Galveston party boat lands 66 yellowfin, 151 blackfin on 30-hour run

The New Buccaneer’s latest 30-hour tuna run gave Galveston anglers exactly the kind of mixed-bag payoff party boats live for: 66 yellowfin tuna, 151 blackfin tuna, four bigeye toro and 57 vermillion snapper for 22 anglers aboard. Night fishing carried the trip, and the tuna bite was described as fantastic even though the bottom-fishing program was slowed by weather the crew had not expected.

That split tells the real story. On a long Gulf run, the day plan and the night plan do not always match up, and this trip showed how a weather-hit bottom bite can still turn into a top-shelf tuna outing if the boat finds the right water after dark. The yellowfin were the headliners, but the blackfin count was just as strong, and the four bigeye toro added the sort of bonus fish that make a 30-hour trip feel like more than a numbers run.

The New Buccaneer is built for that style of fishing. Galveston Party Boats lists the vessel as an 85-by-33-foot catamaran built in 1974, one of the original catamaran fishing boats in Galveston. The company says the boat runs from 1700 Harborside Drive in Galveston and is equipped with advanced fish-finding and navigation gear, modern restrooms and a sundeck. The May 13 trip report named Captain Brian, while the boat-information page lists Captain Matt Smith as skipper.

The calendar matters here too. Galveston Party Boats has been offering 30-hour safari trips in spring and summer 2026, with departures listed for May 11, May 14, May 18 and May 21. That makes the May 13 catch less of a one-off and more of a snapshot of a running offshore product that is built around tuna first, with other federal-water species folded in when conditions line up.

An earlier March 25 30-hour run on the same boat showed how fast the mix can swing, with 37 anglers landing five yellowfin, 60 blackfin, 562 vermillion snapper, eight lane snapper, three blue runner and one strawberry grouper. Put beside the May 13 haul, it shows a Galveston boat that can go from bottom-heavy to tuna-heavy trip by trip, and right now the night bite on the New Buccaneer looks like the part worth penciling in.