LAST EDITED ON Dec-12-10 AT 09:59AM (MST)[p]That fish is the Holy Graii of long range sportfishing. Ever since that 388 fish was caught, people have been trying to catch a larger fish. 300 pound yellowfin are such a rare fish, and 400 was almost a mythical weight that people hoped would be caught, but nobody knew if it'd ever happen.
The father of my son's girlfriend, Stas Vellonakis, is one of the most successful and prolific fisherman in the history of long range anglers. His main quarry is big yellowfin, and while he's caught dozens of them over 200 pounds, I think he's only caught a handful over 300, I'm pretty sure it's only something like 6 or 8 over 300. And that's a guy who spends a couple months per year, for many years, out fishing for them. He's caught tons of yellowfin, but only a few that are even within 100 pounds of this giant.
This fish is way rarer than most anglers would ever have any idea. It figures that a guy who has never caught a 200 pound fish would be the fortunate one to hook and land this monster. It's even more amazing that an angler with a relative lack of experience on big fish caught it on only 100 pound line. For those who don't do this kind of fishing, there is a very big difference even from 100 to 130 when it comes to the durability of the leader. I'd expect he was using a knotless rig with at least 200# spectra and a short top-shot of 100# mono, crimping a big circle hook; but even that rig can't stand up forever. After 3 hours, even a circle hook can wear a big enough hole to fall out if the pressure is relaxed just a tiny bit. This guy did a very good job, and was extremely lucky.
