Hey everyone... I am about to purchase a boat capable of some serious offshore fishing. I cant wait.

The boat wont immediately be ready to fish, it has some work I will need to do to it (getting it for a song tho!) However I want to start reading/watching all I can about fishing for tuna and other offshore species.

Do any of you have any recommendations on where to start ? any videos or articles ECT that cover where to fish, what to fish with, how to fish ECT. would be greatly appreciated.

360tuna is a good resource of coastal guys than you could potentially ride along with them to see the ins/outs of offshore. the ditch bag and epirb are essential items! rick Hilton has a good book of offshore numbers, and charts that show currents. pelagics follow the currents/bait. pretty neat new way of fishing compared to freshwater. I wish I was retired and lived near the coast. I would never fish freshwater.

Be aware .... the boat project will cost a minimum of twice what you think it will and take three times as long to complete.

Don't ask me how i know.

MY suggestion is to fish offshore several times with experienced captains before making a tuna trip yourself. I also wouldn't go out of Galveston...I'd launch in Freeport or Matagorda as it's closer to deep water. To catch yellowfin, you'll need to be able to get to the nearest floating rigs which are approximately 135-140 miles from Freeport. That means a large fuel capacity to accommodate 1/3 to get there, 1/3 to get back and 1/3 in reserve. These trips aren't for old out of shape men...they'll wear you out whether you catch fish or not. If you don't have a berth in your boat for sleeping, you'll need some good bean bags so everyone can take turns getting some rest. (imagine a 24-30 hour trip working your tail off)
The above doesn't also cover all the needed and suggested safety gear, nor the recommended offshore gear. You'll need to watch for proper weather windows to safely make the trip and have a crew at the ready.
Unless the boat is in perfect shape, I'd do a bunch of short runs to verify everything is in working order.

What boat are you getting?

Not sure about your name, but if you ARE in Austin, I second the idea of NOT sailing out of Galveston. If you can get to the Flower Banks (about a 100 mile run), maybe, otherwise I'd move your boat down the coast. Look at a picture of the continental shelf in Texas (link), and you can see how closer the deep water is down the coast. A friend of mine's dad kept his boat in Freeport, and we'd sail due south out of port when we were kids.

If you are in Austin, Port Aransas is only about a 3.5 hour drive, and you're 100% guaranteed to pay lower storage fees/docking fees. The tradeoff is that there's less to do there, so if your wife/kids are along for the ride and don't want to go fishing, there's less for them to do. I'd also bet that the labor down there will be cheaper for anything you want done to your boat. I'd also say, running the beach down in Port A in September/October for tarpon sounds pretty dang fun