The 2023 16th annual BD Outdoors Yellowtail Shootout has come to a close, and it was a tournament to remember. Anglers from all over Southern California came to compete in this exciting fishing tournament, hoping to catch the biggest yellowtail in the waters off the San Diego coast.
The tournament which began in the early hours on Saturday (June 24th) morning, was filled with excitement and anticipation. Greeted with less than ideal weather conditions, our teams set out each hoping to find the right zone to pull out the winning fish. We want to thank all of our teams for enduring the wind and putting together some great bags of fish. As the day wore on, the weigh stations were abuzz with activity, as anglers brought in their catches to be weighed.
Many teams experienced some tough fishing due to the weather conditions, but we still had a great mixture of yellowtail and tuna, both yellowfin and bluefin, come to the scales. Although the bite wasn’t wide open, there was certainly no lack of fish seen by our competing teams. This year, the biggest yellowtail caught in the tournament was a massive homeguard coming in at 43.6 pounds! The tuna jackpot was won by team Fish N’Chips with a respectable 30.6 pound bluefin tuna.
The 2023 Yellowtail Shootout saw 78 boats and 289 anglers compete for the trophy. Another massive thank you to all of our anglers and great sponsors who helped fill the awards ceremony stage with phenomenal prizes and raffle items! We were ecstatic with the excitement and enthusiasm from all of our competitors throughout this past weekend and we can’t wait to run it back next year. For the full results from this years tournament, see below.
2023 Yellowtail Shootout Payouts
1st Place “Presented by Costa Del Mar”
Team 65 – C-Ripper with a bag weight of 84.8 pounds and the biggest fish of the tournament at 43.6 pounds! Team C-Ripper took home $4,000 cash and the following prizes valued at over $4,200: 4 pairs of Costa sunglasses, a Sionyx Nightwave night vision camera, metal Yellowtail Shootout trophy from TB metals, an American Tackle Company waterproof bag, 4 pack of One Cool Tuna jigs including a commemorative 1st place etched jig, a West Coast spreader bar bag, 2 West Coast spreader bar hoodies, Starbrite boat cleaning kit, Costa backpack, YETI camp chair, YETI mug, YETI GoBox 30, Morita Custom gaff, AFTCO BF swimmer, iCreateWoodworks custom cutting board, Dana Landing gift card, Everingham Bait Bros pack, and a FishDope gift card.
Team C-Ripper covered all of the jackpots with their 43.6 pound Yellowtail and took home the following:
- $100 Jackpot of $2,975
- $200 Jackpot of $4,080
- $300 Jackpot of $5,610
- Biggest Yellowtail Jackpot of $3,145 and a custom built One Cool Tuna jigstick engineered by Taipan Rods
1st Place team C-Ripper walked away from the 2023 Yellowtail Shootout with a grand total of $19,810 in cash.
2nd Place “Presented by Seakeeper”
Team 49 – Cruzzers with a bag weight of 60.2 pounds. They collected $2,000 cash and the following prizes valued at just under $2,000: 2 Costa sunglasses, 4 pack of OCT jigs including a commemorative 2nd place etched jig, American Tackle Company waterproof bag, West Coast Spreader Bar bag and t-shirt, Costa backpack, Accurate FX-500 reel, iCreateWoodworks custom cutting board, Starbrite boat cleaning kit, YETI Roadie 24, 2 YETI mugs, Everingham Bait Bros pack, AFTCO BF swimmer, AFTCO 10″ filet knife, Dana Landing gift certificate, and FishDope gift card.
3rd Place “Presented by FishDope”
Team 71 – SWYC-Shermanator with a bag weight of 49.9 pounds. They took home $800 cash and the following prizes valued at $1,610: pair of Costa sunglasses, 4 pack of OCT jigs including a commemorative 3rd place etched jig, American Tackle Company waterproof bag, West Coast Spreader Bar bag and t-shirt, iCreateWoodworks custom cutting board, Starbrite boat cleaning kit, YETI Hopper, 2 YETI mugs, Everingham Bait Bros pack, AFTCO BF swimmer, Dana Landing gift certificate, Nomad lure pack, and a FishDope gift card.
4th Place
Team 81 – Reel Addiction with a bag weight of 46.4 pounds. They collected $600 cash and the following prizes valued at $1,085: American Tackle Company waterproof bag, 4 pack of OCT jigs including commemorative 4th place etched jig, West Coast Spreader Bar bag and t-shirt, Starbrite boat cleaning kit, Costa backpack, 2 YETI mugs, YETI Panga 28, AFTCO BF swimmer, Everingham Bait Bros Pack, and a FishDope gift card.
5th Place
Team 12 – Six Sea with a bag weight of 44.8 pounds. They collected $400 cash and the following prizes valued at $870: American Tackle Company waterproof bag, 4 pack OCT jigs including a commemorative 5th place etched jig, Costa backpack, 1 YETI mug, West Coast Spreader Bar bag and t-shirt, Starbrite boat cleaning kit, AFTCO 6′ gaff, and a FishDope gift card.
Biggest Tuna “Presented by TowBoatUS San Diego”
Team 37 – Fish N’Chips weighed in a 30.6 pound bluefin tuna and received a guaranteed $2,500 cash off of their $50 buy in for the tuna jackpot.
In addition to our placing teams, all of our anglers from the tournament were eligible for the raffle which took place at the Yellowtail Shootout award ceremony on Sunday. We raffled off 85 outstanding items with the help of our sponsors, and a grand prize from Tailhunter Sportfishing in La Paz for a 5 day/4 night stay, including ground transfers to and from the airport, with one full day of fishing valued at $2,200.
Thank you to all of our participants and sponsors for helping make the 2023 Yellowtail Shootout special, and we look forward to seeing everybody again for next year’s tournament. Until then, tight lines!
1 Comment
Great event, was happy to be part of it and can’t wait till next year. Bigger and better. Thanks and congrats to all who fished in it this year.
Jeff – OneCoolTuna – OCT Jigs.