Yellowfin Tuna question

[vettnman]

There's something I always mean to ask tuna guys from Oregon Inlet and other places that that are lucky enough to have a tuna fishery. Why is it that certain locations produce bigger tuna than others? For example, I hear of 200# yellowfin's caught off of the lump off the gulf coast and also near the lusitania bank off of Baja california while the biggest yellowfin caught off of OI seem to be in the 50-70# class. I'm bored because it's too cold to go fishing this weekend and my boat's in the shop anyway so.... any ideas? Thx

[Prodigal Son]

I don't know the answer, but I can say for certain that it's not for lack of trying that there aren't bigger fish coming into OI

[TunaTeaser1]

I've always heard they are there, but travel on the other side of the stream. I don't know about the validity of this but it's at least something to think about. I wish we had the larger class of fish, the biggest one we caught this year was 84#, which I consider a nice one for around here.

[Capt. Fred]

I think it is a combination of things depending on which fish you are talking about. I read somewhere that they have determined that a lot of the fish in the GOMexico don't migrate anymore because all of the rigs provide such perfect habitat.

I've also heard what Tunateaser is talking about in regards to the fish that end up in the northeast canyons off of New York etc. They are deffinitely a bigger class of fish up there. Or at least they used to be when I was fishing those waters.

[Redweiser]

We have resident fish here in LA but their size drops off as water warms in summer and they move further out.
I fish a few times a year out of Port Canaveral FL with my son-inlaw on the other side of the stream ... a 75 lb fish there is about max.

[Capt Rick Hiott]

David said,,,,,"I'm bored because it's too cold to go fishing"

David, If people sit on ice and catch fish,,,,Its not to cold.
Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha,,but you will NEVER see me do it.

[Blue Magic]

Originally Posted by Redweiser

We have resident fish here in LA but their size drops off as water warms in summer and they move further out.
I fish a few times a year out of Port Canaveral FL with my son-inlaw on the other side of the stream ... a 75 lb fish there is about max.

Red
We have caught plenty of 120 plus lbs off of the east coast of Florida. 110 to 160 miles east Sebastian, you have to get on the northeast side of the Bahamas and catch the currents on the other side.

[Redweiser]

Originally Posted by Blue Magic

Red
We have caught plenty of 120 plus lbs off of the east coast of Florida. 110 to 160 miles east Sebastian, you have to get on the northeast side of the Bahamas and catch the currents on the other side.

We're just doing the quick one day run with a 27' Contender. An hour from Orlando then maybe 2 hrs out 60 - 80 mi, 5 hrs chasing the birds on radar ... usually catch a few 50 - 70's.

He pulls over to Venice for bigger fish a few times a year.

[Bird Dawg]

My biggest tuna so far is 62 pounds out of OI fishing down around the point. But my boat is only a 22 footer, and I'm still just learning the tuna fishing. I wouldn't know what to do with one much bigger than that. Dean

[carolina triton]

Vettnman, I think every yellowfin over 70-80lbs at oregon inlet is automatically considered a bigeye. Ive been told the only way to tell the difference is to count the gill rakers or check the liver. we caught one last year 130lbs at the 630 and when we weighed it at the fishing center it was a big eye without even checking. Same thing when I caught a 87lb one shortly after. I never checked, just assumed it was a bigeye cause the fishing center said it was. So if somebody knows something different than what ive been told,please let me know. I couldnt physically tell a different between the 130lb bigeye or the 40lb yellowfins we had,other than size.