John's tuna required 5 gaffs just to steer it to the tuna gate, and it barely fit through the gate.
John Petruescu was fishing with a live skipjack tuna to entice a yellowfin tuna. I've been told by someone closely associated with the boat, however, that this is a very conservative round number, and that the actual weight of the behemoth probably is much heavier.
The current International Game Fish Assn. all-tackle world record is a 405 lb yellowfin caught two years ago (2010) by angler Mike Livingston aboard the "Vagabond "off Magdalena Bay, in Mexico.
Two months ago angler Guy Yocom caught a yellowfin weighing 427.5 pounds while fishing out of Cabo San Lucas on Baja California's tip. This mammoth yellowfin tuna has yet to be approved by the IGFA as an all-tackle record.
Using a measurement formula used by crew members on boats while they're still at sea, and the technique is generally pretty reliable. But the "400 - 430 pounds" figure appears to have been thrown out merely as a round number.
UPDATE: back at the dock the big tuna was exactly 445 pound!!
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