Redrum Takes Home 1st Place at WON Tuna Jackpot!!

2 Hour 45 Minute Fight Leads to Record 244 Pound Yellowfin!!

This past weekend Redrum Sportfishing was fortunate enough to fish in the Western Outdoor News Tuna Jackpot. El Nuevo led by Bob Kuerner, Rum Runnin with Bobby Smith and Reel Rum led by Redrum owner John Donovan represented the line up for 3 of the 97 teams that entered this years event.

Omars boat, Reel Rum was entered in as team #85 and consisted of Americo as our mate, John and Ryan Donovan along with myself as the anglers. We spent Wednesday and Thursday fishing all day to no evail. We landed 2 small Dorado on day 2 that was it. Finally on Friday all of our waiting around paid off as we landed the big one.

Trolling a green imitation squid about 200 feet off the back of the boat we all began to get a little restless. John and Ryan were sleeping down on the bottom of the boat while Omar, Americo and I sat up top sharing conversation that only seem to come up when you have been on the water as long as we were without any action.

I went for a snack while Omar headed to the front of the boat to have a little time to himself and wonder why things had been going so slow for us. Americo and I BSed for a while about life back in the US and his previous home of Mazatlan. Omar sat back down in his seat saying that he thinks he saw a boat chasing some porpoise a little ahead. I went down to get the binoculars and handed them to Omar. It only took him a split second and he decided we were going to run and see what was going on. To our disappointed it was only a couple of Frigget birds and no porpoise anywhere. That led Omar to even more disappointment and he headed turned the boat hard North and things quited down again.

About 15 minutes after the sighting heading NW off the Lighthouse (maybe 30 miles) our luck changed! In one split second the only Penn 80 that we had in our spread started screaming and screaming hard! Ryan jumped up from his "boat sleep" grabbed the rod/reel and started yanking on it to make sure the hook was set. Once all the chaos settled down on the boat and we were sure the fish was hooked we all began to try to guess what it was. Omar cancelled out the possibility of it being a Marlin or Dorado because there was no action immdeiately after the strike. Our next thoughts began to be either Wahoo or Yellowfin. Being that no Wahoo was weighed in on day 1 we were happy with either.

Ryan began to fight the fish stand-up style until the strength of the fish broke the stand up belt. 20 minutes later Omar cancelled out the possibility of a Wahoo because of the style of fight that the creature was showing us. About 20 minutes later the Yellowfin Tuna serviced for a few seconds and we got to see what kind of animal we were dealing with! As soon as the Tuna saw the boat for the first time she slammed down deep and in that moment the fight began!

For the next 2 and a half hours John, Americo and I took turns making sure Ryan was as comfortable as possible. When we talked about it later Ryan and I agreed that he drank at least 8 12 oz. bottles of water! The important part about fighting a big Yellowfin Tuna is not to rush it, stay patient and take your time. Ryan did just that. My attention span is about is small as hoochie lure so I was all over the boat. I even found myself doing pull ups from one of the metal bars that runs across the boat just to keep me from going insane!!

The fight was blow for blow the whole time. Each time Ryan would get a few cranks in and make up some of the line he had lost the tuna seemed like she was allowing it only to gain her ground as soon as Ryan would stop. This went on for over 2 hours. I still do not know how Ryan is functioning after a fight like that! Knowing that we had to be back to the weigh station at 5 pm Omar started to get a little nervous. There is nothing you can do when fighting a big Tuna except wait it out, unless you want to lose the fish. This fish we were not going to lose and Ryan made sure of it! Ryan slowly increased the drag by the milimeter until there was enough on it to pull this freight train to the boat.

Americo and I were assigned to gaffing the fish as soon as the leader came to the boat. Mind you, I have never gaffed a fish that size in my life. I have gaffed plenty of smaller Dorado but a fish that size and that importance I was a little apprehensive. Luckily for us she came up with no gas left in her tank, we were able to gaff the fish precisely. It took everyone on the team to haul it over the side of the boat and onto the deck. After I took a second glance I noticed that the fish had nearly straightened out my gaff.

As soon as we got the fish to the boat, hugs and high-fives were shared all around until Omar said "alright, this fish no count until we get to scale". Americo got the boat ready for the run and Omar began putting the pedal to the metal. It took us about 2 hours and some change to get back to the Marina. On the cruise over when we began to be able to spot land I looked over and Ryan as we decided to take a seat on the front of the boat for the ride in and said "Cabo has never looked so beautiful". He agreed and our nerves sat in.

Ryan estimated the fish weighed 214 pounds, John 412, and I undershot and said 207. When we finally got the boat to the weigh station there were over 400 people waiting there as the buzz had picked up on the Marina that Redrum was bringing in a big fish. We woooed and wowed the crowd as soon as we pulled in. I over heard one of them tell the other, that there is no fish that would even come close to ours. That's when I knew we were in good shape. We made our way through the applauding crowd to the scales. The group of people had formed a large mass surrounding the scales as there were rows of people 10-15 deep.

I have never been the focus of so many camera flashes in my life. It kind of makes you dizzy after a while. But we had a blast. The second we got it to the scale and hanged the fish the crowd grew silent. Ryan decided he was going to give a good slap to the fish as it hung. This cancelled the fish and we had to do it all over again. The second time the fish hanged there we made sure nobody touched it as we did not want to have to lift the Tuna again! As the crowd grew silent Paul from WON announced the number "Two hundred and Forty Four pounds" everyone went crazy!! The fish was over 30 pounds than we estimated and over 100 pounds from our nearest competition.

Interviews and parties occupied the rest of our night and into the early morning. Working the next morning was a little difficult!! It was well worth it.

There will be pictures to follow as soon as we get them pulled up on the computer.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

Saludos,

Luis