# Bluefin Landed at Surfside Marina



## SurfsideSteve (Oct 3, 2014)

Check out this 530 pound Bluefin caught by angler Chris Saunders fishing off the Flustered Duck out of Surfside Marina.


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## ccrocker1313 (Oct 23, 2005)

*Wow Sweet ... *


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## saltaholic (Feb 19, 2005)

Awesome!!!! What's the story?


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## trapper67 (Mar 23, 2011)

WOW>>>>>>>>!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Klesak1 (Aug 29, 2012)

That's freaking awesome! Definitely on the bucket list! What's the story I want to know what they were doing when they hooked that bad boy!


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## Joe_S (Jun 24, 2010)

Klesak1 said:


> That's freaking awesome! Definitely on the bucket list! What's the story I want to know what they were doing when they hooked that bad boy!


I can tell you exactly what they were doing...targeting other fish of course.

Freaking awesome!!!


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## Darkarcher159 (Oct 21, 2014)

Holy ******!!!!


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## sotexhookset (Jun 4, 2011)

That is pretty dang cool.


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## SurfsideSteve (Oct 3, 2014)

The story (as I hear it from Moondog, who cleaned the fish) is the fish was caugh about about 100 miles SE of Surfside Marina. The fight lasted 4 and a half hours, but she got tailwrapped at the end so the last hour was dead weight.

That's coming from Moonie, so you know it's true...


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## pomakai (Jun 7, 2012)

Awesome!


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## Fin-Atic (Feb 25, 2011)

Bad Arse!! Congrats. Would love to see one of those!! 

Maybe one day soon we will all catch them on occasion!! (if the feds dont screw it up more)


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## NautiHooker (Mar 5, 2013)

Wow. Pretty awesome. What a heck of a story.


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## WestEndAngler (Jan 30, 2007)

Congrats! That's great.


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## nook (Mar 5, 2015)

Pretty pennies right there .


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## BullyARed (Jun 19, 2010)

Wow! Awsome!


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## airkeith (Jan 9, 2011)

2cool!


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## Bird (May 10, 2005)

NICE!


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## pinnaclemarine (Jan 20, 2010)

Time to get another chest freezer - or two
Nicely Done


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## Capt Daniel (Jul 9, 2014)

Wow !!!!!!


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## jamisjockey (Jul 30, 2009)

**** that's amazing. Nicely done.


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## spurgersalty (Jun 29, 2010)

Now they're over fished toohwell:


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## GulfCoast1102 (Dec 30, 2013)

spurgersalty said:


> Now they're over fished toohwell:


Because he caught ONE?!

You must work for NMFS, or maybe EDF.

j/k i'm only ribbing you. :rotfl:


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## William Dean Sr. (Jun 30, 2011)

I didn't think you could keep them in the GOM. Thought the GOM was considered breeding grounds or something. I may have been confused.


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## saltaholic (Feb 19, 2005)

William Dean Sr. said:


> I didn't think you could keep them in the GOM. Thought the GOM was considered breeding grounds or something. I may have been confused.


They opened it up this year for accidental catches to be able to retain one fish


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## Flight Cancelled (Jul 7, 2010)

spurgersalty said:


> now they're over fished toohwell:


well they prolly figured we caught 6000# in state water so they're going to close it early


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## Jungle_Jim (Nov 16, 2007)

I sure hope I don't catch one accidently while targeting other species:sarcasm1


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## Joe_S (Jun 24, 2010)

Jungle_Jim said:


> I sure hope I don't catch one accidently while targeting other species:sarcasm1


Right on!

If you see those bluefin in the water it is a good opportunity to target a remora.

Just start bump trolling a bridled blackfin, and the remora will probably detach from one of those bluefin and latch right onto your bait.


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## C-Man87 (Jun 25, 2014)

Looks like that fish will go $22 per pound, just need a core sample! LOL Sweet catch man!


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## GottaTagIt (Nov 20, 2014)

Awesome fish, sure would like to read how they were able to land it. Great job men!!!


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## Flight Cancelled (Jul 7, 2010)

GottaTagIt said:


> Awesome fish, sure would like to read how they were able to land it. Great job men!!!


they caught it right in front of us trolling blue white islander I believe...fought for 2 hours became tail wrapped and then the drug it up dead weight for 2 more hours...but I know I have some fresh Bluefin to try tonight :dance:


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## TeamJefe (Mar 20, 2007)

Where abouts did they catch that thing? I have heard its almost impossible to catch them in super deep water.

Also was it caught on an 80W? Or a 130W?


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## trapper67 (Mar 23, 2011)

TeamJefe said:


> Where abouts did they catch that thing? I have heard its almost impossible to catch them in super deep water.
> 
> Also was it caught on an 80W? Or a 130W?


On a 50w is what I read.


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## AHL_1901 (Jan 22, 2013)

so awesome!


