When commercial fishermen on the Agua Verde lost a cow-sized tuna at Isla Santa Catalan near Loreto in the Gulf of California and spotted others crashing at dusk on Jan. 5, they shared the knowledge – resulting in a valiant angling effort and a pending IGFA record.
Robert Ross, an American off-road racer and resident of nearby Playa San Cosme, with sons-in-law, Jorge Lazo, Tijuana, and Jay Yadon, owner of Outpost Charters in Loreto, joined by deckhand Tony Winkler responded to the news.
They set course on Jan. 6 in Ross’s 37 Boston Whaler Rampage for the often-fertile waters not far from the Marina Puerto Escondido where they had previously landed a 400-plus pounder, setting the stage for their three-day tuna-chasing marathon that would include six hookups with four landed.
The two largest were caught by Lazo on an Accurate Valiant BV2-800 reel loaded with 50-pound P-Line, 100-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon leader with a Mustad 6/0 hook on a Seeker rod. The largest tuna weighed 424.6 pounds, topping the current IGFA record of 385-pounds, 12 ounces by a click less than 40 pounds. Lazo’s second tuna weighed 319 pounds — a two-day fish total for both the angler and his Accurate Valiant BV2-800 of 743.6-pounds.
“I’ve never caught two fish that large, that quickly, back-to-back,” Lazo confessed. “The reel’s compact size and unfailing consistent drag system was a ‘game changer’ for me catching those two monsters.”
In addition, two other yellowfin were landed – one at 242 pounds taken by Ross and the other by Yadon rounding out the three-day catch at 212.5 pounds.
Underscoring the entire adventure was Ross’s success on Sat. – the day before their Sunday-thru-Tuesday’s valiant effort – when he had landed, by himself, a respectable 267-pound tuna plus two amberjack, each weighing in excess of 70 pounds.
The ultimate small reel big fish story for sure. Not one but two fish of a lifetime back to back days.
Wishing you the best of luck in your next fishing adventure.
Team Accurate
Special thanks to Gary Graham for the blog.
Top fish is 319 and the bottom in daylight is the pending 424-pounder.
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