Amazing Baja resource produces best ever tuna
The culmination of one the most incredible families of yellowfin tuna to ever roam the Eastern Tropical Pacific was brought to the Point Loma scales today by Vagabond angler Mike Livingston, a 405.2-pound yellowfin.

Call it school, call it family, the fish that have roamed up from Puerto Vallarta to just below Bahia Magdalena have blessed us with a gift of great fishing that began with incredible numbers of 200 pounders -- to the point that a fish that size was no longer a benchmark - to an assault on the Top Ten biggest fish ever caught by the long range fleet out of San Diego.

Anecdotal evidence points to the fact yellowfin as big or bigger have been caught by boats fishing out of Cabo San Lucas and P.V., but this is the first fish to be weighed on a certified scale with a bunch of witnesses. Scale problems, time of day problems, credibility problems beset other huge fish.

That's all I require - a huge fish with one man (or woman) on the rod and reel, weighed on land on a certified scale in front of witnesses. Congratulations Mike Livingston. You are the man.

Now let me share my ties to this incredible breakthrough. One of my best bros, Mark Gasich, has held the top spot for almost 20 years. He caught a 399.6-pound yellowfin on the Polaris Supreme on my Penn 50SW. Course that reel went over the side attached to a buoy because it was pre-Spectra days and that meant all you had on the reel was capacity-grabbing mono. Then they had to pull the anchor. The beautiful reel, blueprinted by Cal Sheets, how do you think it worked after an hour in the salt? Mark had to palm the reel as much as he could while in the bow. "Tommy (Rothery) told me not to look, just keep winding," said Gasich at the time. "I couldn't see over the bow rail, anyway. Then they gaffed it and I looked over the rail and saw this huge fish."

I called Gasich tonight at his house on the Winchuk River in Oregon to tell him the news."Well, I held the record for a long time," he said. "I'm just glad it was broken on a party boat instead of some yacht."

caption:A MIGHTY CATCHMike Livingston and his 405.2-pound yellowfin tuna flanked by fellow jackpot winners Jim Pea of San Diego with a 334.8 pounder and Steve Meinster of Van Nuys with his 324.4 pounder, all caught on the Vagabond
PHOTO BY PAUL SWEENEY COURTESY BILL ROECKER PRODUCTIONS