Tag: International Game Fish Association

Angler didn’t know he hooked a fish; turns out to be rare catch, record

A fisherman made a rare catch off the coast of North Carolina that has been certified as a state record and could become a world record.

Fishing deep for swordfish, Jeremiah Elliott made a rare catch off the coast of North Carolina that has been certified as a state record and could become a world record—and he didn’t even know he had hooked up.

Elliott was fishing with his brother Zachary Elliott and two friends on a 30-foot boat some 50 miles offshore, as reported by FOX News and the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

“We were dropping squid about 2,000 feet down, and we didn’t realize we had a fish on [the line],” he told FOX News. “When you bring a fish up from that depth, a lot of times their stomachs expand, and they float.

“We didn’t even know there was anything on [the line] until it came to the top.”

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Once they landed the fish, they had no idea what it was until they started for shore and got to within cell service and looked it up online.

What he caught was a bigscale pomfret (Taractichthys longipinnis), a fish typically found in the Atlantic Ocean at depths from 165 feet to 3,280 feet.

“It’s a weird-looking fish,” Elliott told FOX News. “It’s like prehistoric, almost.

“It’s very rare to catch them in North Carolina. People catch them in Florida.”

Upon reaching shore, the fishermen found a weigh station. The bigscale pomfret weighed 26 pounds, 11.4 ounces

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries certified the fish as a state record, as there was no previous state record for this species.

However, the International Game Fish Association world record for a bigscale pomfret is 20 pounds, 10 ounces caught off Florida in 2004 by W. Gordon Davis.

Elliott told FOX News he’s submitted his catch as a world record to the IGFA. So that record is pending.

Photo courtesy of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

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Fisherman catches big-bellied, world-record-size lake trout

Fishing at an undisclosed lake in Colorado, Scott Enloe battled a big-bellied lake trout that was so big it wouldn’t fit into the net.

Fishing at an undisclosed lake in Colorado, Scott Enloe battled a big-bellied lake trout that was so big it wouldn’t fit into the net.

So, after a 13-minute battle, Scott and his son Hunter Enloe pulled the potential world-record fish into the boat, as reported by Free Range American.

“I’ve got the largest net that Frabill makes and it wasn’t big enough,” Scott told Free Range American.

Neither was their boat’s livewell big enough to hold the fish. “But I had the livewell full, so we stuck its head in with the tail and whole body sticking out,” Scott added.

“Wrapping your arms around a fish to dunk its head underwater is definitely an unorthodox approach, but it worked for the few seconds it took the anglers to prepare their tape measure, scales and camera,” Free Range American wrote.

 

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A post shared by Hunter Enloe (@nymphapotamus)

Scott indicated he can usually eyeball a fish and determine its weight, “but when they’re this big, I had no clue what that fish weighed,” Scott told Free Range American. “I was just like, ‘I know it’s a record. It’s just too big.’”

On a hand scale, the humongous lake trout weighed 73.29 pounds and measured 47 inches. By comparison, the official world-record lake trout is 72 pounds caught on Aug. 19, 1995 by Lloyd Bull in Great Bear Lake in Northwest Territories, Canada.

The Colorado record for lake trout is 50.35 pounds caught in 2007 by Donald Walker in Blue Mesa Reservoir.

After carefully weighing and measuring the fish, the anglers released it alive to grow some more, so Scott’s fish qualifies for the International Game Fish Association All Tackle (Length) World Record, which currently stands at 42.9 inches, according to the record book.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Fisherman’s photo of weird catch oddly looks like a painting

Colorado established a catch-and-release category in January 2020 with a standard length starting at 32 inches for a lake trout. Scott would be the first record-holder in that category.

The father-son fishing duo are experienced at catching large fish, as evidenced by Hunter’s Instagram page. In fact, Hunter landed a 31-pound lake trout 30 minutes before his father’s catch.

“Dad and I have put in serious time to learn about these fish and how to catch them and most days they will outsmart you and that’s what keeps us addicted to them,” Hunter wrote on Instagram. “Congrats to my dad on another catch-and-release record. It was a special day and we just sat on the boat for a few hours not fishing just taking in what happened. Another awesome memory with my dad.”