The Destin Log is the twice-weekly newspaper devoted to covering the crown jewel of the Emerald Coast.
It’s Tuna Time
October 5th, 2009, 1:14 pm · Post a Comment · posted by williamh
Ryan O'Neal weighed in a 70.2-pound yellowfin tuna to get on the leaderboard in the Extended Voyage Division. He was fishing with Capt. Mike Eller on the Lady Em. His fish weighed 72.6 before it was gutted.
The group of Alabama boys fishing with Capt. Mike Eller on the Lady Em brought in a nice haul of yellowfin tuna.
Who says big fish don’t come to the Rodeo docks early in the day?
A little after 2 p.m., the Lady Em with Capt. Mike Eller backed in at the Rodeo scales from an extended voyage with a load of fish.
They weighed in a couple of dolphin, a 12 and 13.6-pounder. Then they brought out the tuna — five yellowfin tuna.
Weighmaster Bruce Cheves weighed all five, with the top two largest making it onto the leaderboard. The largest was a 70.2-pounder caught by Ryan O’Neal and the other was a 67.8-pounder reeled in by Jeff Moran.
O’Neal said his tuna “just came right up to the boat,” unlike some of the smaller ones he pulled in earlier.
As for Moran, “mine was miserable. It came up to the boat about three times, then ran back out.” He said it took him about 38 minutes to land the tuna.
Whereas O’Neal’s took only about 15 minutes.
Capt. Eller said they left Friday night about 10:30 p.m. and they just got back a little after 2 p.m. They were fishing 125 to 135 miles offshore in about 3,000 feet of water. Now that’s an offshore trip.
Come on down to the docks. The scales are open from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. daily.
See you there.
-Tina Harbuck
