Angler's 405-pound yellowfin tuna is heaviest on record (hughest, most series all-tackle catch ever)

GrindTV ^ | 12/6/10 | Pete Thomas

[NormsRevenge]

There was spirited celebration on the San Diego waterfront Monday morning after the vessel Vagabond returned from a long-range fishing trip into Mexican waters and offloaded the heaviest yellowfin tuna ever caught by an angler.

The behemoth, landed by Mike Livingston of Sunland, Calif., weighed 405.2 pounds; it's girth was 61 inches and it measured nearly 86 inches from nose to tail.

The catch, made on 100-pound-test line after nearly a three-hour fight, will be submitted to the International Game Fish Assn. for approval as an all-tackle world record. Capt. Mike Lackey said IGFA rules were followed so the catch likely will replace the current record, a 388-pound 12-ounce specimen, which has stood since 1977.

"When the scale hit that number it was like the Super Bowl here," said Livingston, 63, a retired school administrator, in reference to cheers from a crowd of nearly 200, gathered to witness the weigh-in.

The Vagabond, an 80-foot deluxe sportfisher, had been on a 10-day expedition in search of "super cows," or tuna weighing 300 pounds or more. Livingston's catch was made last Tuesday west of Magdalena Bay on the southern Baja California peninsula.

Lackey had estimated the tuna's weight at 390 pounds, using a tape-measure formula that is not always accurate. He then froze the fish to preserve it until the boat returned to its home port at Point Loma Sportfishing.

Livingston, whose previous large tuna weighed 100 pounds, said he developed a rash while "worrying about how big this fish was going to be."

[SF_Redux]

what lake/lakes?

[Daffynition]

VERY Cool! ~"Life is not about the trophy. It is about the road traveled to get it."
-Capt. Tred Barta

[Daffynition]

LOL.Yellow fin are notoriously vicious. :)

[stainlessbanner]

woooaaa....that fish looks like he’s flying!

[Daffynition]

Look what the tuna is doing to this *flying fish* nommmmmmmmmm! :)

Fishermen can be *fanatics* ...but yellowfin can be fanatical too in a feeding frenzy.

[goseminoles]

All Your Tuna Are Belong To Us!

[goseminoles]

I was going to say the same thing. However, that big ol fish could be full of parasitic worms.

[justa-hairyape]

What ? A 10 day out of San Diego got the record Yellowfin ? Thought you needed to take at least a 14 day trip all the way down to the Socorro/Clarion Islands to get at the record big tuna. Or at least one of the short rides out of Cabo.

[I Drive Too Fast]

The guy who caught the fish used to work here. He retired a few years ago.