The talk of fishing social media this past month has been about a possible new world-record yellowfin tuna landed off Mexico. Here’s the complete story: On a 10-day fishing trip to the Pacific waters of Baja, led by Capt. Justin Fleck of the Excel, a group of anglers set out in search of giant yellowfin tuna. Mega yellowfins are sometimes called “cows” and range in size from 200 to 300 pounds.
No one can argue that angler Earl Gill IV came out on top, bringing to the boat a jaw-dropping 443-pounder. Now, he might be an IGFA champion. His “super cow,” a rare yellowfin tuna weighing more than 300 pounds, was weighed on a certified IGFA scale and submitted to the IGFA on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2024, in San Diego, California. If approved, his catch would take over as the new all-tackle world record for yellowfin tuna.
Fishing for Giant Yellowfins
“We went down to the Lower Banks and there was one particular bank that had all the signs of tuna,” said Capt. Fleck. “It seemed like they were just starting to filter into the area, but the ones [showing] were nice big ones.
“On the first day we got there, we saw them swimming around the boat, but they were lethargic and wouldn’t bite. We only got one fish that day — a 309-pounder on the chunk. We had a family meeting and talked about if we wanted to give it another day, and everyone was up for the challenge.”
The morning of Monday, Nov. 11, another angler aboard the Excel got tight to a giant, hooking into a 275-pound tuna on a sinker rig. After that catch, it seemed like all life disappeared from the area.
Just as Fleck was about to pull anchor, a couple of fish started showing up on the radar. Gill quickly deployed his chunk line after the captain announced they spotted fish. Armed with a California-style rail rod and Okuma Makaira 20 — a 2-speed lever drag reel spooled with 100-pound-test line — he worked the aft corner of the boat.
A Yellowfin Tuna Catch to Remember
The yellowfin tuna took Gill’s chunk bait sitting 150 feet down, sending him racing toward the bow, ripping line the whole time. He knew he had something special on the line. Looking around the boat, other anglers were hooked up battling fish, but his fight felt much different. His fish took an amazing amount of 100-pound-test line, eventually stopping before the reel bottomed out.
After a tense one-hour standoff with his super cow, Gill found himself at a standstill. Fleck had to pull anchor to try to budge the fish from the bottom. The captain positioned the boat over the top of it, and Gill got to work. As the fish rose closer to the surface, he couldn’t feel the tail beating of a tuna swimming in death spirals, so the crew wondered if Gill had hooked something other than a yellowfin.
But they soon had an answer. As sometimes happens when targeting monster blue marlin, Gill’s fish died down deep. He had to pull the dead weight of his super cow up from the depths, a more grueling task than if the fish was still alive.
“It was my first cow!” explained Gill. “I was hoping for a warmup cow, but I ended up getting the big one. The Makaira gearing worked perfectly. I think a lot of things lined up to help me land this fish.”
Capt. Justin Fleck isn’t new to putting his anglers on near record-breaking tuna. The boat, captain and crew have one of the best reputations in the San Diego long-range fleet, serving up trips that produce giant cow tuna. This record yellowfin was caught on Okuma’s Makaira Black Series reel, which features a silver-etched yellowfin tuna on its frame. How fitting that Gill had the right tackle at the right time to land his historic catch, potentially beating out the current world-record 427-pounder.
