on it. Again, huge fish, but we missed it.”
Cargill then baited a line with a fresh sardine, handed the rod to Hammerschmidt, and the hookup was nearly instantaneous. After 2 1/2 hours the fish was safely on board and the veteran anglers celebrated their largest catch to date.
The tuna measured 84 inches and had a cow-like girth of 59 inches, leaving the group with enough fresh ahi to feed a small community.
–Images are courtesy of Sean Sadler and Pisces Sportfishing
