300lb Yellowfin on Popper!!!

[Sportfisherman]

Hi gman ,

I am just drooling over those YFTs , I wonder what kind of casting gears would be required to handle those YFTs , may be a proper GT rod + strong enough reel with lots of line capacity ( PE6 ) .

Been trying to persuade that cousin of mine to take up tuna popping but he is still very much a westcoast fisherman at the moment , we traded success stories from each of our own way of fishing , he won hands down this time .

Jon .

[ksong]

Jon, my friend fished on a panga (kind of mothership operation) near the long range boats in lower Baja last week and he hook up with a big yft. He used saltiga conventional reel with 65 lbs braided line and the fight lasted 3 hours 15 minutes before the line got broken. They saw the fish and they claimed the fish was definitely over 250 lbs.
I know you like light line for tuna popping, but you got to use heavier line to give proper pressure on the big cow.

[Sportfisherman]

Hi Kil ,

If I were to cast to those size YFTs , I wud imagine my tackle would be WV80XH with Stella 20000FA filled with either PE5 ( 70 lbs. ) - 600m or PE6 ( 80 lbs. ) - 500m ( Varivas Avani GT ) lines in the spool .

Now the ultimate question , would my ageing body be able to handle such a punishing or not ?

Jon .

[gman]

Jon you would be just fin besides all the new gear really takes the abuse for you. ha ha If you have drag which both the stellas and saltigas own, you can beat a big fish relatively quickly.

[ksong]

Originally Posted by Sportfisherman

Hi Kil ,

If I were to cast to those size YFTs , I wud imagine my tackle would be WV80XH with Stella 20000FA filled with either PE5 ( 70 lbs. ) - 600m or PE6 ( 80 lbs. ) - 500m ( Varivas Avani GT ) lines in the spool .

Now the ultimate question , would my ageing body be able to handle such a punishing or not ?

Jon .

As long as you can use at least 25 lbs drag, I think it is possible.
Light drag for big cow is a just torture.

[gman]

I heard the Wild Violoence series from Carpenter is great but very heavy, I opted for the DJ83MH instead

[Sportfisherman]

Hi Kil / gman ,

WV80XH is rated for 15 kg max drag but I have seen some guy using that rod well pass the mark without any problem , the weight of WV80XH is not much different than DJ83MH , at most the difference is only 25 gr. / 1 oz. .

In 2005 I subdued a 67 kg YFT in 5 min. + 5 seconds ( from video ) using 10 kg drag but fishing onboard an agile sportfishing boat , not sure if that is possible with the big LR boat such as those from San Diego .

Jon .

[gman]

thats a great fish, congrats. Great sickles on the ish as well

[ksong]

Jon, it is remarkable to land a 67 kg tuna in 5 minutes. But don't judge a 200 lbs yft based on your achievement.
It is an exception rather than rule no matter how skillful the fisherman is. For some reason, tuna don't fight well sometimes when they have a jig or popper in certain point of the mouth.
I once landed a 100 lbs tuna within a minutes as the fish didn't take any line at all. And I landed a swordfish over 100 lbs on a jig within 2 minutes before the fish realized she was hooked. The swordfish just followed to the surface and we gaffed it. It was very green when gaffed and the swordfish was very mad on the deck.
I know it took at least 30 minutes to land it if we missed to gaff it.

If anybody lands a 200 lbs within 30 minutes under 25 lbs drag, it is a quiet achievement.

[Sportfisherman]

Kil ,

You need not tell me , I have been worn out by several tunas weighing less than a half the weight of that 67 kg tuna over the year , every tuna weighing around 100 lbs. is to be treated with caution , especially if they are tail wrapped ! We had one tuna weighing just over 100 lbs. that was tail wrapped and it took 4 guys + over an hour to bring it to the boat side and it dies just then , couldn't stop it sinking and had to get one of the crew to dive into the water n plant the flying gaff in order to bring it onboard .

Jon .