The 2025 18th 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 21st) morning, was filled with excitement and anticipation. Greeted with less than ideal weather conditions, our teams set out 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.
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 36.6 pounds!
The 2025 Yellowtail Shootout saw 63 boats and 218 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.
2025 Yellowtail Shootout Payouts
1st Place “Presented by Costa Del Mar”
Team 52 – Elle J with a bag weight of 94.0 pounds and collects $3150 dollars and the following prizes: Costa Sunglasses for the whole team, A Rainshadow Rod Made by M&M Custom Rods (you choose color and components. The winner, not you Todd), Dexter Dextreme 3-Knife Fillet Kit & Hat, a Morita Gaff, AFTCO Multitool, FishDope 1-yr Gift Certificate, Everingham Bait Brothers 1/2 scoop of bait, Custom Engraved One Cool Tuna 4 Gold Jig, Deckhand 60″ Kill Bag, 2 YETI Yonder Bottles, YETI Flask Blue, AFTCO Saiko Pro Fluoro, Grundens Wayward Roll Top 38L Backpack, YETI GoBox 30 and a Starbrite boat cleaning kit with deck brush. They also covered the board and took down all the jackpots. $100 Jackpot for $2,380, $200 Jackpot for $3,060 and the $300 Jackpot for $4,335. Elle J will take home $16,070 in cash.
2nd Place- “Presented by FishDope”
Team 3 – FORK N TAIL with a bag weight of 48.7 pounds and collects $1575 dollars and the following prizes: A Dexter Dextreme 3-Knife Fillet Kit & Hat, YETI Camino Carryall, AFTCO Multitool, FishDope 1-yr Gift Certificate, Everingham Bait Brothers 1/2 scoop of bait, Custom Engraved One Cool Tuna 4 Gold Jig, YETI Hopper Flip Cooler, Deckhand 48″ Kill Bag, AFTCO Saiko Pro Fluoro, 2 pairs of Costa Sunglasses , 2 YETI Yonder Bottles, Grundens Bootlegger Roll Top 30L Backpack, AFTCO Titan Net and a Starbrite boat cleaning kit with deck brush.
3rd Place- “Presented by Seakeeper”
Team 30 – Reel Deal with a bag weight of 48.0 pounds and collects $630 dollars and the following prizes: Starbrite boat cleaning kit with deck brush, Dexter Dextreme 3-Knife Fillet Kit & Hat, FishDope 1-yr Gift Certificate, Everingham Bait Brothers 1/2 scoop of bait, Custom Engraved One Cool Tuna 4 Gold Jig, YETI Cayo Backpack 25L, Deckhand 36″ Kill Bag, Ike Jime Kit, Flyline Costa Sunglasses, YETI Yonder Bottle and a AFTCO Boat Bag.
Fourth Place:
Team 35 – Skills No Luck with a bag weight of 31.8 pounds and collects $473 dollars and the following prizes: A Dexter Dextreme 3-Knife Fillet Kit & Hat, Costa Seeker Backpack, AFTCO Saiko Fluoro, FishDope 1-yr Gift Certificate, Everingham Bait Brothers 1/2 scoop of bait, Custom Engraved One Cool Tuna 4 Gold Jig, YETI Camino Carryall 35, Deckhand 18-can soft cooler, Flyline Costa Sunglasses and a YETI Yonder Bottle.
5th Place:
Team 48 – Trophy Hunters with a bag weight of 27.6 pounds and collects $315 dollars and the following prizes: A Dexter Dextreme 3-Knife Fillet Kit & Hat, AFTCO Lure Set, FishDope 1-yr Gift Certificate, Everingham Bait Brothers 1/2 scoop of bait, Custom Engraved One Cool Tuna 4 Gold Jig, YETI Flask Blue #1, Deckhand 18-can soft cooler, pair of Costa Sunglasses, 2 YETI Yonder Bottles.
The biggest yellowtail was caught by Team 52 – Elle J and weighed 36.6 pounds. They will get a Nomad prize pack with 6 Slidekick Surface Irons, 4 Riptides, 4 SquidTrex, 8 DTX Minnow, 6 Shikari and a Duffle Bag valued at $663 dollars as well as a custom engraved One Cool Tuna 10 gold jig. They were also in the biggest yellowtail jackpot and will collect $3,145 dollars
Starbrite Mylar Balloon Contest:
Team #27 – A-SALT-LIFE. They only caught one fish at a whopping 2.4 pounds but brought the most trash off the water back to the dock. For that effort of helping keep our waters clean, they take home an Ultimate Boat Care kit from StartBrite.
Labrador Retriever Division:
New to this year and (hopefully) this year only, Team Blackfeet rescued a Labrador retriever who was fighting for its life in the Mission Bay channel. This team did the right thing and brought the dog back to the dock to be reunited with its owner. For their efforts, they take home an Ultimate Boat Care Kit from Starbrite. ***UPDATE – “Bob” was reunited with his owners the next day***
Hard Luck Award:
Also new to this year, Team Trophy Hunters had the majority of their gear stolen on the way down to participate in the tournament. Despite this, they continued their day and braved the terrible conditions to catch a few yellowtail in the name of competition. After hearing this story, we had to do something to make up for it. We awarded them a PENN Carnage III rod and Fathom 25LD2 to get them started on rebuilding the quiver.
Tailhunter La Paz ended the sponsor raffle with a bang by giving away an amazing trip to one lucky pair for a 6 day/ 5 night stay in La Paz! Team Trophy Hunters had a change of luck and ended up winning this incredible trip!
Final Results
