888-Pound Bluefin
by Viking Yachts 4 May 2024 19:28 BST
Warren Williamson was out for his first fun fishing trip on his new Viking 80 Flat Dangerous. The team spotted a huge school of tuna so captain George Gill relocated - along with their last four baits.
"The school was massive," said George. They hooked two big tuna but broke them off. The third spit the hook. Then, with the final bait, Warren got the bite and pinned an oversized circle hook in the corner of the bluefin's mouth. "It made a big hole in the water," said mate Eddy Griffith.
Warren fought the fish for an hour before handing it off to Kole Melancon and then, the mates took over. When Flat Dangerous put the fish on the scale in Destin, Florida, it clocked in at 888 pounds and measured 110 inches (over 9 feet!) long. The tuna would have been a new record (currently 827 pounds set in 2017) for the Gulf of Mexico, but they had more than one person on the rod. What the team didn't give away, they donated to a local food bank.