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## Flight Cancelled (Jul 7, 2010)

50wide and south of boomvang


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## Captjohn62 (Dec 28, 2010)

Dang, we were at Surfside Marina Friday night and Saturday night and no one even told us about that fish. 
Congrats on an epic battle.


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## WestEndAngler (Jan 30, 2007)

45 min of the fight was on the bow I heard.


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## Jolly Roger (May 21, 2004)

Just Awesome !!


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## BigEgg (Jul 29, 2013)

i heard the last 2 hours of the fight was getting it in the boat :help::work:


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## T.C. (May 7, 2009)

WestEndAngler said:


> 45 min of the fight was on the bow I heard.


Thats because I was cooking chicken fajitas on the back...


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## Clayt (Sep 21, 2011)

Haha, you did pick a hell of a time to fire that grill up!

Here's a bit more of the story...
The bait was a mylar/black/blue illander ballyhoo w/ 200lb. leader. We were lucky the hook caught her right in the corner of the mouth. The fish was caught on an Okuma Makaira 50W with a stand-up harness. The reel has about 800 yards of braid on the bottom and it took us down to a very narrow spool a few times. Towards the end of the fight it was putting out 35 lbs. of drag and we later measured 46 lbs. when it was being winched up to the surface after it died. The reel performed flawlessly and my friend did an awesome job fighting this thing stand-up on a relatively small reel. There was some transmission problems so we had to walk the rod around the outriggers to the bow and fought the fish there for 30 minutes or so. The fish was literally putting the stationary boat and we watched the line pour off the reel as there was nothing we could do. Finally, we got the boat moving again and walked it back to the stern where the captain chased the fish and it eventually died about 3.5 hours in. We flipped the adjust-a-butt to the bent butt position and winched the fish up inch by inch for the next hour because there was so much pressure on the line. Finally, after dark, we saw the tail wrapped fish and pulled the beast through the door!

Not sure why the picture is upside down...


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## Mustake (Jun 4, 2007)

Great job guys. I was wondering why y'all were on the bow. Glad you called me because I was going pass in front of you.


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## Anthony C (Jun 20, 2008)

Congrats on fish of a lifetime there!


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## Hunter (Sep 3, 2004)

Well congratulations! That's a heck of a catch.


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## SharkBait >*)\\\><( (May 16, 2012)

wow thats some crazy stuff never would have thought a bluefin was cruising around out there..


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## snapperlicious (Aug 11, 2009)

Pretty cool. That's a beast of a fish!


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## reeladdiction (Aug 23, 2011)

Totally awesome!!!!! What a catch!


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## indaskinny (May 25, 2009)

One HECK of a fish!



SharkBait >*)\\\><( said:


> wow thats some crazy stuff never would have thought a bluefin was cruising around out there..


Plenty out there but not enough. I know of one boat that hooked 4 this past weekend. 3 broke off very soon, one stayed tight for 19 hours and 20 minutes before breaking off on a 50 wide. They were targeting other species. I wish J.S. Would put up a report.


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## saltaholic (Feb 19, 2005)

indaskinny said:


> One HECK of a fish!
> 
> Plenty out there but not enough. I know of one boat that hooked 4 this past weekend. 3 broke off very soon, one stayed tight for 19 hours and 20 minutes before breaking off on a 50 wide. They were targeting other species. I wish J.S. Would put up a report.


19 hours!!?? Dang would love to hear the story on that one

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## CHUMON (Apr 23, 2015)

That was us who had that beast hooked up. Around 3 PM Saturday, a few miles south of the floaters, every line in the boat started screaming, fish were even jumping out of the water hitting our ballyhoo dredge. 3 of them broke off pretty quickly but somehow we managed to slow one down on a 50 W and started chasing him. Off in the distance we could see huge tuna airborne and going berserk. I backed down hard on him filling the back of the boat up for about 6/7 hours (during this time the fighting belt strap attached to the reel snapped in half and had to tie a rope to it so we could keep fighting) then it was just a long hard game of tug-a-war. Around 3 AM was when we had our first and only shot at him and didn't capitalize. When he surfaced everyone in the boat's jaw hit the floor, it was the biggest fish that I've ever seen. We had it reeled up to the clasp, but he was just out of reach of the hillybilly rigged flying gaff then took another dive down. After that we kept on fighting. Then best part of the story comes at 6:30 AM.... The rod breaks.. At this point we think we're done, but no, we are catching this fish. We run away from the fish so we can get some line out, cut the line, then backed down hard while we spliced the line to a fresh reel and we were back in business. Kept trying different things to make him surface but we could never get him past the 50-100 ft mark. The line eventually snapped around 10:30 AM and the 19 hr battle was over. This was definitely the fish that got away 19 hrs, 7 anglers, 4 lost baits, 1 broken fighting belt, and 1 broken rod but a memory that CHUMON will never forget.

Ben


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## saltaholic (Feb 19, 2005)

Awesome story!!! 


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