NEWS

Flat Dangerous fights 888-pound bluefin tuna for more than 5 hours

The Destin Log

With a massive school of bluefin tuna on top, the crew aboard the Flat Dangerous went into the fight with only four baits and got the bite of a lifetime on the last bait, landing an 888-pound bluefin tuna.

“That was our last bait, so we needed a lot of things to go right, and it did,” said Capt. George Gill of the Flat Dangerous, which docks behind Boshamps Seafood and Oyster House.

The crew set a phone up to snap a shot of themselves with the monster catch, an 888-pound bluefin tuna. Pictured left to right are Dennis Bennett, Capt. George Gill, John Balters, boat owner Warren Williamson, Eddy Griffith and Kole Melancon.

The trip Wednesday was the first fishing trip on the Gulf of Mexico for the new 80-foot Viking owned by Warren Williamson of Alabama.

Capt. Gill and crew members Eddy Griffith, Dennis Bennett, and John Balters, along with owner Williamson and friend Kole Melancon, were just taking the boat out for a fun trip.

“We had gone out to the fads and was going to live bait around there,” Gill explained.

They were fishing about 68 miles out of Destin when they spotted the huge school of tuna while they were bait fishing. They managed to get a couple of small yellowfin tuna, blackfin tuna and a skipjack for bait.

“The next thing you knew they blew up out there,” Gill said.

“There were hundreds of them. The school was massive ... and they were all the same grade of fish,” Gill said.

The bluefin tuna caught aboard the Flat Dangerous weighed 888 pounds and measured 110 inches in length.

“We kind of eased over toward them and boom, we had one on,” Gills said.

They broke that one off and then hooked another and it broke off as well.

The next one spit the hook.

Then finally they got the big bite at about 1 o’clock Wednesday afternoon.

“It made a big hole in the water ... it looked like a Russian submarine was attacking,” said mate Eddy Griffith.

It took about 10 guys to pull the huge bluefin tuna onto the scales at Boshamps Wednesday night. They had to float the fish under the dock and then drag it the rest of the way to the scales. The fish weighed 888 pounds.

“It was incredible ... that’s burned in my memory forever,” Griffith said Thursday morning as they were still icing tuna down.

“It was pretty cool,” said crew member Dennis Bennett. Bennett was part of another big bluefin tuna adventure in 2017 when Capt. Joey Birbeck hauled in an 827-pounder for a record catch.

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They got the fish hooked Wednesday and fought it for over an hour, then the consensus was the fish had died and was tail wrapped, Gill said.

“So, we spent four hours, inches at a time, getting that thing up,” Gill said.

It was about 7 p.m. when they got it in the boat and around 9 p.m. by the time they made it back to Boshamps to weigh the fish. The fish measured a 110 inches long and weighed in at 888 pounds.

“It was pretty awesome,” Gill said, for the first time on the new boat.

Before they put that last bait was tossed out, captain said, “We did some tackle readjusting and did some things and then we got that one there hooked good right in the corner of the mouth with a circle hook like it should be.

“Everything worked out perfect,” Gill said.

Flat Dangerous was not the only boat in on the bluefin action. Gill said there was a boat from Pensacola nearby that had hooked two. They broke one off and then fought another for about six hours before it broke off.

As for the one on Flat Dangerous, “We had our fingers crossed, no doubt,” Gill said.

What kind of tackle did they use?

After readjustments were made, the captain said they caught the tuna on 100-pound main line, 150-pound Braid and 400-pound leader.

“We weren’t playing around,” he said.

And the bite wasn’t finicky at all, Gill said.

Capt. George Gill and the mates wait at the docks behind Boshamps Thursday morning with tubs full of tuna meat from the big bluefin caught Wednesday aboard the Flat Dangerous.

“As soon as we got a bait back there, they were on it,” Gill said.

“The bait was basically dead,” said mate Balters, noting it just lay on the water.

“But they ate it anyways,” he said.

So, what does a bluefin tuna do?

“You throw the bait out there, and they just bust it,” Gill said.

Mate John Balters cleans up on the back deck of the Flat Dangerous Thursday morning. The crew brought in an 888-pound bluefin tuna on Wednesday evening.

“And as soon as they eat, they take off,” he added.

“They go deep. They don’t jump at all,” Gill said.

Who was on the rod?

Boat owner Williamson was on the rod first and fought the fish for over an hour.

“I thought he did good,” Gill said, noting Williamson is in his mid-70s.

The crew had to float the big tuna under the docks and then drag it up the makeshift ramp to the scales Wednesday evening.

Melancon reeled on fish some and then the mates finished it off.

"It was a team effort,” Gill said.

The fish would have been a new record for the Gulf of Mexico, but they had more than one person on the rod.

Bennett was on the boat with when Joey Berbeck caught the 827-pounder in 2017.

“Dennis Bennett was with us ... he’s the tuna whisper or something,” Gill chuckled.

There was still plenty of tuna left to go around on Thursday morning.

What did they do with the fish?

They gave some of the meat to Boshamps, as well as others around town.

Captain said what they didn’t give away would be donated to a food bank.